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Scholars conventionally find play difficult to define because the concept is com- plex and ambiguous. The author proffers a definition of play that takes into con- sideration its dynamic character, posits six basic elements of play (anticipation, surprise, pleasure, understanding, strength, and poise), and explores some of their emotional, physical, and intellectual dimensions. He argues for a play ethos that recognizes play is evolution based and developmentally beneficial. He insists, how- ever, that, at its most elemental, play always promises fun. In this context, any activity that lacks these six elements, he contends, will not fully qualify as play. Key words: definition of play; elements of play; universe of play
Play is a roomy subject, broad in human experience, rich and various over time and place, and accommodating pursuits as diverse as peekaboo and party banter, sandlot baseball and contract bridge, scuba diving and Scrabble. Play welcomes opposites, too. Play can be free-ungoverned by anything more complicated than choosing which stick is best to improvise a light saber-or fixed and codified, as in those instances when soccer players submit to scrupu- lous ?laws.? Play can take active or passive form and can be vicarious or engag- ing-and so we recognize play in both the spectator and the actor. In fact, at play we may even become both spectator and actor, straining with an air-guitar at a concert for example or sympathetically enacting the motions of the quarter- back's long bomb during the big game.1 We have no trouble recognizing play in the premeditated prank or the instant wisecrack. And then play can be solitary or social-as enjoyed by a woodcarver at his bench or a quilter during her bee. We can find play in the spaces in between, too, as children engage imaginary friends without quite being alone or as gamers play together on the Internet without meeting face-to-face.
We can take in play at a glance in these instances, following its course and knowing it confidently when we see it, but observation does not automatically bring us closer to refining the concept. In fact, the opposite seems to be the case: the settings change, the play interval varies, the intensity rises and falls, and then intent and other human circumstances shift and...