QarlyQ

By: Qarly Canant

Remember playing games as a kid? Enjoying a sunny Summer day with your friends, running around playing a rousing game of tag or sitting around the card table pitting mind against mind using wily strategy. These and many other activities are not only fun but also help form bonds between the people involved and exercise their mind, body and social skills. Most people think that games are without purpose beyond fun, but they are wrong because games can actually be of great benefit to both children and adults.

Many games today are designed to have a specific mental benefit to the people that play them. There are numerous computer games that strive to give both an engaging and addictive quality to their games while teaching the player about a particular subject or a broad range of subjects. As a child I remember playing games such as, “The Island of Doctor Brain”, an adventure puzzle game that challenged it’s player to complete tasks that involved, language, mathematics and science. In our increasingly technological age, there are increasing avenues for accessing knowledge, many of which appeal to a wide range of people. Apart from the use of computers, there are games that are played with other people that require the group to think in new ways. The improvisational theater game, “Freezetag”, encourages its players to have a more direct connection with their own creative thoughts by creating opportunities for new ideas. In Freezetag, offers are made by players who are “frozen” by a member of the group, often into strange body positions, then a player takes that offer and creates a new scene to act out. Everyone playing is encouraged to go with their first thought and to not judge their own ideas and accept the ideas and offers of the other players. Improvisational theater games are beneficial to an individual’s own sense of creativity and confidence, as well as to their ability to offer and accept offers from their group – a valuable skill in all social interactions.

Some games pit one player against another, while other games encourage a team effort and group success. In both cases, a player must navigate the sometimes tricky interpersonal encounters to be had when we attempt to achieve a goal together or when we must interact with people after we have won or lost a game that was important to us. One game where the opportunity for growth in the realm of social interaction is high is a game called, “Red Fish Blue Fish”. In this game the group must retrieve an object from one side of a playing area and get it, and their whole team, back over the starting line without being caught moving or seen with the object by a player dubbed, “it”. There is significant strategy that can be employed to complete the task and it requires the players to utilize effective communication skills, group planning and cooperation to successfully reach the goal of the game. Sometimes though, there are more opportunities for growth when there are some challenges in the interpersonal relationships between team members. An objective and attentive group facilitator in these situations can be a great benefit to the team’s learning outcome. In the other type of game where there are winners and losers, it can be a lesson in personal gamesmanship to lose, or win, gracefully and with good will towards the fellow players. Often, when we operate with others, we find ourselves using our bodies in concert with those around us. We use our bodies in actions taken with others and also in our own game play.

Games can take many forms, some are calm and some have us at the limit of our physical condition. When we exert our bodies towards a game goal, be it individual or common, we are using ourselves in a manner that is often more exciting than it would say, to run on a treadmill for 30 minutes. This is beneficial because it reminds us that using our bodies in activity is fun! We are sharing with our team mates and even our opposing team, the experience of bodily exertion and the mental and physical benefits of an active body. A positive perspective of activity can help transform a painful and dreaded experience into one that has a purpose beyond that we “ought” to exercise. For instance, an old classic, “Capture The Flag”, has had us sprinting, crouching and evading each other for years. In recent years, new games have emerged specifically for the purpose of making having an active body fun. Cryptozoo, is an urban based, scavenger hunt-like, parkour inspired game that takes its players on a swift journey through public spaces in major cities around the country1. Funded by the American Heart Association, Cryptozoo is a terrific way to get your heart beating, meet like minded and similarly active people. With games like Cryptozoo emerging and our society becoming more aware of the need for an active lifestyle, we’ll probably be seeing more innovative and fun ways to exercise utilizing game structures in the near future.

Whatever your favorite game may be, especially if it involves other people, using your body or a degree of mental activity, you are most likely getting some kind of benefit from it beyond the, important in its own right, purpose of fun. For many people, especially children, playing games is its own pleasure and they receive the benefits unknowingly, for others, it is an intentional joy that serves the worthy purpose of self growth in mind, body, and interpersonal dealings.

1 For more information, check out: http://cryptozoo.ning.com/