In 1971, Bernard De Koven founded The Games Preserve, a retreat center for the exploration of games and play in Eastern Pennsylvania. The Games Preserve served many organizations and individuals, and functioned as the East Coast branch of The New Games Foundation. In 1978, De Koven published The Well-Played Game, which was recently re-released by MIT Press. During his long career, he has designed games of all kinds: board and table games, computer games, social games for small and large groups, city-wide game celebrations, theater games, games for couples, families, children and elders. But his greatest impact has been his development of a theory of fun and playfulness and how it can affect every aspect of personal and interpersonal, community and institutional health.
De Koven has been exploring playfulness for more than 45 years. His book, The Well-Played Game, originally served to help guide people who had discovered the power of play through the New Games Foundation. Today it serves designers of videogames who also want to share the power of play through their new games and new visons of playfulness.
His most recent book, A Playful Path, explores playfulness in all its manifestations, focusing on artists, practitioners, teachers and all those who help make the daily game a little more fun. The book is available in print or as a free e-book download. Check it out here. You can read an excerpt here.
There’s much more on his website – deepFUN.com
Also be sure to check out his blog - A Playful Path - www.aplayfulpath.com
