Article

Games and Culture

2018, Vol. 13(3) 215-219
ª The Author(s) 2017
Adult Play: The Dirty Reprints and permission:
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Secret of Grown-Ups DOI: 10.1177/1555412017690860
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Ashley M. L. Brown1 and Jaakko Stenros2

Abstract
Welcome to the Adult Play Special Issue. In this introduction, we (the editors)
explain the origin of the collection and our unique take on what adult play
means as a term. Rather than be specifically about sexual play, the term adult is
taken here to reference the age of players. The article included how adults play,
what they play with, and when they play. This of course includes, but is not
limited to, play of a sexual nature. We hope you enjoy reading this issue as
much as we enjoyed editing it.

Keywords
introduction, adult play, grown-up play, social norms, sexual play, adult toys, adult
games

After reading the title of this special issue, the average reader would not be faulted
for assuming that this collection of articles is based around sexual games. After all,
even if the intent of the term “adult play” is to express the age of players rather than
the age appropriateness of the content, there is a correspondence—or at least con-
notation—between the term “adult” and sexual content (Brown, 2015). This is
particularly the case when discussing media. Adult books, adult films, and adult
games all sound pornographic, at least in English, so when the University of
Tampere, Finland, hosted a seminar themed around adult play, there was an

1
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
2
University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

Corresponding Author:
Ashley M. L. Brown, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.
Email: ashley@eae.utah.edu
216 Games and Culture 13(3)

assumption on the part of some attendees that the research and papers discussed
would contain sexual themes. As this resulting collection of papers makes evident,
this was not strictly the case.
The papers contained in this special issue of Games and Culture grew out of the
papers presented at the adult play seminar which took place in the Spring of 2015.
The topics of the papers contained here are as diverse as the ones originally pre-
sented. In fact, only one paper in this collection (Harviainen and Frank) lives up to
expectations and deals directly with sex as a type of live action play. The article
explores the negotiations and rules both explicit and implicit in group sex events.
However, the other papers in this collection touch on different themes as they relate
to the play of grown-ups. As these articles illustrate, it seems to be more transgres-
sive and risky for an adult to engage in an activity marked as play that is not of a
sexual nature.
And herein lies the need for this special issue. This issue of Games and Culture
provides a much needed addition to the existing literature on the play of adults by
looking outside of the scope of sexual themes. Not only is adult play about content
which is only legally accessible to those over the age of 18, but it is also about how
adults play and the challenges to that play.
This issue is also about building bridges between different research traditions.
Games as institutionalized play are but one example of the expression on playfulness
in adults (cf. Stenros, 2015). Adult play is herein approached from the discipline of
game studies but also from sexology, toy studies, sociology, play studies, and game
design research.
Many of the papers in this special issue approach the challenges of adult play
through the perspective of social norms. Play has the tendency to be normatively
viewed in Western societies, or at least stereotyped, as the domain of children. In
popular culture and social institutions alike, play and objects relating to the facil-
itation of play are marketed exclusively to children even as parents finance playful
opportunities. Taking toys as an example, the idea that adults might also be con-
sumers of toys seems ludicrous to most, and yet Katriina Heljakka’s article in this
volume documents, the growing number of adult women who collect and play with
toys intended for children.
We, as a culture, accept that children play with toys, and we accept that child’s
play is natural and beneficial. We accept this so much so that playtime is structured
into children’s routines. For example, most school days have a chunk of time
devoted to recess or recreational play based on the idea that playground and outdoor
play has a positive impact on educational development (Fjørtoft, 2001; Moore,
1990). Yet children’s play is controlled. The play pupils engage in while in class,
although important for autonomy, is branded as illicit and even dysfunctional as it
challenges adult authority (King, 1987). Families are encouraged to play outside of
school time for the “healthy” social development of their children (Howes &
Stewart, 1987), and if an unfortunate event occurs which upsets a child’s develop-
ment or well-being, play therapy is prescribed (Axline, [1969] 2012). In most
Brown and Stenros 217

aspects of a child’s life, play is involved as developmental procedure. Child’s play is

