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Games Should Save Us from the Daily Grind (C. Thi Nguyen) (Patreon)

Published:
2026-03-13 16:58:47
Edited:
2026-03-13 16:58:52
Imported:
2026-03

Downloads

  • 44 - SCORE - PATREON-REAL.mp3

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Content

This week on Post Games:

Act 1: Games Teach Us to Break Free from Life’s Grind

Act 2: Metrics Suck the Joy Out of Life

Patreon Bonus: Have Metrics Infected Video Games?

Act 3: The News of the Week

Guests:

C. Thi Nguyen: a philosopher, educator, and author. His latest book is The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game

Gita Jackson: critic, editor, and co-founder of Aftermath

Closing Song: "Ocarina of Time" by Sixth Station Trio (Zelda Classics album)

Act 1: How Games Teach Us to Break Free from Life’s Grind

The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game by C. Thi Nguyen (Penguin Random House)

Why Keeping Score Isn’t Fun Anymore (NYTimes)

Gamification (Wiki)

Foursquare (Wiki)

List of Foursquare Badges (Fandom)

2025 was the year friendslop reigned, and so many low-cost ways to have fun with your pals couldn't have come at a better time (PCGamer)

The Five Obstructions (Kanopy)

Reiner Knizia Overview (BoardGameGeek)

Erotic art and pornographic pictures by Jerrold Levinson (PhilPapers)

Schopenhauer on aesthetics and the goal of art (Honeysucklewalks)

Collingwood’s Aesthetics (Stanford)

Performance indicator (Wiki)

Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life by Theodore Porter (Wiki)

Excerpts from Theodore M. Porter, Trust in Numbers (PDF)

Rules: A Short History of What We Live By by Lorraine Daston (Barnes & Noble)

House rule (Wiki)

Act 2: Metrics Suck the Joy Out of Life

Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott (Yale University Press)

Boys Just Wanna Looksmax (Slate)

Imperial (BoardGameGeek)

The Sims Social Review (Actionbutton.net via Archive.org)

Aristotle on the Meaning of Life (Psychology Today)

C. Thi Nguyen's webpage (https://objectionable.net)

Patreon Bonus: Have Metrics Infected Video Games?

Starlight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula (Wiki)

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (Wiki)

Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas by Natasha Dow Schüll (Princeton University Press)

Playfulness, "World"-Travelling, and Loving Perception by María Lugones (JSTOR)

Act 3: The News of the Week

I Cannot Stop Thinking About Marathon (Aftermath)

Bungie is laying off 220 employees and moving others to PlayStation (The Verge)

Former Marathon art director says 'what I could control, I feel really good about' in the face of pre-release animosity: 'You can't take that away from me' (PCGamer)

'The vibes have never been worse' Bungie's morale is reportedly in 'free fall' following its art theft fiasco (PCGamer)

With its fluorescent characters and ASCII text, Marathon is a masterclass in 90s nostalgia (The Guardian)

Marathon day one check-in: Thief impressions, broken Deluxe Edition bonuses, and so many Assassins (PCGamer)

As the Marathon player count discourse reaches peak stupidity, Warframe and Overwatch devs speak up in solidarity: 'This is big unemployed, maidenless behavior' (PCGamer)

Marathon’s First Big Update Is Basically Perfect (Kotaku)

This Week in Video Game Links

CONTINUE: A Defiant, New Videogames Magazine (Kickstarter)

Thanks for injecting me with 500 cursed Black Knight Ultra Greatswords (RPS)

After Thirty Years, I Finally Understand Pokémon (VGBees)

Happy Mario Day, The World Is Ending (At the Mountains of Sadness)

Resident Evil Requiem Confronts The Franchise’s Burdensome Past To Save Its Future (Kotaku)

Project Helix vs PS6 Will Be Interesting - But Arguably Misses The Point (Digital Foundry)

Free Game of the Week: Cozy Grove

"Welcome to Cozy Grove, a life-sim game about camping on a haunted, ever-changing island. As a Spirit Scout, you'll wander the island's forest each day, finding new hidden secrets and helping soothe the local ghosts." (Available for free on Epic Games Store until March 19)

What Else I’m Enjoying

I'm this upcoming week's guest on Get Played! (Get Played)

The Celebrity Crush (Just Atad)

The Atlanta Hawks’ Magic City Night Was Too Misunderstood To Live (Defector)

Song of the Week

"Ocarina of Time" by Sixth Station Trio (Zelda Classics album)

Files

Comments

Brian Bautista

Nothing makes my eyes roll harder than another vendor trying to sell my school district on gamifying the classroom. One of many fads I'm happy to have seen go out of style.

Tikwid

This was like, heavy, man. ✨️

James Popp

I still use Swarm, the legacy of Foursquare. It's just me and my friend who lives in another country and it's kinda a joke between us at this point. I'm honestly surprised they are still finding a away to make money off my data

snorehorse

Oh boy you were right this was a great sicko episode. I gotta get that book! Loved hearing Gita on Marathon, they really articulated what I think is hitting for me too. Weirdly it’s making me think about Citizen Sleeper (part of me always thinking about Citizen Sleeper) - like they’re coming at very similar ideas from very different angles.

Nick

This episode was an absolute banger. Great job. I went in not being that interested or excited, but by the end this might have been one of my favorites.

Goositrous

I really like the framing of striving vs accomplishing in games. Something I’ve always found interesting in discourse around difficult games is the idea that when you lose progress the game has “wasted” your time. For a recent example, there’s a whole category of player in the Mewgenics reddit that is very angry when the sinister Edmund murders your cats in some really unfair and unpredictable way because the game has Wasted Their Time invested in the run and they are Busy Adults for whom this is unacceptable. I’ve always felt the opposite, I feel like a game is wasting my time if I’m winning too easily- if all I’m doing is going through the motions so you can feed me through the conveyor belt of rewards, what am I really doing here? Games I love are almost always games that are opaque and difficult to progress in because striving for proficiency is the interesting part.

That one guy from that one movie

Is there such a genre as videogame brain rot? We can classify it easily in social media and even TV/movies. But what is the gaming equivalent to watch out for?

Kat Toomey

I'm ready for part 2, 3, 4, and 5 with C. Thi Nguyen. What a great conversation.

Elyse

Loved this episode, as always! One of the things that y'all talked about that stood out to me was that strict parameters can actually make people more creative rather than hinder creativity. It reminded me of what made Vine (rest in peace) so special when compared to Tik Tok, Reels, Shorts, and so on. The constraint of having to get to a punchline in only six seconds, in my opinion, helped hone a lot of people's comedic timing. They had to find creative ways to get a point across with limited tools and time. I think games can be the exact same way.

Duncan Hamra

Just finished my 2nd listen. Great interview!! Thanks Chris.