Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Shootball

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Wed, 14 May 2008 07:31:00 -0500

Shootball "...is a new sport in ubiquitous computing. This game is playing with tangible ball that can control movies displayed in surrounding screens. This game is team sport played between two teams of 3 players each. The object of the game is to score by displaying movies of own team by throwing the ball at surrounding screens."

The confluence of sports and computing has evolutionary potential for both spheres of human activity, for engaging mind and body, for bridging social and geographical boundaries. It is something to watch. Something to encourage. Something to celebrate.

See also this.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Pangea Day

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Tue, 13 May 2008 07:40:00 -0500

Walleyball is a one of the films produced as part of the Pangea Day celebration. It is a demonstration of how the power of play can transform a border fence into a volleyball net - a dividing line into a connection. Which, of course, is the whole purpose of the event.

Fun-flavor-wise, it's kind of a dark chocolate thing - sweet, with more than a hint of bitterness.

via Digital Maverick

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Sphere Play

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:32:08 -0500

You know those beautiful crystal-looking balls you see jugglers play with - the kind they roll on the backs of their hands and arms and stuff? Ever wonder where you can get them? Well, wonder no more, or make your own wonders. Try Out Toys not only sells these beautiful acrylic spheres, in many spectacularly different colors (and several sizes, even), and metal spheres, and wooden ones, too; they also promote play, for play's sake.

Here's a bit of what they have to say:

"We believe in promoting the importance of positive play. You could say that our mission is to offer the highest quality toys and entertainment, but really it's way more involved than that. We've developed what we call a philosophy of play.

"There are lots of ways to play, so we'd like to tell you about our approach. Play is an art. The kind of play we promote is interactive, creative, artistic and builds important physical and social skills."

They even organize something they call a "Play 4 All" - a celebration of "skilled play." In addition to their surprising variety of spheres, they also offer a virtual toybox of skill-inviting playworthy stuff.

They perform, they teach, they clearly love the stuff they're doing and the stuff they're selling.

Fun stuff. Good stuff, all.

via Alexander Kjerulf

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Children Will Play

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:09:48 -0500

Frances Henson VanLandinham's Children Will Play: Games and Toys from Simpler Times is a collection of "childhood memories," gathered from family, friends and neighbors, most of whom grew up during the depression, when times where perhaps simpler, but definitely far more difficult than most of us currently enjoy. Hence this lovingly illustrated collection describes handmade toys and homemade games - folk games and toys that are truly inspirational accounts of play and love, creativity and spontaneity, of imagination and free-range joy.

I quote from the introduction: "Children will play under almost any circumstances. I've observed children at play while cold and hungry. Even while living in an abusive environment, children play. Children don't have the verbal skills to communicate their pain and suffering, so they express pain as well as joy through play. Children play through times of social upheaval. During wars and natural disasters, children play."

The book describes how to play Appalachian jump rope, how to make corncob darts, milk can trains, bark sleds, plantain dolls, stick cows, hollyhock dolls, handkerchief dolls. It is full of stories of almost heroic celebrations of Christmas, when there was barely enough money for food.

It is a history of the human spirit. Something to treasure. Something from which to draw inspiration and hope. And it could very well open new pathways to fun, for all of us.

It can only be ordered ($12 plus $2.00 US shipping) from the author. Send your check or money order to Frances Henson ValLandingham, 812 Poga Road, Butler, TN 37640. Call 423-768-2261 for more information. Email FrancyMay34@aol.com

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

The Geography of Bliss

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:11:05 -0500

Amazon lists some 270,564 publications that have something to do with Happiness, the preponderance of which are serious, in-depth, carefully researched explorations of what has become the science of Positive Psychology. I've read several many of such books, but it wasn't until I found Eric Weiner's book, The Geography of Bliss that I felt truly happy about the study of happiness - mostly because Weiner is the first "happiness author" I've encountered that actually has fun researching and writing about happiness.

Weiner, a correspondent for NPR in New York, Miami and, currently, Washington, D.C., begins his search for happiness in Holland, where he meets with Ruut Veenhoven, the intrepid researcher and compiler of the World Database of Happiness. Veenhoven's database identifies the relative happiness of citizens of different nations. Weiner visits some of those nations (Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thialand, Great Britain, India and even the United States), hoping to discover how happiness manifests itself in each.

