Games versus Play, Innovation versus Creativity
Posted on September 29, 2006
Filed Under What's New, For Argument's Sake |
I just attended an interesting session which focused on play on the web, play as distinct from games.
The presenter was Julian Blocker and his point is there are people out there playing with the line between real life and web life, devising games for example that impose real life limits on a virtual experience.
The effect is odd, like only being able to use part of a web site on a Sunday, in the same way that shops in real life do actually close.
His point is - this is playful.
What’s the significance of that? Well, his contention is we have a one-sided view of innovation and creativity which we’re increasingly associating with technological progress. There’s more to it than that and we have to bring some balance into our view of what’s going on, what’s possible and what’s desirable.
By coincidence I’d been talking with Dan Gillmor earlier (see post below) about Silicon Valley and innovation. Dan’s take is Silicon Valley’s great virtue is the way it encourages risk and allows people to take risks without feeling failure or shame if a difficult innovation doesn’t come off - that’s why Web 2.0 is such a great Silicon Valley ride. Put something out there and keep improving.
I guess having listened to Julian you’d have to say people take different risks and we all need more opportunity to take them. Nonetheless we’ve become obsessed with risks that have a significant material upside. We can take risks for the pleasure of creating, to create and communicate a point of view or just for fun. Risk lies not in the finance….. Where’s the Silicon Valley of these kinds of risks though?
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