Jim Thompson is a lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire teaching Games design, he as a keen interest in Play in society. During the lecture he explained the history of Play, he wanted to know who in the lecture plays games, only a handful of people said they never play games, however he explains that "everybody plays".
He delves into the different ways people play, be that playing with their children, playing with their pet, playing chess or crosswords, or even playing bingo. He then talks about the history of play, from the very first game ever found in an Egyptian tomb 5000 years ago, to medieval toys. He then explains how games were invented to help win wars, such as Kriegsspiel in 1812. He then explains th history of more modern games such as Monopoly and Snakes and Ladders, then delves into the history of Computer games.
Jim then delves into why Games are addictive and popular, he believes that "you get a god like overview of the gaming world - it's our world, it's believable." After, he talks about violence in video games, and how gender is portrayed in videogames.
Jim had a very insightful view of games and the term "play", however I found it very difficult to relate his practice to my own, I tried to link it to my work by asking the question; "Do you think that in a few more years, toys like building blocks will be completely replaced with video games like Minecraft?". This was to link it back to traditional animation methods being completely overtaken by digital animation methods, however he completely went into the opposite direction I had intended by saying that "toys are becoming digital, we have VR and soon everything will be electronic".
Overall, the lecture intrigued me, but again, very difficult to relate it back to my own work. I will more than likely leave Jim out of my essay as I don't fully know what I could talk about and how I could link it to my own work.
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