As workplaces seek to improve work outcomes like creativity through play-like mechanisms, interactions between play and work become important to study. To study how work-play dynamics may work - an underexplored topic in extant research - we conduct a qualitative study of a space agency that entered a play-like virtual world. The agency engaged volunteers in a community of play, to explore the concept of participatory space exploration. We find that as the setting evolved, various forms of play emerged, including, creative forms of play initially synergistically-linked with the agency's work. The synergistic work-play actions was eventually subsumed to more mission-oriented objectives; the more creative aspects of volunteers’ creative play shifted to volunteer-led locations; and the forms of work-play that remained in the central location were heavily dictated. We explore certain related concepts’ influence on the work-play complex, including how different types of governance can shape these interactions between play and work.