Book Club: The Beauty of Games by Frank Lantz

In the first “book club” episode, Andy, Anthony, and Parker talk about The Beauty of Games by Frank Lantz. The book sets out to defend the thesis that games are artistic works (or, more descriptively, “aesthetic works”) worth the same level of appreciation as other art forms and teach sophisticated, systems-thinking. After reading the book, our hosts talk about what they took away from the book and some aspects they were a little more critical of. Thank you to the listeners who joined the book club and send in their own takes!

Cards mentioned in this episode.

Discussed in this episode:

• The Beauty of Games by Frank Lantz
• Serpentes
• QWOP
• Junkbot (Flash Game)
• Law of the Instrument
• Episode 206: The Joy of Gaming with Richard Garfield
• Sturgeon’s Law
• The Selfish Gene
• Games and the Art of Agency
• Armored Core
• The Narcissism of Minor Differences
• Skip Barber Racing School
• Andy’s 5 Color Starter Decks
• Game Theory
• Your Brain is Hardwired to Love Games with Kelly Clancy
• Universal Paperclips
• Nose Dive by Harold McGee
• A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander

Timestamps

0:00 - Introduction

4:13 - What is a book club, anyway?

5:51 - Summary of The Beauty of Games

9:17 - Do we need to defend the position that games are meaningful?

14:02 - Andy’s Two Main Criticisms of The Beauty of Games

17:07 - Games as an aesthetic experience

21:34 - Gamer Knowledge™️

23:31 - The Reasons for Doubt and Frank’s rebuttal to them

31:36 - Unpacking the conclusion of The Beauty of Games

41:19 - Ought we blame the beneficiaries of inequitable systems?

45:07 - How games crystalize satisfying action, and what satisfying actions does Magic capture?

58:17 - Why do we as Cube designers put so much knowledge between our players and the satisfying experiences Magic offers?

1:06:50 - Listener Submitted Clips

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You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

• Andy’s “Bun Magic” Cube
• Anthony’s “Regular” Cube

If want us to do a pack 1, pick 1 from your cube submit it on our website. You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at [email protected] or our p.o. box:

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Musical production by DJ James Nasty.