Why games

Insight distilled from Analysis: Minecraft.

  • Gamify learning — efficiency; games require pleasant UX.
  • Video game as platform — choosing the playstyle (personalization).
  • Meaning emerges from context → Plato’s metaphysics:
    1. everything already exists;
    2. everything that already exists exists in the metaphysical world;
    3. the formula exists before materialization — people discovered it; therefore the most perfect text/software already exists, it just needs to be discovered.
  • Linguistics (meaning, semiotics) from the bottom up: social contract — usage dictates the rule.
  • Design: base functionality + a mechanic that encourages curiosity + personalization via more functionality (like redstone in Minecraft).

References: Habitica · Plato’s Metaphysics (theory of ideas)