C. THI NGUYEN: Since I finished the “Games” book, I’ve been trying to figure out exactly this question, why we’re seeing this increase of points everywhere, not just inside formal games? And the answer seems to be that quantified measures are extremely good tools for large-scale bureaucracies to organize themselves.

C. THI NGUYEN: The structure of games is not that the points are valuable, but that the attempt to get those points, the attempts to win the game and the game’s terms sculpt some kind of interesting or beautiful activity. 

C. THI NGUYEN: So the essential insight that I got from Suits is that in so many games, the target isn’t the point. The point is this rich experience along the way. And I think a lot of the mistakes we make with games is we get into these things and we forget about these larger purposes. The fact that they can be fun. The fact that they can be... See more

C. THI NGUYEN: Twitter is doing two things simultaneously. One thing it’s doing is it’s flattening all the kind of rich reactions you have into likes. So already you have not only a binary filter— like or dislike— that pushes you in the direction of aggregated numbers instead of a few deep connections, but you also get this timing filter where... See more

EZRA KLEIN: You’ve said that the world is, and I’m quoting you here, “The world is an existential hellscape with too many values and games offer a temporary relief from that.”

C. THI NGUYEN: Value capture cases are cases in which you have rich, subtle, maybe inchoate values or you’re in the process of making them. And then you enter something in the world and the world offers you a simple, pre-established, already standardized, incorporated into a technology simple version of that value system.

EZRA KLEIN: One thing I like about analytics is that outside of the context of simply argue about the flaws of analytics, not having them allows you to bullshit yourself a lot. Allows you to bullshit yourself about whether or not people are reading you, what you’re really doing here, are you serving an audience. But then having them allows you to... See more

C. THI NGUYEN: Reiner Knizia, one of my favorite game designers— I was trying to figure out what games do and how they work and what makes them special— and I found this interview where he just casually says, “The most important thing in my game designer toolbox is the point system because the point system tells the players what to care about.”

C. THI NGUYEN: But I think the most important thing about games is the way they manipulate our agency. The way we enter into this alternate self. And that’s I think where you can see the greatest power of games and their greatest danger. The greatest power of games is that you can explore this landscape of different agencies. The greatest danger of... See more