conceived of as functional, as per Sutton-Smith’s (1997) rhetoric of progression.
This is, of course, not the case for adults.
Play being the accepted domain of the child has an additional, perhaps unin-
tended, effect of creating a false dichotomy between child’s play and adult’s play. If
research finds that play supports educational and social development in children,
then it follows that adults will “grow out” of play once developmental milestones
have been reached. The adult who does not, or refuses to, grow out of play is
considered abnormal, stunted, or even unhealthy.
In popular culture, contemporary comedies such as Sisters (Moore, 2015) high-
light stereotypes of adults who are still playful. In the film, Tina Fey’s immature,
party-animal character is portrayed as irresponsible and in a state of arrested devel-
opment to comedic ends. The plot of such films usually centers on trying to correct
or provide consequences for problematic, childish, or irresponsible behavior of the
main character and get them to a fully functioning adult state as represented by
settling down and marrying and/or getting full-time employment (Balducci, 2015).
In this pop culture sense, playful behavior when undertaken by an adult is viewed as
comedically inappropriate which places pressure on adults who do play to shame-
fully excuse their behavior. According to Leisure studies, this is why amateur
bowling leagues and card players take their hobbies so seriously—to distance them-
selves from the shame and embarrassment resulting from appearing to enjoy hobbies
that are too childlike (Scott & Godbey, 1992). Building on existing research in the
area is Sebastian Deterding’s article in this volume which takes a sociological
approach to discussing the many ways adults frame their playful behavior as a
serious endeavor or otherwise excuse themselves from the shame of appearing too
childish when at play.
The approaches of minimizing embarrassment detailed by Deterding’s article
pull at the problems associated with adult play, and these problems are serious. In
academic literature, Adult play is often connected to problematic behaviors such as
addiction and gambling (Griffiths, Davies, & Chappell, 2004; Lepper & Greene,
1975). As extreme cases and health-related issues make for more interesting reads,
little academic attention has been paid to adults who create and maintain a healthy
work-play balance with games. Within this issue, however, is an account of how
adults make time for their board gaming around life’s other responsibilities, such as
employment and childcare (Rogerson and Gibbs). This article adds a much needed
perspective on adults who do not stop or “grow out of” playing games but rather
develop strategies for enfolding playtime into increasingly demanding schedules.
Rather than view gaming as entirely separate to adult life, other researchers have
looked at how play is a regular function of adult relationships. This is particularly the
case in intimate and sexual relationship building (Aune and Wong, 2002; Sutton-
Smith, 1997) but also embedded within some work environments. The concepts
behind the idea of reaching an optimal state of enjoyment, also known as “flow”
(Csikszentmihalyi, [1975] 2000), have been applied to the workday via playbour
218 Games and Culture 13(3)

(see Kücklich, 2005) and gamification (Kapp, 2012). The central organizing idea
behind playbour and gamification is that if the motivation and enjoyment which
come from realizing a flow state during a hobby could be applied to work,
employees would be happier, more creative, and more productive. Because games
and play are one clear way to achieve a flow state, it follows that the entanglement
of playfulness and the workplace might be a positive way to alleviate the post-
modern condition.
Endeavors have been made to make the workplace more playful (see Stewart,
2013), but the effectiveness of this technique is debatable as one worker’s happy
distraction is another worker’s productivity-ending annoyance. This debate is
explored in Tyni et al.’s article in this special issue in which conference attendee’s
responses to inappropriate talking chairs are investigated. In an effort to make
stuffy conference atmospheres more playful, Tyni and his team of researchers
developed an ethnomethodological intervention by the way of chairs which make
humorous noises at random intervals, so that adult playfulness was explored in a
conference setting.
To conclude, this special issue is a collection of papers which represent the
diverse ways in which adults approach play and playfulness. From toy collecting
to board gaming to group sex, the ways in which adults play take many forms.
Likewise, the spaces in which adult play takes place vary from living rooms, to
workplaces, to charity events, to sex dungeons. Because the focus of play is so often
placed on children, the form and function of Adult Play is too often overlooked or
not made a research priority. This special issue aims to change that by presenting
contemporary research on a variety of topics relating to adult play. Rather than make
any claims about how representative this proffered sliver of research is, the editors
invite readers to treat this collection as a launching point for future research. Finally,
we hope you enjoy reading the issue as much as we have enjoyed curating it.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Professor Krzywinska, Annapurna Gupta, and all the won-
derful editors and reviewers at Games and Culture for their support and assistance with this
special issue. We would also like to thank the University of Tampere, Professor Frans Mäyrä,
and the organizers of the adult play seminar, without whom this volume would not exist.

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