The result is spiritual travelogue, a funny, personal, and revealing exploration of the "states of happiness," so to speak, as it were.

I don't want to tell you where he found the greatest happiness, personally or politically, because that discovery is the heart of the book, and that's where you will probably reach the most provocative and profound conclusions about the state of your own happiness.

The Geography of Bliss is a study of the politics of joy. Revealing, honest, entertaining, fun to read, fun to think about. A profoundly rewarding travel book that is probably the happiest book on happiness you've ever read.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

My Fairfield Adventure - cont'd

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Wed, 07 May 2008 08:52:02 -0500

I did mention my Fairfield adventure a few posts ago. It began with a radio interview with Monica Hadley on the similarly remarkable radio station KRUU - an all-volunteer FM station, as open source as it is possible for sources to be opened, operating at a mere 100 watts, and yet having something very close to a global following.

This was the first of many marvels I got to witness during my stay. I think Fairfield has more vegetarian restaurants, per capita, than probably India. And a friendlier, more engaged and supportive community than probably anywhere I've ever visited. (You can read more about Fairfield on Wikipedia).

Friday evening, as part of the monthly Art Walk, I got to introduce two new games: Socks and Boxes, and Extreme Pick Up Sticks. Both games were semi-instant variations, created in response to a change in weather from clear and mild, to windy and threatening. Socks and Boxes: build a city out of large cardboard cartons, water bottles and styrofoam packing blocks - make many balls out of many socks - and then use the sock balls to knock the whole thing down. Extreme Pick Up Sticks: take very long (12-foot), and potentially dangerously hefty cardboard tubes from the inner core of carpet rolls, paint them in manifold patterns, stand them up in a large circle (at least 12 feet wide), let them drop towards the center, and then try to pick them up, one at a time, without disturbing any other sticks. Or play tug of war with them. Or jump over them. Or see if you can use them as baseball bats.

Then I did something like a reading/performance of Recess for the Soul at a typically remarkable Fairfield institution called Revelations - a restaurant, used book store, wifi hotspot and town gathering center. The audience was remarkably receptive, responsive, down-right enthusiastic. There was much laughter and something close to complete Grokkage.

Saturday I led a workshop based on some of the concepts in The Well-Played Game. We played, of course, Bernie Found Nirvana (did I tell you that Fairfield is the home of the Maharishi University of Management?). And after a few more games and discussions, we played two different rounds of Junkyard Sports Tabletop Olympics. Very different rounds. The first with a core group of around 30 people. The second with that group and another 20 or so people (with kids, even).

The vast majority of the responsibility for the success of these events rests squarely on the shoulders of Steve Cooperman, who put everything together, and on the amazing spirit of the townsfolk. Fairfield, Iowa. A most remarkable community. A most remarkable experience for your personal Funsmith.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

The Romance of Sound and Senses, revisted

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Tue, 06 May 2008 10:02:31 -0500

A couple years ago, I wrote about Ken Feit's remarkable sound poem, The Romance of Sound and Senses. Ken was the "holy fool" who taught me about the Frog of Enlightenupment. His sound poem is another example of his amazing wit, profound sensitivity, and endless creativity.

When I was in Fairfield I met a storyteller, and in telling her about Ken's sound poem, I realized how important it was to me that she knew about it, and that you knew about it. So I decided that maybe I needed to write yet another post about this amazing work, and to publish it again, in perhaps a more accessible format.

Which I did, here, as well as here.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Fascinating Fun: Spinning tops and things in a bowl

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:07:12 -0500

Take, for example, top spinning. In particular example, take the video of spinning tops and things in a bowl. Watch the whole thing. Get a good taste for the fun of it. The fascination of it.

That taste of fascinating fun, of something almost magic in how it makes you watch it, almost magic in how it beckons you to fall into its everchanging beauty. That taste of fun when we get fascinated by making something fascinating happen. How sheerly delicious!

Fascination. The fun that is peculiar to that moment of being fascinated. So much to be fascinated by. So many ways to taste this kind of fun. On watching a baby's eyelid. On listening to a dragonfly's stillness. Tracing the shine of a spider web. Observing a cloud spin dreams. So much to be fascinated with. So much fascinating fun to be had.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Live, from Fairfield, Iowa

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:15:18 -0500

Where in the world is Bernie DeKoven? So glad you asked.

