How generative AI could reinvent what it means to play

After a while, however, the repetitive chitchat (or threats) of a passing stranger forces you to bump up against the truth: This is just a game. It's still fun--I had a whale of a time, honestly, looting stagecoaches, fighting in bar brawls, and stalking deer through rainy woods--but the illusion starts to weaken when you poke at it. Video games are carefully crafted objects, part of a multibillion-dollar industry, that are designed to be consumed. You play them, you loot a few stagecoaches, you finish, you move on. It may not always be like that.