The Toy Is the Message: Materiality, Imagination and Play Objects

Commercial play, games and media culture is undergoing rapid change in which the line between toys as physical objects and toys as virtual or networked media is eroding. Videogame characters increasingly stand in for dolls, animals, construction sets and vehicles; physical figures act as peripherals for on-screen play (Skylanders, Amiibo, LEGO Dimensions); children nurture virtual pets (Nintendogs, Moshi Monsters); augmented reality games such as Ingress and Pokémon Go blend the actual and the virtual; and the Internet of Things promises to bring gameworlds into everyday domestic objects. Journalists, parents and academics often respond with anxiety, fearing that mechanistic, mediatized and commodified products populated by stereotyped characters will close down imaginative play.

This extended abstract, presented at DiGRA 2018, asks what the future of toys looks like in a digital media culture. It focuses on hybrid toy and game design and the "Internet of Toys," meaning systems that integrate physical toys with digital technologies and networks. The central questions concern what happens to imaginative play in a postdigital culture where physical objects and virtual environments interact, whether physical toys remain important, how tactility and materiality relate to imagination and play, and whether hybrid platforms signal the persistence or disappearance of traditional play with objects, materials and environments. It also asks what new imaginative possibilities hybrid toys open up.

The argument draws on two strands of the author's research: microethnographic studies of children's play across virtual and physical domains, and design research developing and testing experimental play systems. The latter include interactive playground equipment and a robotic augmented reality toy system. The emphasis is on theoretical and methodological attention to how imaginative action interacts with both digital and physical objects and environments.

Building on game studies work on play, the relationship between intangible software and rules and physical hardware and bodies, and experimental games spanning virtual and actual, the presentation addresses the nature and ontology of the toy itself. It positions the toy as a distinct and enigmatic element in the genealogy of play culture and proposes new directions for a theory of toys as ludic actors within an emerging hybrid media environment. The supporting literature spans toy and media studies, child psychology, LEGO studies and hybrid play research.