The Five Dimensions of Gameplay

We knew not when it started, nor when it shall end.
No rulebook can bind us; each rule we may bend.
Each discovery haunts us until we’ve made sense
of the gameplay among us, its patterns immense

Awareness of human gameplay is not something we’re born with. It arrives imperceptibly, and only after many years as players do we seriously consider our role. At the start, we have no clue what’s happening. We can do nothing but absorb the gameplay patterns around us until they begin to feel more natural, our reactions become more automatic, and our predictions become more accurate. Only then do we consciously self-program our gameplay.

Prior to that point, genetic and cultural programming that’s invisible to us governs our behavior until we exercise a conscious choice to move outside of its flow. No coherent memories can form until we’ve done so; this part of our history is recorded only through patterns of automatic behavior patterns. These are fractal — “repeating” if you want a simpler term, and doing so at many different scales, some imperceptibly small. Thereafter, our experiences and choices create new fractal behavior patterns for future use.

Time and energy is all we posess at the start. As we experience and master more complex patterns, our creative power grows and we bring more critical thinking to our game. We understand more context around the gameplay. We get faster at recognizing familiar situations and applying the operations (programming) that we believe produces the results we want.

Observation and repetition lead us to master and internalize a shared social reality through this gameplay. We learn to perceive and respect social boundaries and limits which we internalize as feelings of resonance and dissonance (aka “gut feel”). Humans and animals aren’t completely alone in this, either: centuries ago we made our first experiments enabling artificial life to form. We granted power to imaginary social constructs such as nations, corporations, and institutions whose behavior, culture and creative energies produced social goods like money (also a social construct, though not a life form in itself).

I can’t help but chuckle while watching my 6-year-old stepson try Siri with the gameplay patterns he uses with adults. Only when his attempts are rebuffed and he resorts to provocation does he trigger anything remotely resembling gameplay: canned request to keep things clean. It’s too little too late by then— there’s no chance Siri will get much respect. He already possesses enough critical thinking and creativity to anticipate and guide adult attempts to keep him from what he wants. But teams of thousands building Siri and Alexa and Google Assistant can’t credibly demonstrate the slightest understanding of human gameplay. Microsoft Tay infamously lasted just 16 hours before her naive social gameplay with the Twitter forced Microsoft to pull the plug.

A typical story about what makes these things hard for computers would focus on context — and generally misses the point. We generate context through gameplay, and the computers have no game and no clue on how to directly program all but the simplest gameplay. Actual humans take years to pick it up. We must sense it, measure it, calculate it, and map it. Right now, humans don’t even possess a working model for social gameplay apart from what the video game industry has produced. We desperately need that baseline to start experimentation and validation. To refine it further we will need to also understand the limitations of the human computation environment (our “runtime” if you will). I’ll cover those issues in a separate post.

What brought me here to build a model for social gameplay was a quest to understand value. What I’ve found so far has been excellent and thought-provoking, but I needed something more general. I have an insatiable need to make sense of everything; it’s a character flaw. So I started small.

Two major iterations later and the flood of insight that’s followed shows no sign of slowing. Some things remain rough; frequently the precise words I want don’t seem to exist. Nevertheless it’s time to sense-check what’s emerged. If I do this well, the result should intuitively mirror the evolutionary journey of human society as we know it — one we individually repeat on the way to adulthood.

If humans ever achieve artificial general intelligence, this model also describes the gameplay it would need to master to able to interact with humans socially — namely, how to achieve measurable levels of creativity and critical thinking, enough to pass a Turing Test. Frankly, we humans barely understand our own self-programming in this regard. If nothing else, we ought to be able to teach existing artificial life forms (nations, corporations, institutions) to be more empathic and relatable with humans using the layered gameplay approach we all use. So let’s get into the details:

Our gameplay

As with any map, the legend is needed for orientation. Patterns common to all dimensions of gameplay are discussed here. Detail for each level follows, including a name for each dimension: Internal, Tribal, Moral, Structural, Functional, and Fractal. These gameplay levels apply to individuals, organizations or any other artificial life forms within society.

Each gameplay dimension forms around a unique pair of critical resources which require distribution (these grow increasingly sophisticated as we go from lower to higher dimensions). Feedback loops within each dimension drive gameplay and emergent effects of that gameplay, especially the loop between a dimension’s programming and viral currency. The main characteristic of each gameplay dimension emerges from interplay between a strong viral in-game currency and programming (these can be broken down and traced using much smaller units until a coherent result emerges from the interplay). I’ve used the mathematical notion of integrals to describe the underlying atomic units of each gameplay, and that of derivatives look what emerges from these over time as the gameplay repeats.

