Big Game Hunting

September 4, 2008 · Comments

carousel I love play. You might not know this about me, but it’s been a foundational truth to my very existence. I believe that play (doing things that relate to diversion, amusement, etc) is a vital element to innovation. For those of you who’ve known me a while, you know I have a thing for grasshoppers. One reason is the whole “grasshopper and the ant” story. I am, most definitely, the grasshopper. What’s on my mind is play.

A year or so ago, in the company of Jeff Pulver (who also loves play), I met an amazing group of people for dinner. The dinner was part of Hubert Burda’s DLD Conference experience. I was there by chance, and because Jeff is that kind of guy.

At this event, besides running into Jeff Jarvis again (I love what Jeff does), I also met Kevin Slavin of Area Code, creator of “big games.” Fascinating. I could have talked with him for hours (and I kinda did). You might know his company. He did things like organize a giant Pac Man game in Manhattan.

In this space, someone I’ve yet to meet is Jane McGonigal, who has a body of work that’s drool-worthy, it’s so full of fun and inspiration.

And most recently, by way of turning this story all over the place, I met Austin Hill. He’s one of the guys behind Akoha. Austin and a team including Mr. Alex Eberts are doing something really interesting up there in Canada. And he shared a bit with me.

Now, the nail biter. I can’t share a single thing about what I saw. Yet.

Well, I can share a bit, if you don’t tell anyone.

It’s about play. And it’s the kind of thing that you’ll read about all over the place in not too long. And after that, you’ll see it on TV or in a magazine or something. And after that, you’re going to be one of the wink wink nod nod people playing.

Innovating requires play. Some of us know this, embrace it, and find ways to sneak the play into our otherwise grown up life.

One last thing. I will have parts of the story WITH me at the next few events I attend. I will not just hand them out. There will not be a contest. The right caller won’t get the prize. But I will be handing certain people parts of the story.

And when I’m done delivering those, I will also dispense with 50 very special gifts.

I’m not trying to be secretive to be coy. I’m actually under a FrieNDA for a while more.

But in all my not-exactly-related-to-my-job work, this is one of those things that excites me. And if I share it with you, it should get your mind turning in neat ways, too.

In the mean time, do you find ways to play?

Photo credit, Meagen’s Photos

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  • Hi Chris -- thanks for the kind (and wise!) words.

    One point to clarify is that the Pac-Manhattan game you refer to came out of students at NYU/ITP, where both Frank and I teach. Without question, the credit for that game goes first and foremost to them.
  • I was fortunate enough to be at the Akoha sneak peak event in Montreal last week (drove from Ottawa to be there). Very classy by invitation kinda thing with David Usher singing a few tunes.

    Akoha is truly very cool and is going to get HUGE press and attention. You could just tell by listening and speaking to the staff that is very very special to them and this shows in what they have created.

    Starting to invite people and having fun!
  • Thanks for responding Chris. What you are saying makes perfect sense. Especially if you aggregate all of your thoughts on these issues from your recent postings. I just saw a good opportunity to razz you a bit!

    Anyway, the job is now done. I am very interested in what Akoha is doing and I signed up to be on their Beta tester list. I hope I get chosen!

    Keep up the great work. Your content and thoughts are great. I am a marketer myself and it is nice to learn from you in such a transparent manner how marketing is changing and how it SHOULD change. I am on board for the ride!
  • @Troy -ohhh, touche. I do seem to be countermanding my complaint about embargoes. Let me just say that this specific embargo means a LOT, financially and business timing wise, to the parties at hand. That makes sense to me.

    Maybe all embargoes would make sense to me, but I just figured out the difference.

    I *know* Austin, and I know his ask (what he wanted from me), and I opted in to know about it.

    The embargoes I gripe about are the ones people send to me unbidden. Maybe that's it.

    (It's 2AM and I'm a bit warped).
  • Now I am confused. Are you playing with us? This so soon after your rant on embargoes makes me wonder. I guess that an embargo done right is acceptable! :)
  • kat
    49 actually
    *ahem*
  • jonathansalembaskin
    I couldn't agree more. 'Play' is 'work' only with meaningful, real-time feedback, and a sense of purpose that's emotionally rewarding. I think many life experiences are really 'games' (finding a retail sale, trying to outwit a driver in the next lane on the freeway, figuring out how to organize your closet), almost as if the interface is hard-wired into our humanity. It constantly surprises me that brand marketers still see games as tactics, instead of as a model for brands themselves. I wonder what it would look like if we 'played' our favorite products and services...
  • Play has the notion of joy assigned to it, so what a great way to spark creative thinking.

