“I think the most important way to understand play is that it's this property that's in things. Like there's play in a mechanism. For example, there's some play in the steering column before it engages as you're turning the wheel.” ThinkingWayImportantPlayExamplePropertyWheelsMechanismColumnsSteering Author:Ian Bogost
“Play is this process of operating the world, of manipulating things. It's related to experimentation, and it's related to pleasure, but not defined by it.” WorldPlayProcessPleasureDefinedRelatedExperimentation Author:Ian Bogost
“Normally we think of play as the opposite of work. Work is the thing you have to do, and then there's play, the thing you choose to do.” ThinkingPlayOppositesYou Choose Author:Ian Bogost
“If you think of play as being in things, there are things that are playable, then it becomes the work of figuring out what a thing can do.” IfsThinkingPlayCan Do Author:Ian Bogost
“Any phrase that suggests play is this domain that's the opposite of work, or the thing that you do when you're done working, should trouble us. Because it means that play is always relegated to the exhaust of life. It's the thing that you do after you do the important stuff, it's what you do on your own time.” ShouldMeanImportantDonePlayStuffTroubleOppositesPhrasesDomain Author:Ian Bogost
“Play becomes a distraction, something you don't really need to do. It's not for serious people. They work hard, they don't play hard. Yes, you can say play hard, but that really means, keep working hard, right?” PeopleNeedsMeanHardPlaySeriousHard WorkDistractionReally MeanPlay HardYes You Can Author:Ian Bogost
“I think this dichotomy or opposition between work and play, between leisure and serious stuff, is definitely a bad way of thinking about the useful insights that play provides.” ThinkingWayPlayStuffSeriousInsightOppositionLeisureWay Of ThinkingDichotomyWork And Play Author:Ian Bogost
“You can experience play at work, not because you're messing around or wasting time or something, but because you're looking really deeply and seriously at things and asking what is possible, what can be done with them, what new ideas might emerge?” IdeasDonePlayMightAskingWasting TimeNew IdeasReally Deep Author:Ian Bogost
“When we think about play and games and the situations in which having fun is seen as an outcome, they often have to do with repetition. You're returning to something again, and even despite that similarity, you squeeze something new out of it.” ThinkingPlayGamesFunSituationDespiteHaving FunOutcomesSomething NewRepetitionSimilarity Author:Ian Bogost
“You allow yourself to discover the things that are already there when you play.” Play Author:Ian Bogost
“You don't want to be told, "Hey, do whatever you want." That's what we think of when we think of play. It's the thing where you get to do whatever you come up with in your own mind, all bets are off, there's no boundaries.” ThinkingWantMindPlayCome UpBoundariesHeyDo Whatever You WantNo Boundaries Author:Ian Bogost
“Even when we tell kids to go play, what do the kids do? They come up with a set of constraints and structures. "Oh, we're gonna build a fort out of clothes, and now that we're in the fort we're going to pretend that we're prisoners," or whatever.” PlayKidsClothesStructureCome UpPrisonerConstraintsForts Author:Ian Bogost
“The whole idea of play is in finding, acknowledging, and then working with the natural constraints and limitations that you find in the world.” WorldIdeasPlayWholeNaturalFindingsLimitationConstraints Author:Ian Bogost
“I think the most important thing to realize about play is that it's this thing that's in stuff, it's not in you.” ThinkingImportantPlayStuffRealizingImportant Things Author:Ian Bogost
“Play isn't you being clever, or finding a trick, or finding a way of covering over your own misery, or persuading someone to do what you want. It's the process of working with the materials that you find and discovering what's possible with them.” WayWantPlayProcessMaterialsFindingsMiseryWhat You WantCleverTricksOver YouDiscoveringCoveringPersuading Author:Ian Bogost
“We think we want enjoyment, and that enjoyment is incompatible with work, and somehow we have to import the pleasure into these miserable experiences. That takes for granted that there's not fun or play to be found in the work itself.” ThinkingWantPlayFoundFunPleasureGrantedMiserableEnjoymentImports Author:Ian Bogost