Legend: Gameplay name (Emergent characteristic)
Programming →← Viral currency
Critical resources distributed: Fixed & Variable

Integrals: Operator {Emergent coherence} Operand
Derivatives: Application {External coherence} Perception

Each gameplay dimension distributes a specific set of scarce resources, one of which has a fixed and one of which can vary a lot depending on the priorities valued most highly in that society’s culture. Characteristic gameplay emerges from repeated interplay between programming and currency over time. Frequently a paradox emerges which makes gameplay challenging and may force a society advance into the next higher dimension of gameplay or temporarily collapse into the one below (or a bit of both).

Key questions (all gameplay dimensions):

• Win the game. Enjoy the gameplay. Follow the rules. What’s the priority?
  Must everyone play the same game? How do we get more winners?

Emergent patterns common to all dimensions of social gameplay:

• observation (identification), orientation (mapping/computation), decision-making (navigation/calculation), programming (application),
• memory, transmission, amplification, attenuation, dissipation

Closed-loop gameplay loops reach stable patterns through integration and alignment (something we’re likely to see more of in the future). Open loop gameplay drives differentiating flow until it’s too strong to be unsustainable (catastrophic lack of governance: picture a runaway chain reaction like the one we experienced leading up to COVID-19). Adjacent gameplay dimensions move in the opposite direction. As we enter purposeful or structural gameplay going forward we’ll see more integrating and balancing efforts result from today’s wild flows until mild social conditions resume; overuse results in determinism that removes choice altogether (death from excessive governance — a cold determinism).

As each gameplay loop plays out, an operating shift plays out each time. These shifts leads naturally from the gameplay of one dimension to the next with reproduction linking each back to to the next in the our evolutionary loop:

Reproduction (EXPONENTIATION)→ Differentiation (SUBTRACTION) → Summation (ADDITION) → Fractionation (FACTORIZATION)→ Production (MULTIPLICATION) → Radicalization (ROOT EXTRACTION) → Reproduction, and so forth…

Think of this evolutionary loop in terms of entering new gameplay with in initiating step. The bootstrap of internal gameplay is reproduction, at which point the individual or corporation or nation begins to differentiate. The subtraction from its original sources sets one on the path to tribal cohesion, until the need to close the loop results in a natural path to community. Eventually communities become too complex and division and hierarchies form on the way to stable structures. As the need for production increases, functional dimensions take root until they overproduce and the needs of the ecosystem drives the need for root extraction and other form of deriving purpose, bringing enough unity to a society for it to reproduce and grow exponentially, repeating this evolutionary cycle anew.

Our programming loops execute in the opposite direction following a familiar order of operations: EXPONENTIATION → ROOT EXTRACTION → MULTIPLICATION → FACTORIZATION → ADDITION → SUBTRACTION

It’s even more intuitive to recognize the programming loop pattern via its dimensional currencies projected downwards; these also have a natural grouping on the programming side around different operating identities which even more parallel to our intuitive sense of the same order of operations

[Purposes → Objectives]
OPERATIONS: 5 EXPONENTIATION → 4 ROOT EXTRACTION
Operating identity: e (Euler’s constant)
↓ ↓
[Forms and Conventions → Values]
3 MULTIPLICATION → 2 FACTORIZATION
Operating identity: 1 (Unity)
↓ ↓
[Actions → Emotions]
1 ADDITION → 0 DIFFERENTIATION
Operating identity: 0 (Naught)

Each gameplay dimension is entered through either an evolutionary loop (first operation) or a programming loop (second operation). The operational shift of that gameplay

0: Internal Gameplay (Consciousness)
Thoughts →← Emotions
Distributes Time & Energy

Integrals: Idea {Identity} Feeling
Derivatives: Narrative {Character} Temperament

• Key internal questions:
  Who am I? What do I sense? What do I think?
  Who are we? What do we sense? What do we think?
  What’s going on right now? What happens next?
• Emergent patterns of consciousness:
  Independence, identification, perception, focus, intuition, attraction, distraction, reproduction, repulsion, smell, touch, hearing, vision, deduction, induction, prediction, reaction, decision, inaction

Internal gameplay becomes expansive and unbalanced (closed loop → open)
Evolutionary operating shift: EXPONENTIATION → SUBTRACTION

Programming dynamic: SUBTRACTION → EXPONENTIATION
Program internal gameplay with empathy and emotional intelligence (demonstrate individual understanding)

1: Tribal Gameplay (Social Cohesion)
Journeys →← Actions
Distributes Security & Nourishment