As described in this weekend's Fairfield Art Walk: "Bernie DeKoven, renowned author of The Well-Played Game and Junkyard Sports, is coming to Fairfield for a weekend of fun and learning Friday, May 2 and Saturday, May 3, 2008. Bernie uses games of all kinds to explore how to make our lives more enjoyable and fulfilling, and how to be fully engaged and present in activity, individually and with others.

Bernie will be leading two workshops, co-sponsored by First Fridays Art Walk and the Fairfield Community Learning Project."

This evening, a genuine Junkfest, with Junkyard Symphony, and, among other delightfully silly things, Giant Pick Up Sticks as well, even? Tonight, a reading/performance from Recess for the Soul. Tomorrow, a bit of Leading with Fun, a smattering of Tabletop Olympics, interspersed with some Pointless Games sprinkled with a hint of flow and coliberation.

Amazing how a city of 10,000 can support such an event. Amazing how local activist Steve Cooperman, who conducted this interview, has been able to galvanize this remarkable community, all in the name of fun.

Let this be a lesson to us all.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Mewe-making fun

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Thu, 01 May 2008 08:56:13 -0500

Yet another take on the me/we-meme - the WEME Illiterate T-Shirt. Similar in theme, if not in message, to this. And, while you're at it, see also this:

story about Al Gore's WEME
and perhaps the story of the We inside of Me
and of course the Me-We meditation
as well as the Oaqui game of MeWeWe
and, of at least equal relevance, this

Let's see, what fun flavor might this be? Symbolic fun? Meme-making fun? Or is that Mewe-making?

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Half-Belief and the need to believe in something that used to be meaningful

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:48:05 -0500

Brian Remer, whose recent interview of me led me to performing the conceptual Dance o' Glee, writes:

"You've been on my mind lately because I've been thinking about your concept of half-belief that you shared at the last NASAGA conference [see this]. I have been noticing how many contexts in which this concept is relevant. It's a big component in just about anything creative: art, amusement parks, literature, fiction, movies (it explains how we can become 'lost' in a book or film), and theater. (Locally the New England Youth Theater did a version of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The entire play, all the parts, were done by two teen-aged girls! It took place in their bedroom and, just the way kids play and make up games, they acted the whole show evolving into different characters as needed. So here you had the actors demonstrating the half belief that we as an audience engage in to enjoy a performance!)

"A couple of weeks ago, I was working with some nurses who support some medically fragile children in their family's home. The nurses were critical of the parenting in the home so I wanted them to look at some of their assumptions and get in touch wth some empathy for the family. I used Thiagi's Least Preferred Patient jolt. Three patients in a hospital noted for its geriatric work are described and people choose the one they'd least want to care for. It's set up so most people will choose one that turns out to be a cuddly infant.

"The surprise effect was lost on this group. One said, 'I always work the night shift so I wouldn't mind dealing with the patient that can't sleep (the baby). It'd give me something to do.' It seemed I'd chosen a jolt that was too close to the experience of these nurses for them to get into the half belief necessary to be caught off guard.

"So there's this tension or balance between having the 'game' be close enough to the person's experience to be relevant yet not so close as to be dismissed as ordinary and expected. I've seen this too in role plays where people begin discussing a real issue rather than practicing a role.

"You probably said all this in Atlanta, Bernie, so if I've forgotten the details, the general concept still lives on and informs me. It even explains why people support stupid politicians, wars, cults, and more: the need to believe in something that used to be meaningful."

The funny thing being that somehow we know that we don't "really" believe in these politicians, wars, cults. Not entirely. Not fully. At some level, we are not fooled. It's half-belief. And in trying to make half-belief whole, we end up fooling ourselves.

Brian adds:

"We do end up fooling ourselves! And we can choose to fool ourselves negatively or positively. I can say, 'That rubber alligator is such a fake,' and have a miserable time on the Disney jungle ride. Or I can say, 'Yikes, look out for the monster!' and have an adventure. I can say, 'Jane tried to float a pretty lame idea at the meeting,' and turn things into a dull day. Or I can say, 'Jane is quite an innovator. I think her idea might have some merit,' and, when I make the half-belief whole, fool myself into having a terrific day. A friend of mine says the only thing you can control is your own attitude - I think this is how she does it! Have we also, now, explained how a self-fulfilling prophecy works?"

