Games: Agency as Art
I can’t help but notice that most play activities seem to be attempts to answer questions like: • “What happens when I turn this knob?” • “Can we beat this team?” • “What can I make with this clay?” • “How many times can I jump this rope?” • “What happens when I finish this level?”
Schell • The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses
In Nguyen’s book, “Games: Agency as Art,” a core insight is that we’re not simply playing these games — they are playing us, too. Our desires, motivations and behaviors are constantly being shaped and reshaped by incentives and systems that we aren’t even aware of. Whether on the internet or in the vast bureaucracies that structure our lives, we fi... See more
New York Times • Are We Measuring Our Lives in All the Wrong Ways?
When games work, they can sometimes present us with the world as we wish it could be.