A toy, on the other hand, has no rules. You make up the rules yourself.
A ball, for instance, is a toy. In general, physical objects are more likely to be toys than games. In fact, a game may not even have a physical component. It may consist entirely of rules. Hide-and-seek, for instance, is a game that can be played anywhere hiding places can be found.
I have the impression that childhood was once much more centered on toys. My own childhood, for instance, was toy-centric. One of my favorite toys was a shovel. With a shovel one could dig ditches, put boards over the ditches, and have "caves." I don't remember playing in these homemade caves- except to prove that one could get from point A to B. The fun was in the making. Legos too, were a toy. They could be combined in countless ways. Again, "play" consisted of the act of building.
The distinction is important in light of the fact that many things that are being sold as toys are actually games. Toys that represent very exact things- action figures belonging to a certain narrow mythology, plastic GI Joe tanks with no other purpose than to serve as weapons of imaginary war, items ostensibly designed to be considered "collectible." The downside of the gamification of the toy industry should be relatively obvious. Toys require- and inspire- the use of imagination; games operate at face value- without any added imagination being necessary. You can play Monopoly as a boardgame- as nothing more than what it is. You don't need to imagine yourself as a real estate tycoon to play the game. You can play a video game without imagining yourself to be part of the world.
Game mentality becomes more prevalent as a person grows older. Rules make for more complicated outcomes, more reliably enjoyable play. Toys can be hard work. One even gets the idea that a child may prefer toy-based play simply because he or she cannot grasp the complexity required for game playing. But which is more fun?
Without a doubt, toy-based play is more enjoyable. Adding a layer of self-identification to a video game makes it far more fun. Subtracting that layer is never preferrable.
Here is my mini-manifesto for toy designers.
Design for generic play. Get away from specific uses. As a child I would rather have had a new Lego set with many versatile blocks than a few narrowly-useful unique ones. A toy plane would have been preferrable to a toy boat. Better yet- a toy float plane. Toys were vehicles of imagined exploration. RC cars always went too fast. Their batteries died too soon. I would have preferred a vehicle that made the house or yard seem big by going slow, not small by going fast. An RC tractor would have been more fun than a high-speed buggy. A toy plane isn't much fun if the only thing it can carry is a pilot. An amphibious cargo plane would be more interesting than a fighter jet. Boys like their toys to have weapons, but a mistake to build an entire toy around a weaponized use. When it comes to play, fighting isn't as important as exploration.
In the grand scheme of playthings, nothing is superior to Legos. I have a problem with how hard it is to get enough pieces to be able to build a satisfying variety of thing. Lego should sell sets that embrace versatility. Narrow, specific designs end up supporting game-like play.
Video games should be the same way. Too much energy is spent designing games with single, specific pathways to success. Exploration, which is based in toy-like play, is woefully overlooked. When I was a kid, the best game you could have given me would have been one in which I had a choice of vehicles to move from point A to B, as well as a variety of obstacles to overcome. The best example of what I mean, unfortunately, is Grand Theft Auto, which is not for kids at all.
The toy industry's profit motive is written all over the place. Game-based play is easier to sell. It's easier to develop product tie-ins around. It's easier to leverage into a line of collectibles. Toy-based play, on the otherhand- Legos, Playmobile, building blocks- can be extremely cost effective by comparison.
So what should be done?
Toy designers, design for versatile exploration. Move toward the generic.
Parents, buy buckets of Legos, not individual sets depicting Star Wars fighters.
Kids, never forget how to engage in toy-based play.
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