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Junkyard Sports in the Funny Paper

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:19:10 -0500

Getting the idea of Junkyard Sports to the masses, especially to the family masses, seems to be proceeding apace - a very slow pace, but proceeding nevertheless. The first big break was the article in Famly Fun Magazine. The next, and most recent, is in a publication called Kid Scoop.

It's an issue devoted to junk. And you can download your very own copy. Your very own, full-page, color copy, or, should you desire to print it out and distribute it to the many, your similarly very own, classroom-ready 6-page, black-and-white copy.

Kid Scoop, should you wonder, is distributed internationally, and appears in 350 newspapers around the world.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Old Fun

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:06:26 -0500

Despite rumors to the contrary, there are certain things about getting old that are, in fact and actuality, fun. Not a lot of things. But some very, almost smugly certain things about being older are undeniably fun.

Like, for example, getting to hang around, purposelessly. Almost just like you did when you were a kid.

And the older you get, the less "almost." If you're old enough, you can go to sleep whenever you feel like it, you can suddenly and for no reason start laughing - pretty much just like you did when you were a kid. If you're lucky, and with the right people (like maybe your grandchildren), you can get listened to, appreciated, laughed with, even.

So this is Old Fun. The fun that old people have when they discover that many of the freedoms of childhood are theirs again. And they know more now, so they understand the privilege of getting to play. Sometimes all by themselves. Sometimes with anybody.

Which just about completely explains why we get old in the first place.

So we can taste yet another flavor of fun.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Fun with the Sun - Magical Fun

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:10:36 -0500

Teen/Nerd writes:

"I love Flickr. The content is amazing and some of the photographers have ability that is other worldly. I was looking for some interesting pictures and I typed in “holding the sun” and below is a sampling of some of the great pictures that came up (sources for the photos are at the end of the posts). Enjoy!"

After you've looked at all the pictures and sent the link to everyone you think might not have seen it already, consider the following:

This is an example of yet another significantly unique taste of fun. Unique and complex, made out of at least two different fun tastes: the taste of fun you have trolling through something like Flickr and thinking up things to look for, like, for example, all the images that have anything to do with "holding the sun" - and then discovering such an amazing collection of images; combined with the taste of fun people had when they took those photos - when they created illusions together. Illusions that could hold the sun.

Seeing as how it combines accident, illusion and technology - how about: "magical fun?"

via the Presurfer

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Where on Google Earth is Waldo?

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:44:43 -0500

Artist Melanie Coles has constructed a 2300-square-foot image of Waldo, of Where's Waldo fame.

She explains how she remembered the hours she spent with Waldo books, searching endlessly for his image, and made the connection between her childhood pastime and the delight she takes looking through Google Earth.

It is a brilliant connection. Coles creates a remarkably effective translation of a familiar, well-loved, print-based activity into the endlessly complex realities of the virtual world, adding a new layer of fun to our global vision.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Simages, Bernie and Competition, too

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:46:12 -0500

Simages is a publication of NASAGA - the North American Simulation and Gaming Association, the very same North American Simulation and Gaming Association that honored me with the Ifill-Raynolds award for "outstanding achievements in the field of fun."

I am honored to tell you that I have been honored again. I was interviewed by Brian Remer, and the result closely approximates something one might call "cogent," if one were prone to using words of that ilk.

The interview, which is one among many fine articles, appears on page 12.

See also the excellent article by Dave Blum "Healthy Competition, an Oxymoron?"

Simages

Enjoy.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Games for Health

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:54:27 -0500

Games for Health is having its Fourth Annual Conference in Baltimore, May 8-9.

Games for Health, a project of the Serious Games Initiative, asks four questions:

Can games improve the provision, and quality, of healthcare?
What existing and emerging game technologies (such as multi-user, virtual environments) might be particularly useful when applied to healthcare issues?
How can we expand the application of computer-based game technologies to face key challenges in the healthcare sector?
How do we identify and proactively deal with any social, ethical, and/or legal issues that might arise through the application of game-based tools to healthcare issues?

