Young people don't do crosswords anymore?

Sitting in a bar one evening, after the college exhibition, discussing with a colleague and friend the idea of setting up a chess club at college as an additional activity. This was triggered from the basis of the new course at the college in games design, leads me to believe that the initial reaction would inspire interest on the notion that it is revolved around computer based game design, and not the more compelling notion, for example, of redesigning the concept of chess. Could that game be made any better. A little discussion brought about the memory of the 3d chess board seen in the Star Trek films, but on the whole there has not been any improvement on that classic game structure for over the past five hundred years. It does draw into consideration, in this debate, what occurs in the minds of designs when such things come about. The motivation for chess was in fact a method to strategies war for generals in combat situations. Understanding the tactics and values of certain divisions of armed forces could aid in the better planning of real combat. This was a strong motivation factor in the development and design of the game. Even though originally it only contained four pieces the main aspects of the game remain the same.

The view that the world is changing is evident all around us, regardless of evolutionary factors, climatic factors and economic factors, the way in we live sociologically is also perpetually evolving; and at an alarming rate it seems. Although the first ever computer system was employed in 1937, the modern computer as we know it has only been around since the late seventies, early eighties, but in that remarkable thirty year span, the computer has evolved from a 32k command line interface to a hand held smart phone with the world in your palm. What it has done, is create a dramatic revolution. Not only in lifestyle, but behavioural habits. Its very rare these days to see a person, of any age with a mobile communication device of some sort. Computers, or better said as computer assisted devices are omnipresent these days; remote controls, microwave ovens, even traffic signals, etc. What it has done in a sociological sense is made us dependant on this new electronic age. Recently, during a power outage in our city, my daughter was lost for things to do. There was no television, the computer didn't work, and so her world seemed to be at a loss. Even though there is a book shelve of some two hundred books she could call upon to read. Everything she seemed to want to do was via an electronic devise.

This is not necessarily a negative thing, as social evolution is part of any structure of development. What does draw into the argument, and bring back to the point of chess and even more importantly the subject title of crosswords, is that of how it affects our thinking. I mentioned in a previous post, and on the AAS Games Design course blog and group the fact that design is based on thinking. The whole concept of drawing out a new concept, almost out of thin air, is dependant on the process of thinking. Even placing pencil to paper is motivated by the idea contained within the brain. Now everyone wants to have fun. What other reason is there to exist if life has no enjoyment. However, due to the development of the three major revolutions that changed the world, the notion of "work hard, play hard" has dissipated into a more lethargic aspect. This is not to say that humans have become lazy or that all activities are resigned to less strenuous aspects of activity. Far from it. However, with the introduction of mechanical assisted work and now computer assisted lifestyles, those aspects that can be made easier, seem to be made easier for the sake of making life easier.

When was the last time you saw a young person doing a crossword puzzle? Tell you the truth, when was the last time I saw myself doing a crossword puzzle. I do do them, but it is obviously based on finding an English newspaper in this country of Greece where I live. I do remember doing the Guardian crossword every day at college during my masters degree. The funny this was, and to try and draw in the anecdote to the reasoning of this post; I would find the crossword online on the Guardian website and actually print it out and then go sit in the refectory a engage in doing the puzzle. I think that there is something more stimulating and tactile about doing crosswords on paper. During some of the formative research of the Games Course it became obvious that anything that was originally developed as a game in the real world had sadly found its way onto the computer screen. This is not for any beneficial reason, or game play benefit, but simple a sociological observation, maybe, that more people spend more time on the computer. It's an obvious marketing strategy to give people the easy option to swap between work and play in the easy environment of their desktop. More so for those young people, who tend to live their lives in front of a computer. This then begs the question; if you had the choice between doing a crossword or playing Doom III which would you choose?

I guess for many a young mind it would be the latter. And this is where the issue lies. The later, although filled with excitement, colour, spectacle and stimulus does not activate the parts of the brain that control intelligence interaction. What a crossword puzzle does in all its banality, is stimulate the thought process and the creative centres. Mainly due to the fact that you need to find a synonym that fits in the space provided on the puzzle. A simple concept, but a very good exercise for the brain. Same with jigsaw puzzles and sudoku, and any puzzle who's prime aim is to seek out variants in a pattern form. So, as a designer, the aspects of drawing on aids that can aid in beneficially stimulating concepts is a major advantage in design terms. The deplorable fact that computers these days not only do spell check, but even on my 'wonderful' Mac, they now auto-replace word mistakes. This makes the brain lazy. Makes the thinking more reliant on the technology to assist. And ultimately creates a basis for design that isn't pushed to its greatest possible outcome. What is required, which seems almost more like a sisyphian challenge is the idea of getting young minds to do taxing problems to help create a better world. A sign of intelligence is the ability to solve problems. This is the key, and the primary motivator in good design. Seek the problem and then find the clever solution; the novel solution. So, in times of creative despair when you find you can't put pencil to paper, look at simply replacing it with a pen and put that to paper on the latest crossword.