While trying to create a couple of  game  workshops for the following fall, one for kids and the other one for seniors’ club. Looking for quality in them and a nice product at the end supported with what it has been read until now, meaning looking for a framework, etc. Surprisingly, the bigger challenge right now it is into the kids design versus the seniors.

Strange, at first point of view, for myself, mainly because I have several years of experience working with little ones (2-10 years old) quiet smoothly. But then I realized in here I am thinking on 12+, which means: teenagers! and the story changes with this fact 😉 that is a tricky one!.

Because when thinking of them, they present an ocean of possibilities for themselves and for the world itself, but how to stimulate properly their “virgin” creativity, to trigger the motion that allows them to move by themselves in an enjoyable way, that is already a challenge itself. Now, focusing on my topic of games, they are already “playing” digital games, and they are merged into this Information Society, as some authors call it, maybe since they had born, at least some of this modern kids, which implies they have higher expectations into the topic already. On the other hand there are some no-IT-knowledge that should be impulse as well. Plus their skills are developing, which implies be careful with their ZPD is key. This list can continue with SEVERAL points.

In here, one quote of Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi enclose all this quiet well: “The more complex any system, the more room it leaves open for alternatives, and the more things can go wrong with it.

This can apply for EVERYTHING. In this case, he correlates it with the evolution of the mind: “as it has increased its power to handle information, the potential for inner conflict has increased as well. When there are too many demands, options, challenges, we become anxious; when too few, we get bored”.

And believed it or not, for those who have teenagers, or are close with teenagers, might agree with me that they are really  explosive  complex systems to work with. Oh well!!!, part of the challenge 😉 and looking for a successful output of this game.

Simple is beautiful, a gold rule. But how to get the proper merge or balance of this simplicity embedded into this complexity, that is one of my constant questions.