There can be no question that it is optional rather than biologically or economically necessary. But there is some question about whether it is morally obligatory. To answer that question, we must move on to the result at which play or amusement aims. The purpose of play being pleasure and pleasure being one of the real goods that enrich a human life and contribute to happiness, it would appear to follow that we are under some obligation to play and amuse ourselves in our pursuit of happiness or in our effort to make a good human life for ourselves. That statement must be immediately qualified by a consideration of the limited value of pleasure as one of life's real goods.
Some real goods are goods without limit.
We cannot, for example, have too much knowledge or too much skill. Other real goods, such as liberty, wealth, and pleasure are limited goods, of which we can have too much, more than is good for us to have or good for our fellow human beings in the community in which we live. Overindulgence in play or amusement is, therefore, not morally permissible, even if some enjoyment of the pleasure derived from play is morally obligatory for the sake of leading a good human life. Two further questions remain, one about the pleasure that results from play and the other about the character of that activity. Of the four main categories under which our activities can be classified, only play produces a result that is entirely intrinsic to the activity itself.