Why is this blog a mish-mash of sports and politics, economics and game design?
The simple answer is that the game that pays my bills is both a sports simulation and an economic simulation.
The more complicated answer is public policy is game design. And yet legislators seem to be among the worst possible game designers.
A well-designed sports game is one that is easy to play for any sports fan. If you know the sport, you should be able to use the simulation as an interface between you and enjoyment of that sport. You shouldn't get frustrated just trying to understand how the game works.
Similarly, well-designed public policy should create a smooth interface between citizens and the basic laws of economics that allow them. A tax system that flushes more than 20% of the economy down the drain is bad game design, regardless of whether it is inherently "fair" or "unfair".
Although I have been writing games since I was five years old, I majored in public policy because I wanted to apply good game design to something more important than computer games. After 20 years, I'm still writing computer games for a living, but that hasn't stopped me from trying to fix bad game design when I see it.
Pancuco here!I used to play BM '07 religiously and even contributed to the MOD section(sound and skins-tonyplayball).Haven't played any of the newer installments but plan to.Looking forward to reading more of the blog ;)
ReplyDeleteI am an economist and I appreciate your analogy with game design and policy, although for me it's always been more along the lines of game design and economic modeling. The same principles apply: how much can I abstract and still end up with the essence of the phenomenon I am trying to represent?
ReplyDeleteI would also toss in with your economic and political perspective. The first presidential candidate for whom I voted was Reagan. But once I learned how the economy really worked, I never voted for another Republican! I have a blog at Forbes.com where some of my posts parallel yours:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntharvey/
Can't wait for March 22 and the new Baseball Mogul!
Good for you, John Harvey.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you divinewhere the thimble-riggers and corporate-welfare kings gorge themselves at the nation's waterholes....
Carry on!