Game – is the best way to try to do things you've never done. Children play from birth, for them it is a way of knowing the world, acquiring new experiences, developing spiritual and physical forces.
Adults deep down – are the same children. Despite our age, we have the same «base settings»: a new – experience, be it mastering skills or rethinking life strategy – is easier and faster for us to perceive through the game.
It is believed that the first transformation game was invented by Tibetan monks many centuries ago.
In a field of 64 squares, they « sewed up the laws of the universe that govern human life. Walking through the cages and receiving tips from the game, a person made important decisions, realized what steps led him to certain circumstances, and what would help him change himself and life for the better.
Later, gameplay became an important part of pedagogy. It was actively used in psychological, educational and educational work with adults and children. Perhaps someone remembers such a direction as organizational and activity games (ODI), which became widespread with the light hand of the philosopher and methodologist Georgy Petrovich Shchedrovitsky.
And the generation of today's transformational games appeared in Russia in the early 2000s – they actively began to be created in the wake of the popularization of psychological trainings, making them clearer and more accessible to the population. In terms of mechanics, they resemble ordinary « tables» – are just as exciting and exciting, only with deep meaning and important results for players.
Now this area is among the most promising, and the profession «game practitioner» is officially included in the «Atlas of new professions» in Skolkovo.
The main reason is several trends:
• First, people are increasingly seeking awareness and self-development.
• Secondly, the game – is a universal tool in which you can «pack» any – techniques from working with self-esteem or goal setting to « trainings on how to get married» or «increase sales by a high check».
• Thirdly, – we live in an age of experience. Now this is the main «currency», and transformational games are ideally included in the « agenda».
For the first time, Transformational Games Day (also called T-games) was celebrated in 2017 and immediately received international status (unofficially).
It was initiated by several famous game practitioners. Deciding that with such a large global community of leading transformational games, it was time to establish their professional holiday, they set it for February 2. They reasoned like this: the beautiful date 02.02, and besides, the «two» in numerology means a great chance for self-realization in a variety of types of professional activities.
The world's first day of transformation games in 2017 was marked by a massive flash mob. According to the idea of the initiative group, well-known game practitioners talked on social networks about what T-games are, how they changed their lives, and celebrated each other in posts, passing the baton. «In this way we wanted to popularize transformational games, to attract the attention of those who had not even heard of them before», – was told by one of the organizers of the holiday.
The result exceeded expectations. The flash mob was picked up by a huge number of people who were in one way or another familiar with transformational games, and the « flame, which flared up from the spark-idea», walked online for more than a week.
Since then, such flash mobs have become a good tradition on this day. Moreover, the number of game practitioners and the new transformation games themselves is growing exponentially from year to year. And with them is the number of players.
Happy holiday to all involved – players, presenters and methodological developers!
*The article was published on www.calend.ru in January 2023