    Less fun, but still relevant opportunities, are simple ways of breaking the routine. Just changing the norm can free the mind to see things in different ways.
  • I started my blog in order to play around with certain technologies and see how they work - blogger, adsense, feedburner, etc. Just things I didn't know how to use but wanted to. Playing is what keeps us moving forward in life. I think when you stop playing you stop growing.

    I also sing, play the trumpet, dabble in songwriting and train in kickboxing. And, as I'm a parent, family play time is important too... we make an effort to get out once a week to do something fun - beach, park and so on. I find each activity helps me in a different way, but like my name suggests, I find it a challenge to balance the family, work and play in my life.

    Can't wait to hear your secret :)
  • Chris, did you and I have a conversation this week that I completely missed?!?! Great minds think a like: http://tinyurl.com/67vj7o

    Couldn't agree more - for me I'm more of the problem solving, mental gamer type but I think it shows a curiousness of mind that it critical to business, life, etc.

    Can't wait to hear more!
  • Today, I launched another innovation campaign in our company, AMP Financial services, in Sydney Australia, and the entire exercise is called "Ideas Playground" - the entire spirit is to create a space within and as part of work, for play. This is not a stand alone event, its part of all our interventions to grow a culture of innovation, and sits along a 12 week Creativity Immersion that kicks off on World Creativity Day on 21 April and runs over 12 weeks, culminating in a Festival of Innovation and Thought Leadership. While the business purpose of all these things is dead serious, the way to achieve it is through fun. In my role as "Catalyst for Magic", my favourite book on this subject is MIT's Michael Schrage's Serious Play, and we were very fortunate to have both him as well as Dr Jane McGonigal visit our inhouse company Festival in Australia last year and lead us in play! Who said Financial Services has to be boring! Fun and high performance and productivity are not mutually exclusive concepts.
  • Firstly, GeekMommy - I bought Games too! :) (still do, in fact)

    Okay, now that that's out of the way... play is so important! Being a "creative" (be it an artist, designer, developer, whatever) it's too common for what used to be play now being the real job and suddenly you lose the part that made you love it in the first place. I do what Todd at Accidental Creative calls "unnecessary creating", creating for the sake of it outside of the work on-demand requirements. Things with no intent or purpose. I balance that out with physical play by going and flinging myself around on a bike.
  • You got me going ! Had to fire up my Visual Thesaurus (where I play with words...).

    Being a poet makes me play very seriously with words, ideas, syntax, grammar, and punctuation.

    Often, I play like a little kid--changing the rules as I go along--playing with slippery concentration--searching for the word images that can infuse my work with deep feeling...


    ~ Alex from Our Evolution
  • Dudee,

    You've ALWAYS got to find (new) ways to play. Be it internally with your colleagues, externally with your users/customsers/readers, with your friends and even on your own. It's the spice of life, having fun and there just isn't enough of it in today's working environment.

    Glad you're a fan. But that doesn't really surprise me.

    :)
  • I think GeekMommy is definitely right about the social media relation to play trend. You look at companies like Flickr, 37signals, Carsonified, Digg, etc. and you see it all over the place. On the other hand, I look at companies like Facebook and Myspace and, to be honest, don't see play at all. Have you ever watched an interview with Mark Zuckerberg? It's like someone sucked the life out of him at Harvard and then told him to start an online revolution, but be careful, you can't emote!

    I'm a fresh college graduate so right now I can feel this being a crucial moment in my life where I decide how much work vs. play I do. Personally, I just do play for my work since I love it so much and love experimentation! (I'm a designer). Unfortunately, a lot of students that I graduated with did not have this same philosophy.

    On that note, I think play involves a higher amount of self-awareness and confidence than usual. Many people I know lack a significant amount of self-awareness, and considering that public speaking is the #1 fear of this country's citizens, confidence seems to be an issue as well.
  • I think a love of social media often indicates that kind of mind. Because there's a certain glee from following the interconnectedness of it all and seeing how things domino from one place to another.

    Then again, I'm biased. I'm the kid that saved my allowance to buy Games magazine rather than the latest hit record, whose social gatherings at home with friends are never really complete unless some game or other is dragged out... be it something as easy but never the same twice like Apples to Apples or something more complex like Escape From Colditz.

    The secret to staying young in life is remembering to play. It's how kids learn and it's how we stay vibrant and alert as we get older. Something my 90 year old Nana attests to.

    Jealous of the secret in your brain BUT that makes it all the more fun. Can't wait to see where this goes. :)
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