In this blog post, we will explore whether functional games can go beyond mere entertainment to have a learning effect, and examine the possibility of breaking down the boundaries between play and study.
What are functional games?
There is a new term called “functional games.” Like the term “diet snacks,” this word has a strange connotation, but it refers to the idea of adding a productive element of learning to games, a rapidly growing form of entertainment in the 21st century. Just as diet foods tempt us with the promise of weight loss simply by eating them, functional games offer the attractive temptation of being able to study while playing. The idea of being able to work or study while playing is very appealing. Anyone who is tired of productive activities has probably imagined that the pain they endure to produce value can be turned into pleasure. However, unlike functional foods for dieting, which are nonsense, functional games are not completely nonsense. This strange new term reexamines the productivity of play that we have casually overlooked and provides an opportunity to improve the cultural quality of our society.
Stories and productive play
It is commonly believed that play is consumptive. Consumptive means that the act of playing requires time and consumes goods. On the other hand, productive is usually associated with producing results that have a value that is widely recognized. So, can play be productive? Play sometimes produces results. However, those results do not have a value that is widely accepted.
You cannot sell sand rice, a byproduct of playing house, at a restaurant, a child who plays the role of a teacher in a kindergarten role-play is only a kindergarten student outside of kindergarten, and items obtained in a game are only valuable within the game. The results of play outside the context of play have no meaning. However, results are not the only measure of the productivity of play. Rather, the true productivity of play can be found in the act of playing itself.
It is context that maintains the consistency of play. Context is story, and playing means creating stories. From the perspective of story creation, aspects of productive play can be easily found around us.
Playgrounds that create stories, amusement parks that consume stories
Playgrounds and amusement parks are spaces where play takes place constantly. However, these two spaces treat play differently as an act of creating stories.
Therefore, comparing playgrounds and amusement parks provides an opportunity to reflect on the productivity of play. Unlike amusement parks, playgrounds do not have ticket booths. Ticket booths do not simply symbolize the monetary cost of entering a space. Amusement parks with ticket booths are closed spaces. Visitors must enter through a designated entrance, and the space enclosed by a fence is the amusement park.
The play area in amusement parks is always static. There are set opening and closing times, and the moment you leave the amusement park, you return to your everyday space.
In contrast, playgrounds are completely open. With no entrance or fence, the play area of a playground is always dynamic.
Playgrounds extend beyond physical boundaries to parking lots and roads, and sometimes shrink around slides and monkey bars. Children playing in playgrounds continue to play even when it gets dark. Playgrounds never close. The difference in fluidity between the two spaces shows the nature of the play that takes place in each space. Amusement parks are spaces where people enjoy selective passivity.
The moment visitors enter an amusement park, they are greeted by a series of entrances and exits. Signs always show where you are and where you can go. The rides that visitors arrive at by following the signs always welcome them with their own stories. There is a pirate ride that explores a pirate’s lair, a roller coaster shaped like a fortress, and a haunted house reminiscent of an abandoned house. Amusement park rides welcome visitors with movie-like glitz, but they only offer one fixed story. When a new story is needed, the facility is dismantled and a new one is installed, just like ending a movie. Amusement park visitors enjoy the prepared stories as if reading a well-written novel.
Playgrounds also have playground equipment. However, playground equipment is only a material for active play. The slides and swings in playgrounds are not just simple amusement rides. They are constantly changing and taking on new meanings through the imagination and ideas of children. Even a shabby, rusty slide can become a military base, a rugged mountain, or a jungle that is difficult to walk through. Children playing in playgrounds are always creating their own stories and new spaces. New rules are born and new laws are created every moment. Sometimes, two groups of children coexist in the same play equipment. Playgrounds are vibrant spaces and places comparable to the universe. These spaces full of vitality do not wait for participants. To play in a playground, one must actively keep up with the creation and destruction of stories every moment.
At the root of the vitality displayed by playgrounds lies the productivity of play. In order to play, there must be a story. And play has the ability to create stories before enjoying them. The true productive aspect of play is its ability to create stories.
The productivity and expansion of play
Can this kind of productivity be found in spaces other than playgrounds?
The answer to this question can free play from the narrow categories of computer games, playgrounds, and sports. The means to express the productivity of play can be found anywhere, and the expansion of play is limitless. Just like playing a drinking game with the metal caps of soju bottles during a university MT, it is possible to create play with various means and methods.
In this way, the productivity of play is free from the medium used to execute it. Rather, play has the power to be used as a means of play in any form. The platform-free nature of play, which manifests itself in such an active form, is becoming stronger every day with the advancement of IT.
Services that support personal video channels such as YouTube and Afreeca, which are easily accessible on the Internet, and various community sites are places where countless stories are produced. The sites that provide these services are playgrounds themselves. Users playing in these playgrounds constantly make rules, create stories using all the resources they have, compete with each other, make each other laugh, and immerse themselves in play. Stories about watching videos or playing on message boards without noticing the passage of time are an extension of the expression “playing on the playground without noticing the passage of time.”
Productive play and the cultivation of creativity
This kind of creative feast that occurs through play is exactly what productive play aims to achieve. In order to realize this, we must also change our perspective on productive activities, which are typically associated with work and study. Productive activities are not just about satisfying given standards and producing results like machines. Making one more of the same thing is simply consumption. Furthermore, since productivity is determined by the popular demand for the results, we have overlooked the productive aspects of play. Truly productive activities must have a direction that aims for something better than what already exists.
Creativity is one of the things that gives direction to activities for productivity. The act of creation brings both pleasure and power. However, training in creation is difficult. The current education system, which is disparagingly described as simple memorization of textbooks, and the lives of working adults, which are described as a rat race, demonstrate the failure to cultivate and apply creativity. People who are forced to undergo education and work under strict rules are like machines. There is no one who attempts to create something better.
Carefully designed play has the ability to solve this problem. Normal play is spontaneous. The production and consumption of stories through play is training in creativity. The creation and destruction of stories involves the imitation and transformation of existing things, as well as new attempts and frustrations. This is the foundation upon which the culture, scholarship, and technology that make up human civilization are built. Play is a small experiment that imitates and repeats what humans have built and the processes of building it. The productivity of play is achieved by voluntarily repeating the act of creating new stories as a way of training our creativity.
A playground for productive play
However, when we look around us, it is not easy to find a laboratory where we can conduct such experiments or a playground that maximizes the productivity of play. Most of what we see around us is compulsory education, represented by schools and cram schools, and consumptive play, such as games. Furthermore, a society that has misdefined productivity considers workaholism a virtue and pushes people to work even harder, like machines.
The strange feeling evoked by the term “functional games” is a stimulus to facts that we should have taken for granted. The concept of productive play is so important that it transcends examples such as word memorization games that we can easily think of. However, as we have ignored or misunderstood the value of play, we must now address it correctly.
Well-designed play is a rehearsal for creation and a framework for full-scale production activities. Productive activities are an extension of play, and play is an extension of productive activities. Recreation, which emphasizes the productive elements of play, should not be simply a time for dancing and singing in a group, but a time for humanity to refine and sharpen its thinking and imagination through play and rest.
What can South Korea do? Fortunately, a powerful feature of productive play is that it dominates the medium for play but is not constrained by it. South Korea has a level of IT technology and infrastructure that no other developed country can easily match. All that remains is to break away from old and outdated ideas and continuously discover, develop, and maintain attractive playgrounds that fully showcase the true nature of play. When the day comes when such playgrounds are scattered throughout homes, schools, workplaces, and all offline and online spaces, Korea will have become a country with enormous potential that no other country can rival.
