My interest here is in uncovering the unique potential and the special value of games. There have been, in recent years, many arguments for the value and importance of games. In many cases, however, these arguments tend to avoid looking at …A more significant worry is that Suitsian play is necessarily immature and unworthy of serious attention. Suitsian games always involve practical struggles. We become absorbed in the instrumental activity of overcoming obstacles and achievi…
Ian Bogost
theorist · 2 mentions across 1 reading
In this course
Ian Bogost is a theorist of games and play who argues for games' capacity to engage us in meaningful practical and symbolic struggle rather than mere entertainment. The course readings draw on his concept of "Suitsian play"—derived from C. Thi Nguyen's work on games' arbitrary goal-structures—to examine how games function as systems for training attention and agency, a concern central to understanding how algorithmic and computational systems shape human behavior and meaning-making. His work matters here because it bridges ludology and systems thinking, offering a framework for analyzing how procedural rules (whether in games or algorithms) constitute forms of persuasion and world-building relevant to AI's role in mediating social and artistic experience.
Mentioned in 1 reading
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