Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
🎲 Philosophy of Games
- C. Thi Nguyen argues that games uniquely manipulate human agency, allowing players to engage in actions with defined goals and constraints.
📉 Point Systems in Life
- Nguyen highlights how point systems in games (like grades or social media metrics) can distort our values, leading us to prioritize scoring over genuine
... See morePlayful software often conjures up video games, but I don't mean that. Where I see the lack of play is in consumer software: design tools, social networks, dating apps, messengers. Borrowing from Brian Upton's The Aesthetics of Play , I'm talking about play that isn't segregated from ordinary life, “[play that's] embedded within ordinary life;... See more
XH • Internet Playgrounds
Above all, people need agency. They need to feel in control. Sometimes, that means designing for subversive behavior. I mean, isn't the most fun often had when you're breaking rules? But this is enormously difficult in software, where you must design almost everythingfrom scratch. Unlike life, you don't get a common repertoire of actions for free –... See more
XH • Internet Playgrounds
"Doesn't it strike you as interesting that we are in the second decade of the 21st century and a lot of the most interesting music is still being made by people playing very primitive instruments like electric guitars and drums.
I mean, what is a drum kit? It could be a bunch of old chairs or cans or anything. It's really quite an arbitrary bunch of... See more
I mean, what is a drum kit? It could be a bunch of old chairs or cans or anything. It's really quite an arbitrary bunch of... See more
Creation becomes consumption
open.substack.com