Bernie DeKoven’s FunLog

Turns out that Bernie DeKoven, author of The well-Played Game (mostly about physical group games) has his own blog, “Bernie DeKoven’s FunLog“.

Today’s post is “Why do people want to spend their time “killing” each other as a pastime?”

“Major Fun responds:

– we play war because we need to play with it – there’s no other way to integrate such an awful reality into our understanding of the world. it is too ugly, too irrational, too stupid for us to grasp in any other way.

– we know we’re not really hurting anyone or anything, we know that we can’t really die, and without that knowledge, we couldn’t have fun

– we can trust each other if we all know that we’re trying to kill each other, that the very worst in us is not hidden or subsumed by any other attempts at being human, so when we meet, we can meet above all that

– it is remarkably clear, war imagery. we don’t have to worry about double-meanings, about the “real” agenda. nothing else is as vivid. no interpretation required

– play fighting is fun, as long as it is play. it’s a very basic form of play, in all playing animals. it’s safer and clearer than sex play, but in many ways, even more intimate”

Nice to see one of the classic non-electronic games people blogging.