Role play based children learning games are essential in a child's development as it helps in building confidence, communication skills and develops problem-solving capabilities. It has come a long way since it started in the 1970s only owing to its immense contribution in building skills amongst young learners and aiding in their growth. The history of role-playing games is rather interesting as the intent with which it began did not involve toddlers or their developmental growth.
Origin
Storytelling has been a part of all traditions across the globe. Folklores and stories were passed from one generation to the other, and the same were depicted in the role play method like through ramlila which is still quite popular. Similarly, war games and practical preparation for the war included the main soldiers to enact their positions during the preparatory phase. The formation of the chakravyuh and other strategic formations, all involved pretend play and practice. Therein lays the early seeds of role-playing games.
Dungeons & Dragons
This was the first fantasy tabletop role-playing game published in 1974 by designers Gary Gygax and Dave Ameson. This included players to choose the characteristics of the roles that they decided to play in the game. The game including fantasy settings wherein specific adventures were set and the players needed to navigate through the obstacles to complete the game. The role-playing aspect of this game involved engaging in battles, solving mysteries and gathering knowledge and treasure over the course of the game.
The game garnered huge popularity and has been re-launched in five editions subsequently, with the last version being launched in the year 2015.
Different Role Playing Games
The 1980s was the era which saw the popularity of role-play based fun activities for kids games growing from strength to strength. The principle of role-playing became popular as a method of early learning, and educational institutions adopted the "Play-Way" method for learning of early concepts by students.
After that, role plays translated to various mediums like home computing games, video games and simulations games. The 90s was the decade where role plays manifested itself in multiple forms and fields and started getting used for interview selection processes as well. Many management institutes inculcated role plays and situational problems in their student selection process to check the confidence, problem-solving ability and swift thinking ability of the candidates.
Benefits define popularity!
The growth in popularity of the concept of role-playing rides on the benefits that it offers. Apart from building the imagination and communication abilities of an individual, it also helps in creating the concept of collaborative play. Done at an individual level, role-playing activities would be impersonating a character like a firefighter, teacher, lawyer, doctor and so on. At a team level, these activities would include role play at a supermarket, at a public domain like an airport, bank etc., theatrical role play, sports role plays and so on. These activities encourage learning in a fun manner and also work towards higher retention of concepts and memory building.