theory of play

what is play?
play is innocent and has no rules but at the same time has unspoken rules and a structure, however play that has structure isnt play at all. for example puppys play fighting seems to not have any rules in it however to avoid injury the puppys do not bite hard or use there claws. even though seeing two puppys play fighting seems harmless they are in fact practising skills they will need to show dominance in their adulthood.

even though the example of puppys playing shows a more innocent form of play with very little structure on the hand a game of chest is very structured and has many rules in place that cant be broken or bent, if the rules of play are broken it is no longer considered play and becomes a more serious matter.

so what is play is it something we learn or is it something that is just natural to use, as ive described play is not just limited to humans in fact some animals such as chimps have developed faces to show that they are play fighting instead of being serious, this is because chimps even when they are small still have enough strength to cause allot of damage. though out history even to this day some conflicts are started because of miss understanding is someone is playing or just being serious
( a example of this in the animal world would be two adult dogs play fighting as even though they are play fighting there size and new found strength makes you feel uneasy compared to puppys play fighting where the level of force being thrown around is much less)

the debate about what play is has been going on for hundreds of years, at first most considered play to be something only children do however it has been discovered over many years that some activates that adults do are also part of play. this all depends on how you look at play and understand its its core elements such as being free and innocent but even to this day the question has not fully been answered and probably wont yet for many years to come.

leading theorists:

Katie Salen 

 Eric Zimmerman