Quite entertaining rant ;-) If you havent done so you may be interested to check the book "understanding knowledge as commons" by Ostrom and Hess. As a matter of fact the emerging theory of common-pool resources may actually suit your taste ;-)

Chris: I was thinking along the lines of your efforts in player modeling and aesthetics, now transferred to the mobile experience, the different game controls etc. As a tangent , there seems to be an app called IHobo http://www.spring-giving.org.uk/2011/10/was-ihobo-app-a-success/

Chris: I wonder f you have publicly commented on the new "hot topic" of *mobile gamin*? As always, I am keen to learn about your views. Best!

To add to your comments on uncertainty in "games of fiction": To me stories in western culture revolve very much around application of the "what if"-rule: what if the world and the people or other beings were different? What if the dead were not completely dead? What if your neighbor were an alien? What if the daughter of a 19th century landlord actually dared to choose the man she loves? What if the mad prince was not mad but fooling everyone , plotting a scheme outside civilized bounds? If the resulting what if scenario is well crafted it fulfills many of the aesthetic criteria you guys mentioned, first of all because it is meaningful and relevant in exactly an aesthetic rather than a pragmatic way. Btw, I wonder if one should use the term "contingency" where you currently use "uncertainty"?

Chris: in my view , a reference to the work of Friedrich Schiller would very much round off this section: "play" seen as state of being , as a separate ( and in Schiller's view maybe even ultimate) form of human existence!

Brian : I like your term "grindification" ! But I like to argue that examples of multiplayer games for *scientific* puzzle solving ( eg. Seti@home, foldit or eterna) are about more than grinding. Players seem to derive genuine satisfaction from taking part in an RnD project that is seemingly very remote from their own lifes.

Brian: thanks for sharing your views. And what a lucky coincidence that you can share first-hand experience in this field. (Btw, may I ask if you play an instrument yourself?) My inspiration for this question comes from listening to a radio interview with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. There she spoke about the deep experience she has while playing, esp. with regard to experiencing herself, the violin and the space around her. Probably also related to experiencing Flow during performances. What is your view here: is Flow experience related to virtousity in music-making? With regard to singing, and starting from the idea of "bodily experience", I am not sure that there should be no difference between making music within your own body or with an artefact outside your body. I wonder if the feedback loop mechanism you also seem to referring to does in fact depend on what sensory systems are involved in the process.

@all: oh, and as a follow-up: how does "singing" compare to "playing a musical instrument"?

@all: thank you for this inspiring disussion -- maybe you care to answer an additional question from my side: How do you qualify or describe (a) "actively playing a musical instrument" and (b) "listening to someone else play an instrument" from a theoretical point of view?

Chris: presenting this series at a time when "gamification" slowly but steadily drifts into the focus of the larger design/communication debate is insanely good timing ;-) Today, a foundational theory of "games in the digital age" is more needed than ever! Especially, I am looking forward to your comments on Thomas Malaby's work.

@Chris: Thank you! So let's hope for the Nouvelle Vague in Simulation Games and New Hollywood for FPS ;-)

@HH: The point you are making sounds very true from the perspective of corporate business strategy - a discipline that has been considered premier league for several decades ... until it was replaced by innovation strategy just recently. The approach you seem to favor ( a long with , just as one example, a company like Sony , posting one record loss after another ;-) focuses on exploiting a few big businesses that "consumers want". Innovation strategy aims to learn from the rise of Apple, Google and the like through understanding that disruptive products can turn a business segment on its head making complete industries obsolete in just a decade. Why? Because consumers can "want something else". I will add this famous quite from a car inventor: " If I had asked what people want I would have created faster horses." ( bordering on the cliche but I like it anyway) So to become the Google or Facebook of Videogaming aim for disruption not exploitation!

@The original point of the posting: "singing", "flying" , "journey", " companionship" , "selflessness" -- what a great poetic vocabulary for any piece of art... ! How can we neglect all this ? Will we not regret very soon...?

