There's the time I split my knee racing friends while wearing flip-flops. The stitches in my head earned during a vigorous match of tag. The countless skinned elbows, bumps and bruises of a youth spent on skateboard and bike.

Those were just the hallmarks of growing up outside. Each wound, each scar a tiny reminder of time spent running, laughing, playing.

But the summers of today's youth seem far removed from those times. Over the decades the evolution of play has drawn children closer and closer to home, from side streets to backyards to, finally, dens and video games. As parents become more cautious and children more agoraphobic, is something getting lost?

In Roger Caillois' famed book on play and games, Man, Play and Games, he divides play into four categories: Competition, chance, role-play and the physical effects of vertigo.

That last one is the feeling of riding a roller coaster, of running with abandon, of losing control. And that's the only form of play that video games can't tap into points out Ian Bogost, video game designer, critic and researcher at Georgia Institute of Technology.

"The sense of vertigo is missing," he says, "of being very active, physically spastic in some way. I don't see how we could argue that video games provide that."

While some games include a physical aspect, like what is found with Nintendo's Wii and in-development projects for both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, they still require very controlled motion and physicality. For a game to truly tap into that fourth element, vertigo, there has to be a sense of abandon, of danger.

"Outdoor play has to be almost destructive in some ways, you have to be at risk at some time, of breaking something, of falling," Bogost says. "You don't really have that in games, simulating it isn't sufficient."

But don't blame video games. Video games are just the byproduct of a society and encroaching suburban lifestyle that buys into the culture of fear, Bogost says.

"It used to be that before suburban life, in the early 20th century, people would play in the streets, not just backyards or parks," he said. "But then you had to move the kid with the stick and the ball to the park.

"Now we're taking the backyard and moving it into the den and the television screen."

These relocated children still find ways to tap into three of those elements. They make up their own rules, games within video games. They play Rock Band or Guitar Hero with friends. But by limiting play to the relatively safe confines of home, children might be missing out on a chance to find and explore the raw edges of life.

"Something about play should be disruptive and antagonistic, not toward each other, but toward the environment. It should be about children finding the edges of their world, " Bogost said. "When we were children our neighborhood kind of became this kingdom."

Now a child's kingdom is often a haven of air-conditioned safety, of entirely explored space and little opportunity.

Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe today's children don't live in the same type of world that we did, don't need to run the risk of injury or testing oneself. Maybe they should prepare for a life indoors, online, physically void of risk. Maybe that's what we've all become.

If you find that hard to accept as a desirable beacon of progress, then do something about it.

But don't just send your children outside, go outside with them, even at the risk of a skinned knee.

Play games with them, even if they're ones that mimic their childhood pastimes.

Have fun.

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

I get the feeling this is a sort of swan song for the aging console, but what do you guys think? Is this the last time a PS2 title will grace the cover of a major multi-platform gaming mag, or does the little black box still have some life in it yet?

The characters we call “bosses” in videogames are the large monsters we have to defeat at the end of a level, but everywhere there are more insidious types of bosses, who better resemble micromanaging employers. The videogame designer often exerts his authority through a non-playable character, an ostensibly loveable sidekick who will bombard the player with increasingly heavy hints about what has to be done next. It’s not a suggestion; it is an order. We have all had the experience of arriving in an new area in a role-playing game, only to be greeted by a character who refuses to help us in our quest until we have collected the five pieces of her arbitrary amulet. Everywhere you go, you are told what to do.

Of course a comprehensible goal-oriented structure is a useful thing, to stop a videogame becoming a sprawling mess of undermotivated wandering and backtracking. But while the just-following-orders structure works acceptably in military-themed games such as Splinter Cell, which after all do pretend to be more or less “realistic” representations of the job of a counter-terrorist or special forces agent, where a commander delivers objectives and the soldier finds ways to implement them, the idea seems more rebarbative the further one strays from quasi-simulation into pure fantasy.

Certainly there are games that replicate 'the mechanized work process' (they don't call it 'grinding' for nothing), but it seems to me that the key is whether or not it feels like work. And, unlike real-life work, if I get tired of the daily (game) grind, I can switch of the console or click 'close window.'

