“Nguyen shows how scoring systems tantalize us by making certain measures of success seem undeniable”
“Nguyen savors how games provide a container, or a “temporary shape,” for “some delicious form of action.””
“rules act like a trellis, restricting what methods we can use to achieve our goal while also opening up new possibilities: “They create the background conditions that make it likely that your own actions will be elegant, fascinating and thrilling.””
“Visual art allows us to try on different ways of seeing; games allow us to try on different ways of doing”
“This may be the only book in existence that discusses the game of Twister, the ethics of Aristotle and the mechanics of bureaucracies”
““All of my hobbies involve basically micro-dosing epiphanies,” Nguyen said at one point. “Every time you’re yo-yoing, you’re like, If I change my angle this much, or if I pull a little bit here, or if I drop it, oh, then it works!””
“The fact that the stakes are so low is not a deficit of the yo-yo (or the kendama, or D&D, or fly-fishing); low stakes are part of the point, allowing us to move from one game to another”