"The opposite of play isn't work. It's depression."
Brian Sutton-Smith via Jane McGonigal (www.avantgame.com)
I understand Jane McGonigal's theme at TED this year was that the youth of today are spending thousands of hours gaming - so what skills are they learning as a result?
Firstly, this isn't a 'youth of today issue', although obviously it's less social in some respects now (and more social in other respects) - you can play games online from your bedroom, or alone on your mobile phone while on the bus. No, I seem to remember spending thousands of hours perfecting my technique on an Atari 2600, or playing text adventures on my ZX Spectrum (actually, I had an Oric) twenty-five years ago, to be fair, and I remember the pikeys down the arcade who knew *exactly* how every pinball machine worked.
However, the only reason I was playing against a Brazilian and a Pakistani was because I lived in an expat community in the Middle East, whereas today the bedroom battler is engaging with different cultures the world over.
As for 'what skills are they learning as a result' - clearly death and mayhem rank quite highly. Personally, I'd quite like them to understand the concept of a retail consumer economy...
Postscript: Brian Sutton-Smith is a theorist about games and play, but may also be known amongst my kiwi readers as a novelist.
Just realised it was more like 30 years ago :(