Models · branch
Games as models
A good game is a compressed world. Civ, Kerbal, Mass Effect: toys that teach structure.
This hangs on Computation, Stages of civilization.
See on the treeIn the same 2015 AMA, Elon declined to name a single favorite game. Shooters with a story (BioShock, Fallout, Mass Effect) and also Civ and Warcraft. Kerbal Space Program, separately: “awesome.” These are not celebrity flavor. They are the models he has said he actually used.
Kerbal compresses orbital mechanics until a child can fail at them. Civilization compresses staged knowledge until a child can feel a prerequisite. That is the semantic tree, playable.
The later simulation argument only has force if games can tend toward indistinguishability. This node is the modest version: they already tend toward teachability.
Hard to pick a favorite. I tend to like shooters with a story, like Bioshock, Fallout, or Mass Effect, but also a big fan of Civ and Warcraft.