On the power of play and alternate realities

We'll get through this together. We have to.

Today is a depressingly dark day for the “United” States of America, for the rights and safety of countless humans in countless countries, and for the continued future of our planet and species.

Like many, I’m currently oscillating between shock, anger, exhaustion, and embarrassment. It didn’t have to be this way, and yet it’s the reality that we currently exist in.

Since I sat down this morning to dive into my daily grind of puzzle design, it’s been near impossible to focus. I keep feeling like this just doesn’t matter. How could I possibly be focusing my energy on silly bits of wordplay and whimsical research rabbit holes while the world around us is in flames?!

But despair gets us nowhere, and I truly do believe in the power and necessity of play. So let’s talk about it.

Escapism Is Still Essential

Escape rooms are more about “escapism” than “escape” — about transporting us away to fantastically vivid worlds for an hour or two at a time.

Various other forms of escapist entertainment serve a similar function, allowing us to play freely and openly.

Our current reality is pretty darn exhausting, and while the situation is more dire than ever before, this is still a marathon, not a sprint.

So, take the time to play an escape room or solve a crossword or go for a walk outside. There is so much incredible beauty and magic in the world around us, and however we retain that lifeline to a childlike sense of wonder, the better we’ll all make it through the harder times.

Plays Open Us Up

In addition to providing a reliable source of fun and distraction, puzzles and play can also open us up to deeper connections with ourselves, each other, and the world around us.

All of us sometimes get stuck in certain perspectives, especially when driven by fear, misinformation, or even just routine. It can be hard to break away from reinforced patterns and see something through a new lens.

Sometimes we also take serious things too seriously, to the extent that it limits our ability to creatively problem solve without unintentionally self-imposing certain limits on our search space.

This is the superpower of puzzles: the ability to shift perspectives seamlessly, often inviting us in with playful theming which consequently opens us up to strip away preexisting assumptions and receive profound moments of revelation.

Puzzles can accomplish this very specifically through their precise design, getting us to engage with certain topics or data sets in novel ways.

And they can more generally get us to play together as a team and interact with each other, human to human, with the freeing potential to transcend outside divisions.

Alternate Realities Can Be New Realities

Participants in alternate reality games (ARGs) embrace the mantra: “This Is Not A Game.”

Of course, ARGs are still games. The laws of physics continue to apply. And yet, this active, communal suspension of disbelief allows participants to together craft new realities which are layered on, or woven into, our (supposedly) normal reality.

These new realities guide our behaviors and interactions in very real ways, allowing us to envision worlds that might look quite different from the usual.

As previously noted, I believe there’s inherent value in play for the sake of play. But I also think there’s something more here.

As the saying goes, seeing is believing, and many forms of play — especially those like ARGs which allow us to not just imagine but actually experience intricate alternate realities that directly interact with our current reality, rather than exist in a bubble removed from it — offer tremendous potential to directly translate play into practice, and to question whether our accepted normals really are that far from a better future.

…So What’s Next?

I don’t have any substantive answers, and I’m not sure that anyone fully does.

But to quote Andy Borowitz: “Remaining silent and surrendering to despair is exactly what fascists want us to do. So let’s not.”

Now is the time to lean on our communities, to share as much radical warmth and kindness and empathy with each other as we can manage, to make art (!!!!), to get offline and breathe and enjoy the incredible natural world of Planet Earth, and yes, to play like our lives depend on it.

Take care of yourselves, take the time you need, and then do something, anything, to help bring joy and positivity and possibility into the world around you.

We’ll get through this together. We have to.

new resolution: watch every sunset