(skinner boxes.)

hello game designers. there are, i have heard many times, those who hold the opinion that games are hard to design because it is a "new field" or whatever. but i would like to suggest another possibility:

gameplay itself is one of Jaffe's "cursed problems," a thing that contains its own opposite, a snake swallowing its own poison, dead already.

"You have to give people the tools to resolve those inner forces. That's a living system."
~Taylor Troesh's "The Timeless Way of Software"

... in which Troesh provides a particular description of Christopher Alexander's idea of life and of living systems perfect for my purposes of killing gameplay:

[ A. To play a game is to dwell intentionally in conflicting forces, and to make a videogame is to capture or even create those forces, and withhold the best tools for resolving them.

  B. Gameplay is already by definition dead. ]

[AB]

DEC 2. Mexican hot chocolate

S: I suspect there's some spiced in here. . . . There's something spicy in here! I knew it! Why they do this to hot chocolate??? Don't like.

A: yummy! but not that complicated or deep. Nice chocolate, and spicy. Some spices.

"If you keep on having the same problems, go fix those problems" -53:30

46:50

"You have to give people the tools to resolve those inner forces. That's a living system."

therefore, kill gameplay. ~ Gameplay is already by definition dead.

"my heuristic is: only refactor the things that you can't." -43:00

hell yeah lol

"One nice thing about science is it works whether or not you believe it"
-25:05

What the fuck is this statement, even

edit: Ehh ok he clarifies it.

metroidvanias are not the material
the transcendental jump arc is not the material
100 platformer control schemes in an art gallery are not the material
walking simulators are not the material
roguelikes are not the material
berlin interpretation adhering roguelikes are not the material
silly little addictive card game roguelites are not the material
Spelunky is not the material
Cave Story is not the material
Zelda II is not the material

pencil on paper is not the material
sticky notes are not the material
the way the thread goes through slightly uneven canvas weave like pixel art but not like pixel art is not the material
kill gameplay is not the material
gameplay is not the material
kinopio is not the material
love letters are not the material

embroidery floss is not the material
old english shakespeare is not the material
videogame mechanics are not the material
play is not the material
no kind of paint is the material
the impeccable word is not the material
poetry is not the material
film is not the material
merino is not the material