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       Culture is the most potent force that shapes being and consciousness throughout our lives. The most deeply-rooted and insistent shaping is effected by the transmission of themes and values through interaction in groups. Each culture spawns play activities that serve two, apparently contradictory, objectives:

1. to enlist members' support for the culture by reenacting the values in play form, and at the same time.
2. to provide participants with relief from the tensions built up in day-to-day involvement in competitive struggles.

       Play behavior is generally assumed to be beneficial, yet may be quite the contrary. For example, we play a game together, which at various points erupts in laughter. "Ah, good," a leader may infer, "everybody is having a good time." However, discussion often makes it apparent that the laughter has many different meanings: enjoyment, embarrassment, tension release, ridicule, etc.
       It is useful for us, as leaders and as participants in play activities, to become aware of the cultural themes that prevail in our society, to recognize how these themes play themselves out in various recreational activities, and to consider how they may affect play behavior. With such understanding, the leader is better prepared to select activities and to provide opportunities for the participants to become more fully and joyously involved in play.
       The most potent themes in our society are based on competition; thus, it is not surprising that they influence recreational activities, particularly games.
       It is useful to draw attention to several themes within competition: acceptance/rejection, dominance/submission, scarcity/plenty, and rating/ranking. One can assess the impact of competition on people at play by identifying which theme is involved, how much control it manifests over the players, how benign or hurtful is the experience of the players under its sway, and whether all players are affected to the same extent. At some time or another, competition becomes too much for every one of us; for some of us, maybe most of us, the consequences of losing may leave us scarred and too vulnerable to the pain to choose to be involved further in competition, even in play.
       In North American culture we have expressions to designate the status, even the very personality of competition's victims. "She's a loser" marks a person for our disdain or pity. The label, "I am a loser" prepares me to reject myself as a person of worth and value in early childhood, before the criteria of worth and value can even he articulated or established. Another cultural precept, "All is fair in love and war" cues us to reject the validity of the rules of fair play whenever one wants something strongly enough to do whatever it takes to succeed; "the ends justify the means".
       We have absorbed these values from our culture; their impact is deeply ingrained, even if we have repudiated many of them as adults.
       In the games we play at ECRS, albeit mostly competitive, the cultural effects are neutralized to a large extent by careful selection of games and by good leadership.

Specifically:

1. Winning and losing are momentary and transient; a single player can win or lose several times in the course of a single game, thus preventing the labeling of a person as winner or loser.
2. The element of chance in games used at ECRS equalizes the odds, eliminates any advantage which comes from a position of power, and reduces the "edge" derived from superior skill, knowledge, talent, and strength.
3. Rules and specified roles protect the game from corruption by those who would win at any price, provided the leader ensures that the rules and roles prevail. This is a major safeguard for players who fear reenactment of real-life scenarios in play.
4. Games played at ECRS provide opportunities to play with a variety of competitive themes, in contrast to the power of competition in the real world to hurt us materially or psychologically; for example, being fired, demoted, made to look foolish in relationships. The competition which we experience in day-to-day situations has predictable outcomes which create tension within us. The release of this tension can be cathartic and enjoyable. The existence of alternative outcomes in play thus enables us to imagine what it would feel like if these same options were available to us outside the play setting.

       Nevertheless, the impact of living in a competitive culture leaves many unresolved difficulties in playing competitive games. These difficulties are interrelated and stem from two sources:

