We are surrounded by decisions, and therefore games, in everything we do. “Interesting” might be subject to personal taste to some degree, but the gift of agency—that is, the ability of players to exert free will over their surroundings rather than obediently following a narrative—is what sets games apart from other media, regardless of whether that agency is expressed through a computer keyboard, plastic tokens, physical movement, or entirely in the mind. Without a player’s input, there can be no game; conversely, it takes only a single interaction to transform an observer into a participant,
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