stepnix | PDF Hobby - Games as Art of Agency

"Games and the art of agency" by C. Thi Nguyen

I think this might be cheating, because this paper expands into a full book that I've already read and enjoyed. But! I'm happy there's a shorter, portable version of that book's arguments that I can toss at people easily.

"In game playing, we take on alternate agencies. The game designer can shape a specific form of agency and then pass it to the player. The clarity of the rules and the crispness of the goals makes it easier for us to find our way into a novel form of agency. Thus, games allow for the curious possibility of communicating agencies. Games join, then, the various methods and technologies we have invented for recording aspects of our experience. We record sights in paintings, photographs, and movies. We record stories in novels, movies, and songs. And we record agencies in games. By letting us inscribe modes of agency in stable artifacts, games can help constitute a library of agencies."