Working for the Man: Against the Employment Paradigm in Videogames [Steven Poole via GameSetWatch]

In addition to the sarcastic double-quoting of words like "press" and "reviews," clearly indicating that both are naught but pale imitations of the real thing, Halverson says that the "review events" at which he thinks Golden Axe: Beast Rider was measured are an indication that of the "game industry going down the wrong path."

He also complains that Beast Rider's well below average scores "for the most part echo the opposite opinions of real gamers."

We can't speak to the final quality of Golden Axe: Beast Rider yet, as our hands-on time with the title has been limited to time at the Leipzig Games Convention and a few hours with the retail build. (Fahey picked it up before the weekend.)

Who out there has the game, has played it and either agrees or disagrees with Halverson's glowing review and subsequent rant?

Dave Talks Golden Axe [Play]

It's tempting to demonstrate the value of playful activity within the framework of the very system that disapproves of such activity. In other words, I could leverage the values of the puritan work ethic system to prove that play and fun ultimately help make us more productive, which translates into the transcendent goal: more money.

Here's what that would look like: Games are good because they make learning fun. Being an engaged learner motivates me to learn more. Learning more makes me smarter. Being smarter makes me more capable; being more capable makes me more productive; being more productive makes me more valuable; being more valuable makes me more money.

Or another take: Games simulate cognitive processes such as identifying patterns, understanding complex systems, and chunking large amounts of information. Playing games enhances these cognitive abilities; enhanced cognition makes me a more capable learner. Learning more makes me smarter. Being smarter makes me more capable. See above.

I'm not suggesting these arguments are invalid; only that their validity relies on a set of desired outcomes driven by values that games should bear no responsibility to uphold. Maybe games can make us smarter and more productive, but games don't require such outcomes for validation. In fact, many of the best games provoke all sorts of wonderful, but decidedly unproductive, self-indulgent, and inefficient behaviors. Such games are like toys in the best, most delightful sense of that word.

There are some aspects of 'game shame' that I probably won't ever get over, and I can't imagine waxing rhapsodic to most of my fellow graduate students about my favorite titles or 'that time in such-and-such game when ...'. But I'll still look forward to the times when I do get to wax philosophic and the hour or two every night I get to escape into unabashed, unproductive, and totally self-indulgent play.

No more game shame [The Brainy Gamer]

School days were a waiting game, ticking the seconds off until we could dash home and play, our bags bulging with the triple prongs of spare Nintendo 64 controllers. Lunch breaks were spent reliving past conquests and planning for future marathon sessions. Our passion for Mario Kart 64 spawned a mythology. Rules and codes developed, seemingly arcane in their source, unwritten, but loudly voiced:

"YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO DO THAT!"

And it's true. I wasn't. My elation at discovering a neat glitch on the expansive Wario Stadium track quickly turned into disappointment as my less nimble-thumbed friends informed me that, as long as they couldn't use a shortcut, I wouldn't be able to.

Sociologists already look at in-game behavior and norms, and I have no doubt anthropologists will someday be looking at how people gamed and why. It's an interesting part of games in general, not just video games.

You're Not Allowed To Do That. [The Escapist]

Over the weekend, First Person Shooter: The Play premiered in San Francisco. The play is set in a start-up video game company that has achieved big-time success due to a the "hottest, most violent game on the market." Things go bad when the company is blamed for a schoolyard shooting. The play was written by Aaron Loeb, former IGN writer and current game developer COO. Says Aaron:

My main goal was to show the "controversy" to be the inhuman and immoral boondoggle that it is. That we respond to something so horrible as a school shooting by trying to figure out a quick and easy blame-based sound-bite ("videogames did it" or "bullying caused it") is horrifying. In the face of these tragedies we need to talk more, not less. We need to connect more, not polarize into oppositional camps. I wanted the CEO and the father to be men caught up in this lunacy, who eventually have the courage to step out of it.

