The Joy of Tactile!

One cup of coffee into the morning and I was playing with my little people in their room.  The activity?  Block play, or, more precisely, Dad builds, Daughter (3) plays Supervisor, Son (1) plays roaming Destructo-Bot that rampages at will, scattering soft foam blocks with joyful abandon. 

The “Game” quickly (de)volved into:

•        Build as many floors as possible before… 
•        The marauding Destructo-bot returns
•        Reset

Top Score?  Five levels.

Everyone enjoyed our little game and it was actually an interesting 3-player exercise in asymmetrical collaborative and competitive play.  I’ll have to cogitate further on that one…

My recollection of the play session

But it really got me thinking about the stark difference between offline and online play, particularly for little people developing gross and fine motor skills.   It would seem that touch as an interface (coupled with the proliferation of devices and free / freemium software) has driven the massive explosion in gaming over the past several years.  And the best – and most profitable – games on mobile devices have used intuitive touch controls that are good proxies for the satisfaction of tactile feedback.

However, when it comes to the joy of feeling the weight of a physical object, the satisfaction of rolling a die, touching a wood block and bringing it into alignment, I wonder if the simulacrum of digital touch can – or should – supplant the simple joy of tactile play.  Certainly convenience plays a massive role – I love Warhammer 40K tabletop gaming, but I will likely never again have the space or the time to play a physical game complete with 40 plus figurines aside.  I will settle for decent iOS version I can take with me and play on the go.  Slitherine, please hurry up!

But there is an inherent reward in tactile play that I suspect digital will never be able to replace.  And when it comes to gaming, that tactile feedback forms another layer – perhaps the most basic and fundamental – that provides a sense of accomplishment with every tumble, smash, crash and roll.