1. The power of the cultural loading (or theme) within the game itself: The cultural themes may be so powerfully represented in the object of the particular game and in the play process within it that some players may find it difficult to experience the game as play instead of as a reenactment of the outside struggle to survive. Thus, games with a strong all-against-one, competitive theme (as in "Ocean Wave" or "Name Six") are more likely to elicit non-playing or survival behavior than simple scarcity games, whose theme is less threatening for most of us. We feel more at ease playing with scarcity in games such as "Big Wind Blows," which depends upon having one fewer chair than players to create an all-out scramble for a chair after a category has been named.
2. The individual's reaction, based upon past experiences in society: Players vary greatly in their vulnerability to different cultural themes. To some of us, the issue of acceptance/rejection in real life has hurt us too much to play with it in a game. Some of us may take it very personally when a player in "How Do You Like Your Neighbor" says "I don't like my neighbor. I'd rather have number 4 instead." Another player may want to opt out of a game involving dominance/submission, such as "Wink" or "Swat." In "Wink," the player standing behind the chair can be seen as dominant in trying to prevent the seated player's escape. In "Swat," one strategy which players often articulate is to pick a player who looks slow, counting on one's dominance over that person. If the strategy works, the swatted player may re-experience the hurt of submission, and look for survival strategies to get out of being "it," such as moving his chair slightly out of the circle to avoid the likelihood of being further involved.

       Let's look at "Name Six" to illustrate the risk of playing games which are loaded with powerful cultural valence, particularly at ECRS. In my experience as player and game leader of "Name Six," I have seldom observed players enjoying the game, and in the Cultural Messages class at ECRS, feedback from players has confirmed the observation. Why? In this game, the role of the group is extremely powerful: the group controls the time one person has to name six objects by the speed and visibility of passing the ball around the circle; seldom, even in the outside world, is there such overpowering pressure by the whole group to divert a person's concentration from an essentially simple task. One feels alone, without support, a minority of one against the opposing majority. From observation and discussion and from my own experience, reactions tend to be not only negative, but to be experienced as devastating assaults on self-worth and even on self-identity Ñ for in a word-focused culture, the one thing educated people know is words, words, words.
       One of the worst experiences I observed with this game happened to an acquaintance who is a word freak. He has a fantastic vocabulary with instant recall, reinforced by doing cross-word puzzles (never misses the Sunday Times Cryptic Cross-words) and playing Scrabble. In "Name Six," however, he could only come up with three words before the time was up. I have never seen this person so flustered, angry, dejected, crying "foul," assuring the group that he knows hundreds of words beginning with that letter. Unfortunately, our after-the-game discussion ended before we could refocus on the game elements in "Name Six." My aim for the discussion was to help us discover that the game is not a test of word knowledge, but a challenge to come up with a strategy for concentrating on word recall despite the collective force mobilized to break down concentration.
       "Name Six" is a game. It is possible, even probable to succeed if one understands that the game element is one of concentration rather than word knowledge. In fact, people who identify least with their word fluency are more likely to be playful and enjoy the game than people whose ego is built on cognitive facility.
       "Ocean Wave" has similar difficulties to overcome, but it is also a game, as long as the players can distinguish the game from the real-life situation of the group bonding together to keep the one player outside, seemingly forever.
       Thus, it is important to recognize the personal and cultural baggage with which most of us are encumbered in being playful. The task for ECRS leaders is to select games appropriate to the level of baggage most players arrive with and to select the activities during the course of the group's time together that will permit players to give up parts of their own baggage when it feels safe to do so. The eventual goal for the players is twofold:

1. To gain insight about ourselves as cultural beings: Accepting myself as a cultural being means that I respect the impact of cultural forces on my behavior, but do not thereby submit to these forces as unchangeable. By trying to grasp the cultural theme(s) infusing the play activity, I tune in to the cultural message(s) that the activity transmits, and learn to commit myself to experiment with different ways or strategies of playing.
2. To seek out opportunities to "flow" with the activity: Even if unaware of the cultural flavor of the play activity, I can transcend the tendency to become self-conscious, or to go through the motions without really playing, by flowing with the activity. By focusing on the playfulness inherent in each moment of the unfolding activity, I concentrate so whole-heartedly on the present moment that it is only afterwards that I recall the ease with which I shed self-consciousness and culturally induced constraints.

