Procedural rhetoric and the accounting equation
We learn what procedural rhetoric is and how it affects the players of games. We also look at how to interpret the expanded accounting equation.
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Procedural Rhetoric: Opinions as Algorithms
Video games are generally designed for children, which means they avoid many of the complexities of life. Not only is this a problem because it shapes our perceptions of the world, but it actively makes for worse gameplay for adults, which are capable of handling conflicting perspectives. We should build games that are realistic in terms of world fidelity, not graphical fidelity.
Full article (2–3 minute read): Procedural Rhetoric: Opinions as Algorithms
Flashcard of the week
What's the intuition behind assets + expenses = liabilities + equity + revenue?
This is an expanded form of the accounting equation. This equation underlies any annual report and any double-entry ledger – if the total of assets and expenses is not equal to the total of liabilities, equity, and revenue, some money has either disappeared or materialised from thin air, either of which is bad.
(Assets are the things the venture owns (including unspent money), expenses are the things the venture gave away over the period, liabilities are loans the venture has taken, revenue is money earned by the venture over the period. Equity is a bit tricky but it's stuff someone will expect in return when the venture ends. This is often used to account for stuff given to the venture to bootstrap it. Whether a donation counts as equity or revenue depends on what the donor expects out of it – do they consider the money spent, or have they purchased a part of the venture?)
Liabilities, equity, and revenue are sources of stuff, and they have to pay for expenses. What remains in the venture counts as assets.
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