27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
Break the Rules of a Game to Improve it
In The Well-Played Game, Bernard DeKoven advocates a fundamental adjustment in players' attitudes towards the rules of a game:
You're not changing the game for the sake of changing it. You're changing it for the sake of finding a game that works.
Once this freedom is established, once we have established why we want to change a game and how we go about it, a remarkable thing happens to us: We become the authorities.
No matter what game we create, no matter how well we are able to play it,...Folksonomies: gameplay
Folksonomies: gameplay
1 
notes
notesLike adding a push-your-luck component to Candyland or how SFR took Dragon Dice and refactored the rules to make it work.
10 JUN 2014 by ideonexus
C.S. Lewis on Maturity
Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about bei... 1 notes
notesIndicated by a lack of concern with being an 'adult'.
16 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
The Web is the Death of the Anecdote
Surveillance serves not just as a legal and historical
record but as a record of rep: proof that you’ve done
what you say you’ve done. You bark, and anyone on
the mesh can search to see if you also bite. It’s the
foundation of the reputation economy.
It’s not just video, of course, but surveillance of all
types. Ubiquitous, ever-present surveillance has become
the new public record in countless habitats. You’ve
seen the phrase, “Links or didn’t happen,” right?
Without footage... 1 notes
notes"Links or it didn't happen," if something is not on video, the oral history is worthless.
26 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Games that Turn Humans into Rats in a Skinner Box
The box also taught us two fundamental lessons, one of which had ramifications that extended far beyond Skinner's experiments. Humans are hardwired to respond to primary reinforcers, just like any other animals. And while primary reinforcers have a diminishing effect once we're satiated, secondary reinforcers, like money or social status, exist outside our biological needs, and these never hit a satiation point. In other words, we are hardwired to seek approval from our peers, and we can neve... 1 notes
notesGames like Farmville and Angry Birds tap into the reward mechanisms in our brains, administering doses of dopamine to us for repetitive tasks.
16 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Theory Versus Discovery
Discovery always carries an honorific connotation. It is the stamp of approval on a finding of lasting value. Many laws and theories have come and gone in the history of science, but they are not spoken of as discoveries. Kepler is said to have discovered the laws of planetary motion named after him, but no the many other 'laws' which he formulated. ... Theories are especially precarious, as this century profoundly testifies. World views can and do often change. Despite these difficulties, it... 1 notes
notesTheories come and go in the sciences, but discovery that stays around has a romantic permanence in science history.
12 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Theories are Always Overturned
The young specialist in English Lit, having quoted me, went on to lecture me severely on the fact that in every century people have thought they understood the Universe at last, and in every century they were proved to be wrong. It follows that the one thing we can say about our modern 'knowledge' is that it is wrong.
The young man then quoted with approval what Socrates had said on learning that the Delphic oracle had proclaimed him the wisest man in Greece. 'If I am the wisest man,' said S... 1 notes
notesYes, our modern view of reality is probably mostly wrong, but it is significantly less wrong than the views people held in the past.
29 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Human Drives That Open Us to Memes
Here are a few second-order instinctual drives some people seem to have that are all opportunities for memes to take advantage of:
- Belonging. Humans are gregarious-that is, they like company. There are any number of evolutionary reasons for the existence of this drive, including safety in numbers, economies of scale, and simply the presence of more potential mates. Memes that give people a feeling of belonging to a group have an advantage over memes that don't.
- Distinguishing yourself. ...Folksonomies: memetics
Folksonomies: memetics
1 notes
notesThere are instinctual needs humans have that memes exploit to take root in our minds.
