A More Play-Full Future is here.
Read the RADAR futures report now.
We’ve been telling you about our research into the future of Play for some time now, and we couldn’t be more thrilled that the day is finally here: A More Play-Full Future is live – and we can't wait for you to read it.
Before you dive in (ok, fine, if you’re really jonesing for it, go on and skip ahead), we’d like to share with you a few words from our research lead, Keels, on bringing A More Play-Full Future to life.
Letter from the Lead
Since our first report — A Future In Sync — was published, we’ve nearly doubled our membership, hosted our first Futurethon, published our thesis on accelerating multiplayer futures, and done so much more.
But when I look back at A Future In Sync, I’m most struck by how it foretold the journey ahead — informing the evolution of our perspective on better futures, our 2023 resolutions, and even this very report without us quite realizing it.
In closing our final chapter on ‘New Stories,’ we wrote: “and maybe — just maybe — that all comes down to cultivating a world that’s a little more playful.”
‘That’ referred to reaching a better, more synchronous future for ourselves, each other, and the planet. And we’ve certainly seen it bear out here.
For this report, we set out pondering the question — what if words like play, whimsy, and mischief were the kinds of words that framed our approach to the world?
What if play wasn’t just viewed as a leisure activity?
What if it weren’t diminished as the domain of kids?
What if – instead – it was viewed as a new mindset and a new approach for how we exist in, interact with, and build the world? What if it impacted just about everything?
And so we embarked on this collective journey toward a better, more playful future. Coming together across hemispheres to ask even more big questions: Like who gets to play? And is it a privilege or a right? Is play a mechanism for action? For truth telling? For solving the world’s biggest problems? Questions like, who’s scared of play? And why? And what’s at stake if a more playful future doesn’t come to fruition?
Over 10 weeks, we explored far and wide. Questioning our questions. Mining for unexpected signals. Digging deep across horizontal and vertical context to bring texture, color, and depth to a topic we came to realize was so much bigger than even we initially thought.
We interviewed a clown, a sexual freedom philosopher, a practicing witch, a games designer, an urban policy expert — and more. We hacked together an app to compile community-generated content (CGC™️) from friends, family, and our extended network around the globe. We invited the public to play with us on a journey Into The Future. And we turned Miro into a literal playground beyond our wildest imaginations.
We approached this process playfully, and we hope you feel it come through.
But in case the report leaves you wanting more, it’s really just a start.
At the end of your read, you’ll be presented with two paths — and we hope you’ll take them both.
One, a toolkit and wayfinder for incorporating play into your own life. The other, our journey into Incubate; an invitation to accept our upcoming briefs built to inspire makers, creators, and visionaries to help us manifest A More Play-Full Future, together.
As you know by now, we’re big believers that the future belongs to those who think about it. So whether you feel inspired to consider play in the context of your own world, or to use this report as a portal into building another, we invite you to claim your stake in this future. Because the more brains, hands, and resources we can put behind a shared vision of a better future, the more likely we’ll all be to benefit from its fruition.
Now play away!
Keels, RADAR Research Instigator and A More Play-Full Future Project Lead.