Missions for thoughtful gamers

Who am I? How do I live a good life? What is reality? Such perennial questions may seem remote from the pleasures of playing videogames for entertainment and fantasy. Yet gamers too, in the midst of having fun, are potentially embarked upon a quest for understanding and for meaning. Missions for Thoughtful Gamers presents a sequence of 40 challenges, ranging from thought experiments to design exercises, each one inviting players to become more creatively curious and self-aware. Apparently some things in life are too serious to be treated as a game. At funeral services, parents forbid children their toys. In courtrooms, the judge will fine any jury-member found playing puzzles on a mobile phone. Legendary is the anger of lovers who discover they were seduced for a bet. Most of us shudder to imagine what kind of ‘games’ would thrill stalkers, pedophiles, and torturers. We don’t expect theater-nurses to score points against each other while assisting at open-heart surgery.