A game is a framework for play and interaction. It\u2019s an effective set of rules to direct our many forms of individual and group exercise.<\/p>\n
Sports games focus on our physical muscles. Table games build our mental strategies. Video games show increasing potential for bridging the two\u2014body and mind\u2014as controllers and headsets place us further into virtual roles and simulations<\/a>. Some people even played arcade games with their whole bodies<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSimulation\u201d is a helpful metaphor for a game. Many definitions of the word \u201cgame\u201d include an awareness of a \u201cfictional space<\/a>\u201d where the rules differ from reality, whether that\u2019s a physical tabletop board, an athletic playing field or course, a Dungeon Master\u2019s dungeon, a first-person shooter\u2019s field of view, or simply the space between the playing cards in a game of Poker.<\/p>\n The idea of a game as a fictional or virtual world leads us to \u201cgamebooks<\/a>\u201d: stories with multiple choices and choose your own adventure<\/a> style reading. All games are similar safe experiments in choice. Games create models that help us develop and explore physical and mental strengths carefully, in preparation for real world decision-making.<\/p>\n Which is why teaching is a game too. We talk about \u201cgamified<\/a>\u201d education as a new idea, but classrooms have always provided a safe space for foolish ideas.<\/p>\n I\u2019m convinced classes shouldn\u2019t protect students from awkwardness or anxiety, but rather put those energies to use<\/a>. A classroom should help us understand and accept our mistakes in a world where inexperience is unavoidable, and improvisation is risky\u2014but necessary.<\/p>\n We already do this in physical games. One of my students\u2014an athlete\u2014realized she had no trouble taking constructive criticism and using it in the field, while the same process in the classroom intimidated her<\/a>. That\u2019s a strength of sports and a weakness of schools easily fixed. One way to fix it is through writing.<\/p>\n Of all games, writing is the game. Writing on the page and in the mind is the most important fictional safe space of choices we\u2019ve created. It\u2019s our shared thought\u2014it\u2019s the only thought that survives.<\/p>\n Einstein, Darwin, Hawking\u2014most major scientists have found it important to write clearly for the general public<\/a> because it\u2019s the only complete record of their genius. Visuals and equations, while essential languages of their own, can never quite explain the why, the history, or the complexity of ideas like words. Nothing brings knowledge from one person to another across space and time like a paragraph.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also our best mental exercise. Alongside the right lessons, finding the right words teaches confidence with humility, self-reliance alongside interdependence, patience and perseverance.<\/p>\n If you think of writing as a game, then all writing is a fictional space. Every op-ed and objective journalist fact-fest and lyrical New Yorker<\/em> creative nonfiction piece is an attempt to play and prevent future catastrophe through the imagination.<\/p>\n And every game space is equally a piece of nonfiction. Every Marvel Cinematic Universe universe and Grand Theft Auto city, as well as every Picasso painting, Stieglitz photograph, and Frank Lloyd Wright building, are virtual gyms where we workout how-to move forward.<\/p>\n Because we have no instructions.<\/p>\n There is no rule book for a new and unknown tomorrow\u2014only what worked previously and what might work better. Everything is in our hands because we are the most conscious, and yet we fear creativity because of the responsibilities there. Writing is the hardest game when it teaches us how incomplete our models remain against the intricacy of the universe.<\/p>\n There are two branches of study surrounding games. While \u201cgame studies\u201d or \u201cludology<\/a>\u201d researches specific game instructions like Cricket or Parcheesi or Fortnite, \u201cgame theory\u201d admits this is all about simulations of human behavior.<\/p>\n