DIGITAL PLAY & THE PLAY AGENDA

Andy Robertson, a digital play expert who runs the Family Gaming Database, argues that not all screen-based games and play are bad

Digital play has a problem: it happens on a screen at a time when screens are the thing we disparage because of social media. No matter how intrinsic, relational, freely chosen or ambitious the play on a screen may be, our instinct is to get children off it and outside. No matter how child-led or play-centric we are, if children’s play leads them to a screen, we are less likely to value or support it. To make meaningful progress with how digital play relates to the wider play agenda, we need to resist either pretending there are minimal shortcomings or suggesting that the benefits make those limitations acceptable. Although those are both interesting points, we only muddy the water or polarise the debate if we don’t first grasp the problem of screens.

I’ve spent the last five years investigating play on screens to catalogue thousands of examples for the Family Gaming Database. The sheer breadth of games this fieldwork uncovered challenged what I thought were the limits of what a screen could offer. These were not the kind of instrumental competitive games that make headlines, but intrinsic moments of play chosen, organised and directed by children: grouping badged boxes in Wilmot’s Warehouse, helping run an airship hospital in Wayward Strand or depending on other players to look after them as babies in One Hour, One Life.

Along the way, this work identified recurring ways to reframe digital play more accurately, which I’ll touch on now before diving into specific games that illustrate what’s possible.

Digital play only appears to be linear

Before we look closer, digital play seems much more restrictive than playing away from a screen. Understandably, we assume that screen-based experiences are linear, limited and focused on winning or losing. This reflects more where screen-based play has come from rather than where it is going, and the types of digital play that attract the largest number of children. Video games these days encourage the player to explore and find different routes through the world in many more ways than initially seem possible. Even the first Super Mario Bros. game, which seemed like a linear charge to the castle, hid ways to literally break out of the level, find secrets and even skip whole worlds.

Digital space is less limited than it seems

By definition, digital play happens in a space created with limited resources, which inevitably limits where players can and can’t go. However, it compensates for these limitations by overcoming real-world constraints children face in a non-digital playground. While digital play is limited to the bounds of the game, these spaces escape real-world limits of private property, fences, gravity and teleportation. Also, like non-digital playgrounds, children often find ways to squeeze through gaps and shortcut the intended limits.

Digital play is play

In a nutshell, what I’ve learned from embedding myself amongst the digital play of thousands of games played by millions of children is this: it offers a familiar yet never-seen-before opportunity for children to practice all manner of ways of relating to the world in the hope that one will hold. It’s this, rather than any benefits or outcomes, that makes digital play worth supporting in a child’s life.

In this way, it’s a strong ally for play in general. A child who loves playing video games is, as Peter Gray highlighted back in 2013, also likely to play outside and elsewhere. Like other forms of play, it benefits from adults being out of the way but on hand if needed - a possibility only if we understand and value it.

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A selection of games picked by Andy Robertson which show what’s possible for digital play

Joust Mania

Platform: PC, Raspberry Pi, PS4 Joust Mania is unusual because it’s played with a PlayStation Move controller but doesn’t use the screen. 16 players are invited to stand in a large physical area, ideally at dusk, and are handed the motion-sensitive controller. Their task is to protect their controller from jolts or quick movements. If it gets moved too much, the controller can tell, the light goes out, and the player must leave the arena until the next round.

At first, the group is cautious about protecting their controller. But soon, there is a moment when someone realises there is nothing to stop them from hitting, nudging or shaking other players’ controllers to get them out. Of course, if they focus too much on offence, they leave themselves vulnerable to attack from behind. In this way, the round descends into sneaky attacks and covert movement as the players compete with increasingly hands-on strategies to be the last one standing.

Once the group has got the hang of it, you can add lots more layers. Music plays over a loudspeaker, the speed of which indicates how sensitive the controllers are at any given moment. Because the controllers light up, players can be put into teams of different colours. In those teams, they can assign a vulnerable leader who must be protected, or the whole team is out. In Traitors, one person on each team is secretly indicated by their controller buzzing; they have to sneakily get their team out to win. As the sun sets, the field is a blaze of coloured lights and movement as we move onto more complex rounds like Fight Club, Zombies, Tournament and Werewolves.

LINK: [https://www.familygamingdatabase.com/game/Joust+Mania](https://www.familygamingdatabase.com/game/Joust+Mania)

Sky: Children of the Light

Platform: iOS, Android, PC, Switch Sky: Children of the Light is unusual because it invites altruistic interactions between players. It’s an online collaborative adventure about bringing light and connection back to a fallen cloud kingdom. Play involves gliding through vast, dreamlike realms, collecting light, solving environmental puzzles, and nurturing connections with others.

Communication and connection with other players are driven by emotive gestures rather than words. It has inclusivity at its core, so player avatars are not tied to gender, age, or ethnicity. Where it’s most unusual is with the items you can buy with real money in the game. Unlike other games, these items benefit you not when you consume them but when you give them away to another player.

LINK: [https://www.familygamingdatabase.com/game/Sky+Children+of+the+Light](https://www.familygamingdatabase.com/game/Sky+Children+of+the+Light)

Everything

Platforms: PS4, Switch, PC, Mac

Everything is a simulation game that’s significant for the possibilities of play it creates, rather than popularity or technical prowess. It was created by Irish artist and filmmaker David O’Reilly and invites players to explore a universe by inhabiting and controlling a wide range of things: animals, plants, buildings, seeds, insects, street lights, and even continents.

It sounds strange and not much fun, but the enjoyment is in discovering how small or big a thing you can become, from tiny atoms to whole planets and everything in between. There’s also a playful awkwardness to how everything tumbles around rather than walks or runs. As you move from large objects to tiny ones, the simulation changes speed to match your size. From the perspective of a speck of pollen, the world moves incredibly slowly so that a day will take hours to pass. From the perspective of a forest, the sun sets and rises again quickly. It’s a simple twist, but one that affects the player’s sense of embodying these things so powerfully that it often alters their breathing or heart rate.

LINK: [https://www.familygamingdatabase.com/game/Everything](https://www.familygamingdatabase.com/game/Everything)