DataPlay is a research project inspired by the concept of a "ludic age" (Chaplin & Zimmerman, 2008), where the challenges of extracting knowledge from the "data deluge" of the information age (Economist, 2010) are met with game-based approaches to information design. This paper examines Mannahatta: The Game in order to illustrate the issues involved in translating large datasets into games and game mechanics. The prescriptive work of Tufte (1983, 1990) regarding information visualization provides a conceptual framework and is applied to this paper. Tufte's (1983, 1990) approach is convergent and divergent from the strategies uncovered in the research into games as ways to not just visualize, but directly experience data.