Playing Hohokum and watching others play really helps you understand his point about play being more important than the game itself. The game itself is not a magical, fun generator; instead it’s a tool and a toy that, like Katamari Damacy, encourages the players to simply try things, to experiment.
Katamari Damacy and the return of “play” in videogames — Kill Screen
It’s not the clearest of articles, but somewhere in there are some good points on play being expressive, not consumptive.