From Play Personalities to Play Styles

If you’ve followed my work for a while, you probably know that Stuart Brown’s original play personalities never quite clicked for me personally. I understood the descriptions, but I struggled to use them to explain my own experience of play. Which was a concern for me because Stuart Brown’s work was the basis of everything I was building… and seemed to be for everyone else too. If you google “play personality quiz”, TONSSSS of coaches and consultants and educators have created a version of the quiz on their own websites.

From the original list of personalities, my closest fit was “kinesthete”, someone who enjoys playing through movement. That made sense given how much I enjoy hiking, running, biking, lifting, and skiing. But it didn’t give me enough language for what drew me to those experiences, or for the play I find in exploring ideas.

That’s why I focused on René Proyer’s work, which I’ve shared with you as play identities. I identify strongly with Intellectual and a bit with Whimsical. Playing with ideas, considering different perspectives, and being drawn to the unusual felt much more recognizable to me.

Now, the National Institute for Play, founded by Stuart Brown and built on his decades of work, has updated the framework from eight play personalities to six broader Play Styles, with subtypes underneath them. Here’s the breakdown:

• Creator: Play through making and expressing, including art, storytelling, and humor.

• Explorer: Play through discovery, including new experiences, research, and tinkering.

• Competitor: Play through challenge, competition, and pursuing mastery.

• Organizer: Play through arranging, collecting, coordinating, and connecting people.

• Dreamer: Play through imagination and immersion in stories or other worlds.

• Mover: Play through movement and physical engagement with the world.

Some familiar personalities now sit within those broader styles. Joker and Storyteller are under Creator. Director and Collector are under Organizer. Kinesthete is still there, under Mover. The updated structure gives us more room to describe different expressions of each style.

For me, Mover and Explorer make sense together. Mover captures the physical side of my play, while Explorer captures the curiosity that runs through it. Exploration can happen on a trail, but it can also happen while following a question or considering an unfamiliar idea. Having language for both helps me understand more of how and why I like to play.

I still recognize myself in Proyer’s Intellectual and Whimsical dimensions of playfulness. Intellectual describes playing with ideas and approaching problems from different perspectives; Whimsical includes an appreciation for unusual things and experiences. Those descriptions remain useful to me alongside the updated Play Styles.

What I appreciate about the updated framework is the emphasis on styles as entry points into play. We can have a blend of preferences, and people with the same leading style can experience play differently. The descriptions give us somewhere to begin exploring our own patterns.

That’s useful when we think about play at work, too. Knowing the activity someone enjoys gives us one piece of information. Understanding what draws them into it gives us more possibilities for designing work that engages them.

You can explore the updated Play Styles and take NIFPlay’s free assessment here (or upgrade to the premium results!). I’d be interested to hear whether these descriptions help you make sense of your own play!

GRATITUDE SECTION: The opportunity to continue working in this space and watch the NIFPlay grow the scientific base that created the foundation for my work in the first place! The next decade is going to be SO EXCITING!

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