Playing? That’s FUNdamental - Games and fantasy are part of the human nature; they are fundamental for children to grow up, and in the adulthood, though changing forms and means, the are necessary pauses for mind and body.
Stimulating fantasy through games is a way for
children to discover and form their personality: the creation of a fictitious
world created by themselves is a mean to acquire knowledge, skills and
capabilities, that rises through the imitation of the adults’ behaviours, and
is also fundamental for socialization. Children, in fact, use the game to come
into contact among them: the question “do you want to play with me?”, in fact,
is the primary purpose of every game; once this is fulfilled, they arrive to
the purpose of the game itself, that will bring the child to live new
experiences.
Nowadays the children’s fantasy is continually
stimulated: cartoons, online games of every kind, and they grow up more and
more rapidly, with more and more exigent tastes. While for “traditional” games
a ball or a piece of cloth were sufficient, nowadays fantasy and tastes are
more and more sophisticated; this means, from one side, that children have more
knowledge in more fields (when they are 10 they already are masters with
computers and DVDs...), from the other side this means that amuse them is more
and more difficult.
Rediscovering the “poor” games may bring to a
simplification that could reveal itself to be positive: it too many things are
needed to get amused, it becomes difficult. On the contrary, discovering again
the pleasure of a simple game may help to reach in a more simple way another
(fundamental) purpose of the games: having fun.
Of course, times change, as well as the games
keep up with the times: once children played running one after the other in the
streets or in the fields, but now running in the street is unthinkable and
fields are not as common as they were...now, mostly in the cities, people stay
more in their homes, few have a garden and games adapt to the new spaces and
times: there are children who play with the computer, alone or with their
schoolmates, others who play with technological games full of lights, buttons
and mobile parts. Or maybe with a simple furry teddy bear...the important thing
is that the game should also be used to create a union with other children, and
that is stays a game: it’s always fundamental to recognize the difference
between game and reality, and to know that they are in two different and
separated dimensions.
Games for boys and those for girls have always
been completely different, excepting some games that can make the two factions
merge making them play together – the most classical ones, like blind man’s
buff – ; normally, though, boys play among them with constructions, cars or
ball, while the games for girls are dolls, “ladies” and others. This difference
also remains stressed in the online games proposed by the sites: cooking and
makeup games for girls, football and racing games for boys. The same can be
said for the games proposed to adults, that often stay attached to the most
traditional videogames and choose them for their pauses on the computer.
Games, in the end, are important: no doubts on
this. They are important for children to grow up, to stimulate fantasy, to
learn new things, to make new experiences and to come into contact with other
children; and it’s important for adults to get diverted, to stay together, in
short, to have fun. Online or in the real world.
Disclaimer: Dime-Co.Com is an online information article and video article network. All articles, video articles, comments, and other features herein are for informational purposes only and are provided "as is" without warranties, representations or guarantees of any kind. The views and opinions expressed in an article, comments, links or blogs are the author's own, and not necessarily those of dime-co.com's owners. For full disclaimer, please read our TOS.