I have a fifth: Can games make healing fun?

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Rock-It-Ball

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:00:07 -0500

Rock-it-Ball is played with something like a soft tennis ball and plastic sticks with scoops on each end. It's a combination of something like wall ball and, well, dodge ball. Here's the brief:

"Rock-It-Ball is a very versatile sport which can be played in a number of different ways. Each different game can be adjusted to take into account the skill level of the players.

"Getting started is easy – place a tennis ball in either scoop. Throw the ball against a wall, allow it to bounce once and catch it in either scoop. Next, try catching the ball as it comes off the wall and before it bounces.

"Do it again, but now try using an over-arm shot, gently at first and then gradually increasing the power of your shots until you are confident with your throw and catch technique.

"Now you can start playing with a partner – using the Rock-It simply throw the ball to each other and catch it using the Rock-It. Then start adding points!! This is where it becomes really interesting. You score points by striking your opponent with the ball between shoulder and foot. You also score points by catching the ball in the catcher when your opponent fires the ball at you.

"Now team up and play in teams – you can play Combat-Rock-It, Combat-Rock-It-Xtreme, Team-Rock-It, Field Rock-It. Become a Rock-Iteer and download the game sheets free of charge.

"The more you play it the more you will be able to do – make up your own games and tell us about them. "

Fun. Running around, flinging foam balls at each other with your special, two-headed, Rock-It Racket. First dodgeballish sport I've heard of that lessens the pain while increasing the potential blood lust. "Make up your own games." Very fun.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Almost Impossible Fun

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:09:12 -0500

There's something oddly fun about impossible things, not just because they are, as advertised, impossible, but also because of the skill it takes to make the impossible appear not just possible, but actual.

Photoshop has proven to be a powerful tool in the visualization of impossibilities. The Worth 1000 Photoshop competitions have led to the accumulation of remarkably vivid fantasies, graphically providing that wonderful taste of fun of the almost impossible kind.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

The We inside of Me

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:02:54 -0500

I found another reference to something similar to the Me/We idea - the one I thought I had made up, and that recently someone in Al Gore's sphere also thought they made up, only differently.

In Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's TED presentation, she talks about the "we inside of me." You can find this particular part of her talk at around 16.50 on the video. Here's the text:

So who are we? We are the life force power of the universe, with manual dexterity and two cognitive minds. And we have the power to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world. Right here right now, I can step into the consciousness of my right hemisphere where we are -- I am -- the life force power of the universe, and the life force power of the 50 trillion beautiful molecular geniuses that make up my form. At one with all that is. Or I can choose to step into the consciousness of my left hemisphere. where I become a single individual, a solid, separate from the flow, separate from you. I am Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, intellectual, neuroanatomist. These are the "we" inside of me.

My explorations of the idea of the We inside of Me, can be found here.

via sacred son

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Leet - write it, talk it, play it

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:09:52 -0500

It's called Leet. So, play the video already. See those funny sticks - hollow, with a kind of scoopy end. They're pretty much key to the game. The sticks, and an understanding of Ultimate Frisbee, or maybe Lacrosse and Jai Alai, even, a little.

First, let me tell you about my favorite version, Street Leet. I quote:

Setting Up

Mark the four corners of two rectangular end zones that are equal in size and the desired distance apart (this is up you and obviously depends on the number of players, but anywhere between 20 - 50yds (18 – 46m) is recommended). Mark outer boundaries, agree on the length of the match, and you are ready to go!

A Quick Guide

Usually the game is played four-a-side.
The object of the game is to score more goals that your opponents during the game.
A goal is scored when a player within their opponents’ end zone catches a ball thrown by a team mate.
During the game, once a player has possession of the ball they must come to an immediate stop.
A player in control of the ball may make movements to help them pass or shoot, but must otherwise remain on the spot.
No player may hold the ball for more than five seconds.
If the ball is loose on the ground, players may use their hands to return the ball to their stick.
Any fouls result in a free-throw to the non-offending team from where the foul took place.

As for tournament Leet:

"...Played with a stick and a ball, Leet™ can be played just about anywhere you like: on the beach, in a park, or on almost any traditional sports surface! At the professional level however, the sport is played in the unique, transparent Leet™ arena where two circular goals are raised 5.63yds (5.15m) above the arena floor....Leet™ is played four-a-side, with each team trying to surge past their opponents’ defenses in an effort to score more goals than their competitors."