Ultimately, I hope people who see the play will, if they don't already, start questioning Dr. Phil's motives when he rushes out to say "videogames did it." I hope that they will ask, "Is this really what we should be talking about now? How about talking about the victims and their families instead?"

Admirable. But is the play any good? Brian Ashcraft

FPS Play [Firing Squad via GameSetWatch]

If you end up attending, let me know how that went. I loves me some video game music, especially when Nobuo Uematsu is concerned, I'm not sure how to get there and can't see to ask directions without bursting into song, which is in direct conflict with my parole agreement. Michael Fahey

Lost Odyssey to premiere at game symphony [CVG]

San Jose will be the first place to hold this year's Play!, a "video game symphony", complete with full orchestra and visuals. This two-hour concert is performed by the Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale (fancy word for "choir") and has a playlist that includes music from Final Fantasy, Castlevania, Metal Gear Solid, The Legend Of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., World Of Warcraft, Sonic The Hedgehog, Shenmue. Even though it's part of a world tour, the only date that has been set is in San Jose.

Come on fellas, you know us gals like it when you take "the initiative". Kim Phu

Play! Video Game Symphony Hits San Jose [Wired Game|Life]

The bad news? Unless you're going to be in Singapore in June, you're going to miss Koshiro spinning. Hey, single Singapore-based Kotaku reader, why not hit this up and send us some pics? We'd greatly appreciate it.

Upcoming PLAY! concert dates can be found at the official site. Me? I'm off to dig up my old Maxells with Streets of Rage 2 tracks taped off the Genesis stereo jack. Michael McWhertor

Play is reporting that a bunch of the Epic Games staffers are hitting Gear of War on Xbox Live this weekend for some open play.

Saturday the 24th it is, between 7 and 9pm GMT. Offering something of an alternative to the usual Saturday evening in this part of the world (not a town-centre pub-crawl in sight). Here are the Gamertags for the players you'll want to be looking out for:

Mark Rein, Vice President - EPICEMEAMR
Cliff Bleszinski, Lead Designer - EPICEMEACB
Rod Fergusson, Producer - EPICEMEARF
Lee Perry, Lead Level Designer - EPICEMEALP
Jim Brown, Level Designer - EPICEMEAJB
Dave Nash, Level Designer - EPICEMEADN
Ray Davis, Lead Programmer - EPICEMEARD
Joe Graf, Programmer - EPICEMEAJG
Rob McLaughlin, Programmer - EPICEMEARM
Pete Hayes, Artist - EPICEMEAPH
Additional Epic Staff - EPICEMEA01, EPICEMEA02, EPICEMEA03, EPICEMEA04, EPICEMEA05

Hmmm, CliffyB on Gears... need to talk to him about helping out against Gizmodo in our little game. Brian Crecente

Epic Games Game on Live [Play]

• Ghost Rider (PS2, PSP, GBA) He of the flaming skull rides in to your heart and your PS2.
• The Warriors (PSP)
  Can you dig it?
• Wii Play (WII)
  A collection of casual games including billiards, air hockey, tank battles, table tennis rally, Mii poses and a cow-riding race. Comes bundled with a Wii remote!
• Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters (PSP)
  No matter what they tell you, bigger is better.
• Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar (PC)
  The expansion pack for Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords laser blasts it's way to your PC.
• Test Drive Unlimited (PC)
  Racing reinvented. Or so they tell me.
• Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure (PSP)
  Use a magical drill to bore your way into this cutsey-poo action RPG.
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (PSP)
  Viva la Rainbow Six! Viva la PSP! Viva Las Vegas!
• Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner (PSP)
  Become a Jewel Summoner and fight The Abomination.
• Dreamlords (PC)
  Another MMO enters the ring.
• Chulip (PS2)
  Kiss the girls, but don't make them cry.
• Disney's Kim Possible: Global Gemini (DS)
  Disney's teen spy in an all new DS adventure.

Activision just sent us this cool video showing some GUN play. Oh man, this looks like it's going to be another must have for the Playstation Portable. Brian Crecente

N-Sider, "The World's Most In-Depth Nintendo Resource!", has posted one of those extremely in-depth Nintendo resources that I keep hearing they are known for. In this case, it's the detailed account of one gaming music lover's experience attending the recent Play! Video Game Symphony. It sounds like a wonderful event, aurally radiating with a palpable geeky glow:

On the walk back to the hotel, I was pretty much still in awe at what a kick-ass show I had witnessed, but I couldn't stop thinking about what the guy had said about this being not so "stuffy," and, to be more specific, the crowd's reaction to the Mario medley. It really does ring true, what Uematsu wrote in the program's notes: music is the seeds, and video games are the soil. The Play! concert isn't just about hearing music from video games, it's about hearing music that everyone has heard before under a different set of circumstances. The Japanese family in front of me probably played Super Mario Bros. just like I did, albeit on a Famicom instead of an NES.

Well worth reading. Of course, if you're a European, you have no chance of catching it unless you want to go up to the land of the midnight sun. FLORIAN ECKHARDT

Play! Video Game Symphony Show Notes [N-Sider]

At or around this point, whenever Roth would approach the microphone after each song to introduce the next piece, fans from the audience would yell "ZELDA!" Roth had to meet it with "nope, not Zelda," and "not yet!" This time, after Silent Hill, Roth approached the mic and said something to the effect of "our next song is from a game that has been played and enjoyed by millions worldwide, and developed an extreme following," and one crazy fan off in the upper balcony yelled "TETRIS!" and sent most of the theater into a fit of applause and laughter.

The interviews address the basic who-knows-who stuff, and touches on current and future projects (Uematsu is busy with Mistwalker Studio's "Blue Dragon"; Mitsuda has a new CD on the way). The interviewer also asks about Uematsu's rock band The Black Mages, which has a new album out soon. Eliza Gauger

Review and interviews here [N-Sider.com]

Chris Kohler writes about the looming battle of video game concerts for Wired today. The article looks at Play versus Video Games Live. Both events are planning international tours, with VGL's executive producer Tommy Tallarico remaining cautiously optimistic after a cancellation last year.

Tallarico's approach this time around is to tie the concerts to events with high-geek appeal, like the Game Developers Conference.

Tying the performances to existing events is part of Tallarico and Wall's strategy. And they need a solid one, because this isn't the first time around for Video Games Live. After a successful debut at the Hollywood Bowl last year, an extensive tour was planned — one that was cancelled when the first few dates failed to sell enough tickets. "I think everyone got a little overambitious," says Tallarico. "What we have done (this year) is partner not only with local symphonies but also with video game, comic book, anime and sci-fi conventions all over the world. By being one of the 'main events' during the conventions, it will help us build awareness."

I hope one of these rolls through Denver.

Battle of the Game Concerts [Wired]

Nobuo Uematsu, who composed the music for the Final Fantasy games and some of the music for Chrono Trigger, signed on to compose the official opening fanfare for PLAY! A Video Game Symphony.

You can listen to the fanfare at Play's website.

Play Symphony [Official Site]

Here's a chunky little stat: X-Fire, the specialized IM engine for gamers, claims that its users play an average of 88 hours a month. 22 hours a week is just over 3 hours a day, although of course weekday play will always be less than weekend play.

Here's a question for you: how many of you watch TV at the same time as playing games?

Gamasutra: Broadband Games Expand

Play! A Video Game Symphony, which kicks off in North America next year, is going international. The event, created be the people who organized Dear Friends, will even be bringing it's game music goodness to Australia and New Zealand.

Music Coming to Oz [AusGamers]

Music4Games is reporting on an upcoming video game symphony concert that will be kick-starting a world wide tour in North America next year. PLAY! is being put together by the creative team that produced the Dear Friends Music from Final Fantasy Symphony Tour, so you can expect this one won't cancel after selling tickets to venues around the country.

PLAY! will feature modern vg music performed by an orchestra and choire. Some of the titles the tour will be performing from include Final Fantasy, Battlefield 1942, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and World of Warcraft. I smell a hit.

PLAY! Video Game Symphone Concert Series Announced [Music4Games]