Yes, good point – ‘threads’ is a better word!

Cool! In that case I want to point out that gamefeel and reading are both (I think, and I think Swink thinks) results of being “jacked in” to the cybernetic circuit of game/player. They happen continuously, so I’d say that the player is reading while they are gamefeeling. The reading can continue after the player has put down the controller, but arguably so can gamefeel (nausea, the Tetris effect, etc…)

So that’s my real comment: I’m not sold on

A momentum carries the player into the second phase of ‘reading’ the game

I think I’d rather think of these as modes than phases. Even modes ignores the ways that they are deeply tangled… How about threads!

Right, I am comparing the activity of ‘reading’ the game through gamefeel to ‘reading’ the – I guess it is non-gamefeel content? (still thinking about this) – through the reflecting/thinking you do. The pleasing full-circle type of things clue you into considering your relationship to both fields of lights, and maybe you settle somewhere and develop a model for it. It is a pretty standard ‘relation to art’ thing I suppose! – but connecting it to gamefeel in this way is helpful to me in some way, it seems.

> During the GAMEFEEL CONTENT of a game, there should be enough clues for the player to piece together a model of a system that EXPLAINS the way that the simulated system works (or at least mostly). It explains the systems of the game, and provides a scaffolding that helps the player explore the system. It explains it enough so a determined player can learn and master it.

I think I get this. You play a game, like Cruel World, and in addition to getting good and enjoying it, you also form a mental model of why you are good In HAIKU games, I imagine that the game ends at this point, the moment of mastery, at the peak of the player’s engagement and understanding.

and then,

> A momentum carries the player into the second phase of ‘reading’ the game, finding another ‘system’ that EXPLAINS the aspects of the game’s system that were left unexplained by the GAMEFEEL CONTENT.

By “reading” do you mean after you play the game and it ends, you reflect on the game you just played? For example, Heaven on Earth ends and I think “ah, it comes full circle in a kind of pleasing way because of the way your digital devices become like a field of stars at night” and also, “the game encourages you to rush through the going to work bits, but pause to consider your consumer decisions”.

Is this the second phase you are talking about? Reflecting on the meaning of the thing you just played, as constructed by both the GAMEFEEL and NON-GAMEFEEL CONTENT?

So when you say,

> (2) Discovering the game’s systems through GAMFEEL is a very similar process to discovering meaning in a poetic presentation!

This second phase, this “reading” is what you are comparing to discovering meaning in a poetic presentation?