Chris: reconsidering your evolving aestheti theory of games I wonder if you have considered the theories of "sensemaking" as source for further inspiration. The Wikipedia bit on organizational applications (pioneered by Karl Weick) is actually quite insightful - that's the part I feel able to comment on. But ther seem to be applications in human machine interaction which seems directly to your purpose. Plus there is a well written part on network centric warfare doctrine that reminds me eerily of a design concept for a Battlefield simulator as if inspired by your theories ;-)) ... hope your book presentation went well. Best!

Chris: thank you for sharing these somewhat bold assertions here in public - makes me wonder how your immediate peers / business partners react to these claims? Anyway, as we seem to live now officially in uncertain times (one German philosopher once made infamous use of the word "Ausnahmezustand" to describe similar developments) I'd just like to add that in my shelf of philosophy texts there still is some room left between Arendt and Burke - two commentators of human calamities in there time. So all the best to you!

Chris: an excellently concise analysis! But have you also noticed the opposite development? the sometimes awkward sometimes even desperate attempts of large corporations to get to know "the right (young) people for our new (tech) venture"? The issue here seems to be that it has become very difficult for them to figure out the "right credentials" of someone "worth talking to". While we see the results of past emphasis on automatic sorting and filtering (with all forms of business data mining still a hot topic) I offer you the prediction that we will see more efforts at human-led scouting and networking in the future. Best!

Chris: the "infinite shelf" is really a classic - I will place it right next to "the long tail" for future reference ;-)) Just for the record, and just as I stated last time when we discussed games as art here, I remain profoundly puzzled about this strangely anachronistic rift: there should have been a permanent art gaming zone at the Tate Modern years ago... and today even more so, if only to give the conservatives something to bitch about. Why don't you just offer a museum to curate such a show? And slightly off topic: do you look into the effect the depiction of videogaming on the TV show "Big Bang Theory" has on the discourse in the market / press? Best!

My congratulations, Chris!

I was at a presentation of the XNA-plus-Kinect-package for PC by a MS sales person and it seemed to go really well for MS. The (barcamp) crowd got all enthusiastic about it - including myself :) Could there be a potential for some drastic shift in the hobbyist DIY market? best!

@Notsylvia: I agree, yet at the same time I have to wonder: how can such a process of "being influenced by many" be ever possible? If we accept that " all language is metaphorical " how can then anybody be influenced by another person's words? Otter than maybe in the form of a game of make-believe? Or take the example of the concept of "dead metaphor" - this seems to be yet another (meta) metaphor Chris pulled out of his hat to convey something he had in mind - something I am not sure what to make of ... :-)) anyway, your Momo example certainly demonstrates the effort sometimes needed ( by way of writing a complete novel) to convey your understanding of a non-trivial concept to other people. Best!

Great piece, Chris, almost aphoristic given the huge ground you cover here ;-) Anyway, what I really, really would like to get an answer to (not necessarily from you Chris, but you could throw in your penny, if you like to ;-) is if anybody anywhere in the world has ever picked up this type of insight from reading a piece such as yours (or from reading a hundred scholarly books, if you will) or rather out of thin air, by listening to the zeitgeist or whatever...? (Needless to say, I opt for the latter ;-)

@Chris: the issue of "perspective" needs a lot more attention, in my opinion (btw, inspiring exchange there, thanks!) Just from intuition, I propose that I feel being watched while standing in front of the screen of my Wii - weird as I come to think of it.

@Chris: Obviously, the "behavioural" dimension is the first to take issue with ... anyway, one ad- hoc augmentation could be to split each dimension into subdimensions: " x as perceived by myself" and " x as commented upon by the people I live with..." Best!

@Mory: I assume the purpose of this game is to invite players to reflect on their self-perception with regard to the word "gender". While the the three dimensions offered do make some sense the use of only three crisp (and stereotypically extreme) values on these dimensions seems hardly convincing ;-)) What this proposal does demonstrate to me is that the attributes we use (such as "male") with regard to gender are indeed complex and multi-facetted and therefore not easily reduced. Best!

@chris: indeed several center-left parties on the continent have toyed with the idea of a "culture" flat rate on "cultural/entertainment" content to be paid as a mandatory addition on top of your broadband fee regardless of your actual usage. In Germany at least, public broadcasting is paid for by a similar compulsory fee raised from anyone qwning a radio / tv set - essentially a broadcasting service tax.