I don’t understand that screenshot at all (maybe the resolution is too low?), but from your description it sounds in a similar vein to Zendo and Eleusis and Penultima, which you could get ideas from. Yours seems different though, and I’d be curious to know more details. I tried implementing some single-player variants of Zendo five years ago, though they’re pretty terrible (boring, no graphics, probably not useful for training rationality).
I do think there’s some potential for rationality improvements from games, though insofar as they’re optimized for training rationality, they won’t be as fun as games optimized purely for being fun. I also think it’ll be very difficult to achieve transfer to life-in-general, for the same reason that learning to ride a bike doesn’t train you to move your feet in circles every time you sit in a chair. (“I pedal when I’m on a bike, to move forward; why would I pedal when I’m not on a bike, and my goal isn’t to move forward? I reason this way when I’m playing this game, to get the right answer; why would I reason this way when I’m not playing the game, and my goal is to seem reasonable or to impress people or to justify what I’ve already decided?”)
I’ve heard of Zendo and I’ve been looking for someone to play Eleusis with for a while heh (maybe I’ll be able to get the local EA group to do it one of these days).
though insofar as they’re optimized for training rationality, they won’t be as fun as games optimized purely for being fun
Fun isn’t a generic substance. Fun is subjective. A person’s sense of fun is informed by something. If you’ve internalised the rationalist ethos, if your gut trusts your mind, if you know deeply that rationality is useful and that training it is important, a game that trains rationality is going to be a lot of fun for you.
This is something I see often during playtesting. The people who’re quickest to give up on the game tend to be the people who don’t think experimentation and hypothesising has any place in their life.
I am worried about transfer failure. I guess I need to include discussion of the themes of the game and how they apply to real world situations. Stories about wrong theories, right theories, the power of theorising, the importance of looking closely at cases that break our theories.
I need to… make sure that people can find the symmetry between the game and parts of their lives.
I don’t understand that screenshot at all (maybe the resolution is too low?), but from your description it sounds in a similar vein to Zendo and Eleusis and Penultima, which you could get ideas from. Yours seems different though, and I’d be curious to know more details. I tried implementing some single-player variants of Zendo five years ago, though they’re pretty terrible (boring, no graphics, probably not useful for training rationality).
I do think there’s some potential for rationality improvements from games, though insofar as they’re optimized for training rationality, they won’t be as fun as games optimized purely for being fun. I also think it’ll be very difficult to achieve transfer to life-in-general, for the same reason that learning to ride a bike doesn’t train you to move your feet in circles every time you sit in a chair. (“I pedal when I’m on a bike, to move forward; why would I pedal when I’m not on a bike, and my goal isn’t to move forward? I reason this way when I’m playing this game, to get the right answer; why would I reason this way when I’m not playing the game, and my goal is to seem reasonable or to impress people or to justify what I’ve already decided?”)
I’ve heard of Zendo and I’ve been looking for someone to play Eleusis with for a while heh (maybe I’ll be able to get the local EA group to do it one of these days).
Fun isn’t a generic substance. Fun is subjective. A person’s sense of fun is informed by something. If you’ve internalised the rationalist ethos, if your gut trusts your mind, if you know deeply that rationality is useful and that training it is important, a game that trains rationality is going to be a lot of fun for you.
This is something I see often during playtesting. The people who’re quickest to give up on the game tend to be the people who don’t think experimentation and hypothesising has any place in their life.
I am worried about transfer failure. I guess I need to include discussion of the themes of the game and how they apply to real world situations. Stories about wrong theories, right theories, the power of theorising, the importance of looking closely at cases that break our theories.
I need to… make sure that people can find the symmetry between the game and parts of their lives.