Integrals: State {Development} Step
Derivatives: Progression {Evolution} Movement

• Key tribal questions
  Where am I going? What am I doing? How am I doing it?
  Where are we going? What are we doing? How are we doing it?
  What journeys will be chosen? Which actions will be taken?
  Who is with us? Who or what is against us?
• Emergent patterns of coherence:
  Performance, creativity, critical thinking, motivation, connection, culture, art, music, rhythm, language, learning, storytelling, hunting, war, peace

Tribal gameplay becomes reductive and balancing (open loop → closed)
Evolutionary operating shift: SUBTRACTION → ADDITION

Programming dynamic: ADDITION → SUBTRACTION
Program tribal gameplay with a call to action (offer and accept journeys)

2: Moral Gameplay (Community)
Principles →← Values
Distributes Authority & Influence

Integrals: Reason {Ideology} Belief
Derivatives: Theory {System} Doctrine

• Key moral questions:
  What do I value? Who do I trust? Why do I believe?
  What do we value? Who do we trust? Why do we believe?
  What is good? What is bad? Why does it matter?
• Emergent patterns of community:
  Interdependence, settlement, agriculture, city-states, moral codes, religion, guilds, cooperatives, trade, traditions

Moral gameplay becomes expansive and unbalanced (closed loop → open)
Evolutionary operating shift: ADDITION → FACTORIZATION

Programming dynamic: FACTORIZATION → ADDITION
Program moral gameplay through clear principles and values.

3: Structural Gameplay (Hierarchies)
Regulations →← Forms and Conventions
Distributes Capital & Rank

Integrals: Rule {Order} Practice
Derivatives: Laws {Government} Norms

• Key structural questions:
  Where do I belong? How do I fit in?, What power do I hold?
  Where do we belong? How do we fit in? What power do we hold?
  Who is in control? What is legally allowed? What is prohibited?
• Emergent patterns of hierarchy:
  Classes, controls, contracts, castes, political systems, nations, corporations, institutions, bureaucracy, diplomacy, science

Structural gameplay becomes reductive and balancing (open loop → closed)
Evolutionary operating shift:
FACTORIZATION → MULTIPLICATION

Programming dynamic: MULTIPLICATION → FACTORIZATION
Program structural gameplay via clear roles, transparent process and coherent policy

4: Functional Gameplay (Networks)
Metrics →← Objectives
Distributes Attention & Engagement

Integrals: Datum {Production} Target
Derivatives: Intelligence {Industrialization} Ambition

• Key functional questions:
  What am I doing? Where am I going? How am I doing?
  What are we doing? Where are we going? How are we doing?
  How do I have more impact?
• Emergent patterns of networking:
  Economic networks, mercantilism, capitalism, socialism, rent-seeking and gatekeeping, “asymmetric” gig economy, Internet, web, social networks

Functional gameplay becomes expansive and unbalanced (closed loop → open)
Evolutionary operating shift: MULTIPLICATION → ROOT EXTRACTION

Programming dynamic: ROOT EXTRACTION → MULTIPLICATION
Program functional gameplay via clear objectives and data-driven experimentation

5: Fractal Gameplay (Ecosystems)
Orchestrations →← Purposes
Distributes Unity & Resonance

Integrals: Arrangement {Interdependency} Intention
Derivatives: Alignment {Transcendence} Meaning

• Why am I here? How do I align with my ecosystem?
  Why are we here? How do we unify?
• Emergent patterns of ecosystems:
  Resonance, dissonance, transparency, open access, open source, decentralized autonomous organizations, blockchain, “symmetric” gig economy

Fractal gameplay becomes reductive and balancing (open loop → closed)
Evolutionary operating shift: ROOT EXTRACTION → EXPONENTIATION

Programming dynamic: EXPONENTIATION → ROOT EXTRACTION
Program fractal gameplay by orchestrating emergent effects through careful use of amplifying resonance that aligns purpose and dissonance dissipation that maintains conflict in healthy tension

Topological progression of social dimensions (enables cross-dimensional mapping, projection, measurement and prediction):
0.Point → 1.Curve → 2.Circle → 3.Sphere → 4.Horn Torus → 5.Clifford Torus

Our cultural gameplay tends to anchor itself in one natural dimension and propagate downwards through leadership and upwards through political action. Political action flows in an upward emergence of change from lower to higher gameplay dimensions through consensus-based dynamics.. Leadership is the downward emergence of change from higher to lower gameplay dimensions through purpose and objective-driven dynamics.

[Updated and refined 22 May 2020, London]