Bernie DeKoven, funsmith: New Games and Paintball

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

New Games and Paintball

The other day when I was shopping at Trader Joe's, I happened to be wearing a New Games T-shirt that I got at the USC Cooperative Play Referee Training." Marybeth, who used to run the "demo station" (where you get those wonderful free tastes of Joe food), and had, consequently, become a most valued friend, asked me about the motto written on the front of the shirt: "Play Fair, Play Hard, Nobody Hurt." After my 2-minute conspectus on the origin of the shirt and the history of New Games, Marybeth said: "well, times sure have changed since then. Now it's all about getting hurt. Like in paintball."

It was like getting a slap in the face and a pat on the back. And it made me think a lot about paint ball and extreme sports and surfing and skateboarding and all that. And all that pain. Sure, there's thrills and moments of deep whee. But there's also the getting hurt part. Everybody gets hurt.

"It's because we've gotten so desensitized," Marybeth added. Yeah, I guess, maybe we need the pain to wake ourselves up to the possibility of fun. Yeah, I wonder, maybe it is a very different time. Maybe that's why New Games are still so darn new.

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3 Comments:

Bryan Alexander said...: Reminds me of Mark Twain's comment about humor, how jokes always involve someone getting hurt. I can't find a good reference, but that's close.

Also reminds me of some Zen stories, involving the poor disciple getting thwacked on the head with a stick.

There's also a long history of cruel games, like bear-baiting, cock-fighting. Not to mention human-on-human violent games, such as boxing.

Then there's sex...
Chris M. Dickson said...: I'm inclined to believe that that says more about Mark Twain - and not in a good way - than anything else.

I can only understand the motivation for sources of fun where physical pain is a possibility - and, not to give "the oxygen of publicity" to some very undeserving cases, but there are ever more accessible, ever more mainstream and ever more technologically advanced examples these days, at least in Britain - only inasmuch as some people thrive upon risk and danger.

Some people need to get quite a lot of challenge to find their state of flow, and the challenge they need involves the practical danger of physical pain. (Compare with the recently rapidly increased popularity of poker, where the increased challenge comes in terms of direct danger of financial loss.)

It's not my sort of fun. I try to be liberal about it, but I find I can only be so-o-o-o liberal in my taste for developments in fun.
Chris M. Dickson said...: While I don't share the passion for pain in my fun, I try to understand those who do from their perspective. I was recently highly intrigued by this quote:

I've often found 'fun + minor personal injury' is even more fun than just plain 'fun'.

It could be just me.

It might be the paintballers as well.

I am Bernie DeKoven, and I approve these messages.

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