We bought this at the weekend. Dramatically on sale as the high street panics. I have to say, it's enormous fun, multiple generations had a laugh chucking a ball about, the prospect of which wouldn't normally have got any of us away from the DS. It caught my eye because of its RFIDness. Toy makers often get to new technologies early, and find interesting things to do with them.
(The battery compartment is nicely buried in lots of rubber, seems pretty robust)
It's a simple thing, there are plastic bands of different colours to wear on your hands, so the ball knows who is who, and then the ball shouts at you, telling you where to throw the ball next. The simplest game is throwing from one person to the next, if you take too long there's an explosion noise. Cleverly the ball also records a high score for you. And there's a version of pass the parcel that works the same way.
And I can already hear people tutting at the limits on children's creativity this might all imply. The the-children-prefer-the-box-to-the-toy-crowd tend to hate this kind of thing. It's not open enough, not free-form enough, too structured. "Put on the bands... keep up with my commands!" doesn't sound like the stuff you're encouraged to shout at your kids. (I tend to assume that kids like the box and the toy. They're not stupid, they play with both.)
But where this thing really scored is in an element I've not noticed in a lot of the talk about play - fairness. And kids are utterly, utterly obsessed with fairness. It's the most important element in any game. And human rule-enforcement is automatically deemed unfair. There is no referee, umpire or god-like grandparent that can escape being seen as unfair at some point, for some decision. But the commanding voice of Cosmic Catch escapes all that. The relentless, ineluctable judgement of the RFID machine brooks no argument, is prey to no human frailties and biases and is immediately seen as fair. Or actually Fair. Or even FAIR.
All of which makes for better playing. You lose yourself in the game, in the throwing, you're not looking for the moment of unfairness, for the opportunity to argue and sulk, you're just throwing and concentrating. It's rather hypnotic. Sure there's probably no teaching value, there are no opportunities to learn how to get on with other people and resolve your differences peacefully and all that stuff you're supposed to do with play. But sometimes you don't want to do that, sometimes you just want to play without having to worry about all that social stuff. And then you look up and you notice that you and your gang have thrown the ball to each other 135 times without dropping it and that feels like an achievement. A group achievement actually, if you want. And you knows its 135 because the ball tells you.
This seems like a good use of technology to me, to strip away some human responsibilities to let you focus on others. What this might have to do with Oyster cards and stuff I have no idea.
Anyway.