SMU Libraries Curate: From Squid Game to nostalgic childhood pastimes

Dear SMU Community,

Squid Game was a Netflix hit in 2021, where dark twists turned innocent childhood memories into survival matches. Those children’s playground games from the TV series remind us of our childhood.

Does any of these games, Red Light, Green Light, Tug of War, Marbles, etc., look familiar to the one you played in the neighbourhood alleys as a kid? Have we forgotten our childhood pastimes? Where are those playful culture and spirits?

For the month of March, SMU Libraries invite you to relive the memories of our childhood. Watch videos on the games we played, read books about the theories behind the games and be inspired to create our own games by this SMU Libraries Curate.

Books

*Click here for help to access eBooks from O’Reilly Safari for Higher Education.

Articles

• A cross-cultural comparison of objectivity in childhood games: Iran and the United States

• Buck buck: A childhood game recovered

• Congkak, a game that connects us with the world

• Connecting game design with problem posing skills in early childhood: Connecting game design with problem posing skills

• Gamifying place, reimagining publicness: The heterotopic inscriptions of Pokémon Go
  *WOODS, Orlando

• Mind the gap! Differences between parents’ childhood games and their children’s game preferences

• The best old school games we used to play in Singapore

• Traditional Kampong games

• Wordle is our new drug

• Why our brain craves pattern-seeking rituals like Wordle

• 25 games we played as kids – Games from your childhood!

*SMU Authors

Videos

• Arrow game

• Drops of joy

• Embargo

• Games with rules

• Games with rules: Why children play follow-me

• Games with strange loops

• Games you can’t lose and sneaky puzzles

• Let the games begin!

• Mah-Jongg: The tiles that bind

• Mind-bending math: Riddles and paradoxes

• One potato, two potato

• Pretend play: 20 Months to 7 Years

• The mathematics of games and puzzles

• Tug-of-War

• Woodbine place

This selection of resources is curated by your friendly Computing and Information Systems Research Librarian: Xia Wei.