Games as Diaries or Why Creatures is "Magic"
I just ran across this piece on Unwinnable about the game Creatures , something of akin to an ant farm simulator/behavioral modeling machine. The game has no true goal, but its mechanics are incredibly complex. The purpose of the game was to recreate the phenomenon of life in a basic, algorithmic form such that the beings within could run their course from birth to death, all while allowing the player to influence their actions both directly (by giving them direct orders) and indirectly (by way of providing materials and some pavlovian operant conditioning).