I like this new sport of Leet. I like the energy, the effort, the belief that has forged this into what it is now. Even if it started out as an idea for a reality show called "The Winning Team." The reality looks better than the show.

It's got attitude. It speaks Leet.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Fun and Anti-Fun

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:47:26 -0500

In his article Islamism and the Politics of Fun, Asef Bayat writes: "Drawing mainly on the experience of Muslim states, notably postrevolution Iran, I explore why Islamists are so distinctly apprehensive of the expression of 'fun' — a preoccupation most people in the world seem to take for granted....Fun may be expressed by individuals or collectives, in private or public, and take traditional or commoditized forms. Fashion, for instance, represents a collective, commoditized, and systematic expression of fun, yet one that is constantly in flux because it deems to respond to the carefree and shifting spirit of fun. Fun appeals to almost all social groups (the rich and poor, old and young, modern and traditional, men and women), yet youths are the prime practitioners of fun and the main target of anti-fun politics, because youth habitus is characterized by a greater tendency for experimentation, adventurism, idealism, drive for autonomy, mobility, and change. Perhaps that is why fun is often conflated with and identified by 'youth culture.' ...But the differential habitus of these social groups tends to orient them more or less to different fun practices and therefore subject them to different degrees of prohibitions and regulations that can be subsumed under the rhetoric of 'anti-fun.' For instance, whereas the elderly poor can afford simple, traditional, and contained diversions, the globalized and affluent youth tend to embrace more spontaneous, erotically charged, and commodified pleasures. This might help explain why globalizing youngsters more than others cause fear and fury among Islamist anti-fun adversaries, especially when much of what these youths practice is informed by Western technologies of fun and is framed in terms of 'Western cultural import.'"

Perhaps Anti-Fun should be considered yet one more flavor of fun. Similar to the taste of paying taxes or experiencing one's own mortality. A tad bitter, don't you think?

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Magic Pen

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:13:00 -0500

Magic Pen. Quite magical. Puzzlingly so. Kind of like the computer puzzle of yore, "The Incredible Machine meets Line Rider.

Another one of those just right kind of casual intensities available to the fun-seeking computer-user, similar to that of the Filler. Available, did I say? Perhaps a better word would be "essential" - because such games bring a needed balance to our everso serious quest for sanity, challenging our intellect while celebrating the joy of having one.

via Neatorama

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Senior Playgrounds (cont'd)

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:52:13 -0500

My post on Senior Playgrounds attracted the attention Kate Rauch, senior editor of Caring Currents. Her post led me ultimately to this clip from Good Morning America.

Thus unfolded yet another gift of the Internet - a further connection to a story, and the people, that touched the core of my faith in play.

I must admit that, now that I had become better informed, I found myself feeling slightly disappointed in the way this moment of senior enlightenupment seems to be manifesting itself. The playground had the look of one of those exercise trails. It was clearly designed to appeal to the "use it or lose it" school of mortality - not to the sense of fun, fantasy, freedom that characterizes children's playgrounds. And it was for "seniors only." (I find myself most attracted to the intergenerational approach, as in Intergenerational Playgrounds and this wonderful story of Intergenerational Kickball, and even the kind of play that's being enabled by the infamous Wii).

Nevertheless, it is something to be glad about, this Senior Playground idea. And it leaves one wondering: why don't we see things like this everywhere?

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Filler Games, like Filler

bernie@deepfun.com (Bernie DeKoven) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:50:33 -0500

It's a game called Filler. It's a simple game. With deceptively minimal graphics and space elevator music. The rules, as illustrated: "Big ball=good, bouncy ball=bad."

Not a shoot-em-up. A fill-em-up, actually. One big ball at a time. Put it anywhere, except where it'll hit a bad bouncy ball. And if you hold the button down, the ball'll get bigger. And that's it. Gamers call these kinds of games "fillers." Easy to understand, inviting to play, fascinating, fun, challenging. Filler maybe the archetype of all filler games.

via Buffalo Game Buffs Blog

And while you're at it, take a look at Throw Me for a similarly filler-game-like apotheosis. (See if you can play it without leaning)

via in4mador

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith