The LEGO Group's vision for building better digital playgrounds | Playable Futures
Will Freeman
Tuesday 19th July 2022
Playable Futures is a collection of insights, interviews and articles from global games leaders sharing their visions of where the industry will go next. This article series has been brought to you by GamesIndustry.biz, Ukie, Sumo Group and Diva.
The LEGO Group's Anna Rafferty has been pondering the merits of 'rubber safety mulch'.
The soft, slightly bouncy surface found coating the floor of outdoor playgrounds the world over is critically important to safety. But it also provides a surprisingly helpful analogy through which to think about how the design and delivery of digital spaces such as video games must change in the future.
"I love that rubber surface," says the LEGO Group's vice president of Digital Consumer Engagement, with sincere enthusiasm. "It's not about the surface itself, but what it enables. It lets my children climb, swing and explore, and maybe even leap off something and graze their knee... but I know they're not going to come to serious harm. If they get in trouble around turn-taking on the slide, they'll have to solve that problem with the other kids there
Anna Rafferty, LEGO
"Because playgrounds aren't all technicolour rainbows -- there's conflict and problem solving and challenge, and all those things are important to development. That's what learning through play is about. I want my kids to be able to explore those things, and to be able to go to the playground, but in a way that, if they fall over, they're not going to seriously hurt themselves, and I think that's how we should all be thinking about building digital spaces in the future. In fact, thinking that way will inevitably become a fundamental part of building all digital spaces. That's the future we're
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