Fun pt 2, Can’t Spell Overanalyzing without- In my earlier article on fun, I admitted that I couldn’t figure out why some subset of games were fun. As I’ve had some time to reflect on it and consider the myriad of other games I’ve been addicted to in the intervening […]
Pokemon Go Ahead And Charge My Card Amid all the talk of Pokemon Go lately, it seems obvious that I should find some sort of topic so I can latch onto the coattails of the phenomenon. While I already discussed the notion of teams and tribes last time (which definitely is […]
Tribalism and Team Games Tribalism is an underlying concept that’s arguably intrinsic to the human condition. It’s evident in every culture, every society, every continent. The concept of delineating an “us” versus a “them” exists in every group of people across the globe. At first glance, this may seem to […]
Dalliances to Obsession, the continuum of pastimes Dalliances, hobbies, obsessions and passion. Which are you following now? We all have interest in our lives in varying degrees. There’s things we’re somewhat interested in, where we maintain a passing familiarity. There’s things we’re keen on, where we go out of our […]
Death This one is a bit macabre, so watch out. Death, as a concept, is one of those ideas that’s defined as being the absence of something. Struggling to comprehend it is a prevalent aspect of the human condition. Because of that, it’s an easy hook into the psyche of […]
Stories pt 2 Last time, I focused on the integral part of narratives in human culture and our proclivity to remember stories over rote memories or facts. This week, I’ll be moving into a discussion more about the individual implications of that. One of the biggest being justification vs motivation, […]
Stories One of the greatest mistakes you can make, when looking at people, is to assume that we are a rational, logical species. (I, myself have made this mistake on a few occasions). This assertion doesn’t hold up to the slightest bit of scrutiny (insert scathing political satire here). Anyone […]
Paradox of Change Humans are paradoxical. Many of our characteristics exist in direct opposition to others. We drift down a very narrow path between two extremes in many different contexts. Freedom vs Security. Comfort vs Excitement. Light and Dark. Good and Evil. Pepsi and Coke. One of the precarious balances […]
Novelty makes the world go ‘round Humanity is fundamentally a novelty seeking species. We’re always driven to experience new and different things. We lose respect for the old experiences and constantly seek the next dose of experience. Even as we seem to frown on those that would be deviations from […]
Fun is a tricky concept to nail down. It’s fleeting, inconsistent, subjective and thoroughly undefinable. It’s so abstract that it’s amazing we can even use it as a concept at all. Yet, we all know it quite well and can easily discern which activities are going to be fun and […]
