Their Power to Oppress
Rules must always be evaluated for their power to oppress
Line Goes Up – The Problem With NFTs, by Dan Olson, 2022
The discussion is about community rules, economic rules, and even legal rules, but game rules are exactly the same kettle of fish. The community is that group of people, sitting at that table, playing the game. Does a rule inspire a healthy collaborative community, or does it give you a cudgel to lord over someone else?
Even if a system intends to be fair, if it’s badly designed it can be gamed to someone’s advantage. It’s no different with bad laws or skewed tax exemptions, which of course is why we need more ethical game designers in all levels of government…
And yeah I’ve watched Line Goes Up about fives times. And I will again. My only criticism is that there is *so* much material, covering so much ground, that I wish it was multiple videos so people could absorb it in smaller chunks. You can hear people’s eyes roll when you tell them to watch a two hour video. It’s a lot to take in, but utterly worth it.
Go watch it.
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I keep watching Line Goes Up too. It feels like such a landmark—a piece of reassuring solidity, even if it’s not especially hopeful. And I agree with you about the similarity between game design and policy design. After all, they’re both sets of rules designed to shape human behavior into certain contours. The biggest difference is that when you’re designing rules for a society instead of a gaming table, you have to assume people will be cheating as constantly and as egregiously as they think they can get away with. Playing “Government” with billionaires is like playing Monopoly with someone who uses the bank as their personal wallet, and then challenges you to a fistfight when you call them out on it. No fair, and no fun.