Guidelines for First and Third-Person Mimetic Fantasy Toy Design for Ages 7-12

Abstract

Over the past four decades, toys have slowly moved away from independent story-driven play to media-driven play. Skinning toys to match the most current media or movie has become more significant than story-driven toys designed to encourage imaginative/ fantasy play, both independently and in social groups. Two perspectives are explored, first-person and third-person play. Through exploring first and third-person play, a series of criterion are developed and tested in order to better design toys that promote storytelling and imaginative play. This is done while still maintaining that notion that toys will need to be skinned with current media types in order to remain relevant in the current marketplace.