Players are planners

[troshinsky]

Interesting article about how the ability to make plans is a more important component of games than win/lose conditions:

http://robotgeek.co.uk/2011/09/players-are-planners/

[György Dudas]

somehow this article makes me angry or annoyed. I think, what annoys me most is that there are no rules in making art (that's my opinion). And that article is heavy on making assumptions and rules, about what is important and what not.

like this statement

So is the sensation of a plan falling apart, or a plan resulting in a very different state than you expected, or a plan hastily thrown together working against all odds. None of these experiences has any equivalent in other media.

That happens all the time in any Victor Hugo novel. Also I would recommend to watch some good movies like Smoking/No Smoking or Last Year at Marienbad...

or this

At the end of the day, though, generating and executing plans is the most visceral experience of playing a game

At the end of the day an apple might fall down from a tree. That's important in my opinion

[Michaël Samyn]

I couldn't finish this article. I really don't see the point in trying to come up with a precise definition for words like "game." Words like that are far more inspiring when they are vague and multi-faceted.

[Michaël Samyn]

I think, what annoys me most is that there are no rules in making art (that's my opinion). And that article is heavy on making assumptions and rules, about what is important and what not.

It's what geeks/nerds do: they are not artists but they believe that art is just like any other skill that they have acquired: they believe that they can engineer art into being. They don't believe art is a matter of talent and vocation, but simply a matter of willpower and skill.

It's funny, really. 

[Michaël Samyn]

Or maybe it's an age thing. I have no idea how old the writer of this piece is. But I remember that I created big systems in my head about how the world works when I was an adolescent. And then I forced all phenomena to fit in this system. I think this is a natural tendency. And it can be inspiring. I just wish there was a way to express the speculative nature of such thinking a bit more clearly.