The real reasons people love playing games
Vox
February 15, 2026
AI-Generated Deep Dive Summary
Games are far more than mere distractions—they offer profound insights into human agency and decision-making, according to philosopher C. Thi Nguyen. In his book *The Score*, Nguyen argues that games reveal how people choose goals, embrace constraints, and invest meaning in seemingly trivial activities. This perspective challenges the common view of games as unproductive and highlights their role in shaping human behavior. By analyzing games, we can better understand how modern life has become structured like a game, with metrics, rankings, and performance indicators dictating value.
Nguyen draws on philosopher Bernard Suits’ definition of games as activities where participants voluntarily impose unnecessary obstacles to create the experience of overcoming them. This means that the joy in gaming comes not just from winning but from the process of struggling against constraints. For example, running a marathon isn’t about arriving at the finish line—it’s about doing so through a specific, arduous path. Similarly, rock climbing offers personal fulfillment not just from reaching the summit but from mastering the delicate movements and overcoming physical challenges along the way.
The deeper significance lies in how these principles apply to broader societal structures. Metrics and rankings, while promising efficiency and fairness, often simplify complex human experiences, reducing them to superficial measures. This "value capture" can distort priorities, replacing nuanced judgment with simplistic scores. In politics, this manifests in systems that prioritize short-term gains over meaningful progress, alienating individuals from the true purpose of their actions. Understanding games as a reflection of human agency helps us critique how modern life has been gamified, often at the expense of richer, more meaningful engagement.
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Originally published on Vox on 2/15/2026