'Games: Agency as Art' - A Behavioral Scientist's Book Review
Jul 22, 2024
On any given day, I might procrastinate eating for a few hours because the effort of toasting a frozen Eggo waffle seems like a bit too much. Yet when it comes to games, I choose to make my life more difficult. I relish the arbitrary rule of dribbling a basketball even though the game would be easier without that constraint. I prefer opponents who will challenge me in Bridge, and dislike the “Easy” setting on most video games. I also resist the urge to cheat even if it would mean victory. And when I lose, so long as the challenge was fun and intriguing, I will likely want to play again.
Games are a complete inversion of typical motivation and seem exempt from the most powerful rule in Behavioral Science; Richard Thaler’s advice that “If you want to get somebody to do something, make it easy.”
In games, the consequences of the struggle are not the point; rather the struggle is the point. Or so argues Thi Nguyen in his book Games: Agency as Art. A book which gave me much to reflect on as a professional behavioral scientist. It is simultaneously a love letter to the potential of games to change behavior, and also a screed against gamification.
In games, he argues, the struggle is designed in such a way that it can be interesting, fun, or even beautiful. When you play a game, you play for the experience the struggle brings you. The struggle is not a means to an end, but is itself the end. We want the struggle.