To play a game is to attempt to achieve a specific state of affairs [prelusory goal], using only means permitted by rules [lusory means], where the rules prohibit use of more efficient in favour of less efficient means [constitutive rules], and where the rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity [lusory attitude].
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusory_attitude - Bernard Suits, the Canadian philosopher, from his 1978 book The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia
Best book ever. Not just because of its insights but the way it's written is as a story, not a dry academic work. It also has an extremely good audiobook version on YT: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbhJHpcNmrFS2uidl3X_cX_ir3ccApNxp
When you're done with that check out C Thi Nguyen's: Games Agency as an art book. Or if you want more entertainment, just check out any of his YT talks or interviews.
Reading this has my brain tied up in knots. I have always considered myself an excessively practical and functional person. I have considered my functionality an integral park of my personality and priorities- bordering on a prideful obsession.
I am finally starting to an acknowledge a contradiction I experience. At the same time as I strive and even idolize functional living, I very much enjoy gaming and jigsaw puzzles. A family member once asked why I (of all people) enjoy purchasing a picture that has been cut into tiny pieces only to reassemble those pieces. I had successfully excused my love of jigsaw puzzles as a tool to keep my hands busy while listening to lectures, music, etc.
However, thinking about how games in general are also activities that “prohibit use of more efficient in favour of less efficient means” to reach a goal is making me realize I am all to willing to lay aside function and practicality for entertainment.
Frankly, I am not sure I like that about myself.
Thank you for posting. You got my self-reflection muscle working this morning.
Right, what's the point if we can't have fun?
Interesting ✌️...I'd say he was ahead of his time.