玩 is jade 王 in hand with 元 for sound: turning a fine piece of jade over in your fingers for pleasure. The first meaning of play in Chinese was a collector savoring a beautiful object.
玩 covers everything from toddlers' games to weekend trips: 出去玩 'go out and have fun', 玩游戏 play games, 好玩 fun. 玩笑 is a joke — 开玩笑 'to open a joke' means 'just kidding'. An invitation to 来我家玩 'come play at my house' is issued at every age.
Turning jade 王 in your hand for pleasure — to PLAY.
文玩 'scholar's playthings' — walnuts polished by decades of palm-rolling, beads, jade pieces — sell for fortunes: 玩 as a collector's verb never died, it just moved to livestream auctions.