       The culture also transmits less typical cultural themes: cooperation, group support or validation, group enhancement of individual concentration, etc. For example, in the game "Magic Music" players have opportunities to experience the release of playfulness by virtue of the non-competitive structure of the game.
       It is not surprising that most of us have some difficulty in playing with cooperative themes, because we tend to have less experience in cooperating than in competing. In "Magic Music," a major challenge for the group members is to synchronize their singing louder or softer in cueing "it" to locate an object or to perform an action. Some people, acting primarily on their own individual perceptions, find it difficult to synchronize their singing with the group -- their voices sometimes ring out over those of others; they are surprised and a bit embarrassed.
       The Cultural Loading Scale, presented on the following page, is a simplified model of the relationship between cultural themes and play activities. Play activities can be analyzed and plotted along this scale in order to increase one's understanding, both as a participant and a leader. Such an understanding of the potential dynamics of the activity can be valuable in enhancing the experience of play. At the left side of the chart are listed some of the more dominant themes of competition and individualism; at the right are less common themes in our society, those involving cooperation and group support. The lower part of the chart shows some of the effects these themes may have on the playfulness with which people engage in the activities. While all the themes at the left side are competitive, some have a more powerful impact than others. "Name Six," expressing an all-against-one theme, may be riskier for some groups than others (especially at an early phase of the group process) and may offer limited scope for playfulness. In "How Do You Like Your Neighbor," we are playing with the theme of acceptance/rejection, but in a very benign way at low levels of risk: thus for most players the game may offer release from tension (b on the scale) and/or challenge which outweighs the threat (c).
       Yet, the same theme in the play party. "Somebody Waiting," in which the lyrics say "Choose one, leave the other." may pose a greater risk for more people because acceptance/rejection is played out directly.
       As we move to the right of the scale toward less competitive themes, playfulness becomes more and more likely for a greater number of people.
       This analysis has nothing to do with the quality of the material. There may be games or other play activities that provide support but are just plain dull or unsatisfying, and conversely, competitive games like "Swat" that leaders will wisely choose again and again, because the challenges are more exciting than the threat is fear-arousing (c).
       To summarize, games at the extreme left of the scale can still offer a very good play experience, provided that the structure and rules contain built-in safeguards which make the activity a game rather than a re-enactment of real life situations. That is, the structure and rules of the game must equalize the odds and allow outcomes which are different from those usually encountered in real life situations. Even then, many individuals, because of painful associations with particular situations which the cultural loading elicits, may be so preoccupied with an apparent repetition of an old scenario that they fail to perceive in the structure and rules of the game new opportunities for alternative outcomes and the consequent freedom to play with the cultural theme.
       The Playfulness Scale on the following page spells out in specific (if over simplified) terms just what is meant by the effects of the themes on playfulness. Again this is a model, and must be taken with a rounded teaspoon of salt.
       The behaviors range from playing-with-zest (complete involvement) to not-playing. Non-playing behavior takes many forms. Often a person takes short-cuts to avoid being "it"; the player at that point is focused on "How am I going to get through without making a fool of myself?" Sometimes players break the rules. They might run in "Dzien Dobry," or in "Name Six" just give up and wait until that round is over: "this too shall pass." Sometimes the player is completely absorbed in the activity at one moment and completely self-absorbed the next moment. This can be because of what or how something is said, a memory of a previous failure can be triggered, or just because the activity isn't powerful enough to keep one from wandering in and out of complete involvement.
       When the leader becomes aware of non-playing behavior increasing in a game, it is probably time to change games. In a class setting it may be wise to discuss the feelings aroused by the game. The discussion can often point out the differences between the game and its real-life analogue, so a person can suddenly realize that the outcomes in the game are different, temporary, and not punitive.

       There are practical implications of the foregoing analysis, which may be expressed as Options for the Leader:

1. Play the games which are based on highly competitive themes only with the participants who elect to play them.
2. Play a trial run of the game, in order to process the differences between the real world re-enactment and the game, so that the players may become more willing to take risks despite the reservations. (This strategy will not work with people who have been too badly hurt by the particular cultural theme or message.)
3. Play the games which may evoke hurtful messages from real life situations only after considerable trust has been established in the group, and there is opportunity to voice and discuss the feelings engendered.