Toys are shape-shifters, adapting to the imagination and creativity of their users. They aren’t about rigid rules or fitting into a mold—they’re about opening doors to new adventures and inspiring the creation of even more exciting toys. They’re as much a way to express and discover yourself as they are something fun to play with.

Games are the rules and meanings we weave around toys, turning them into something beyond what meets the eyes. As game creators, we derive goals, assign values, and arbitrary challenges from the values we hold and our relationship with the society at large. When one plays games, you're buying into a sermon that preaches the values and worldview of the game creators.

In an era of value preaching abundance, my mind yearns for things that actively try to be "open-ended". To me, they're all "open-ended" in the same way toys are: the values are mostly imparted by the users dabbling / operating with them. An overwhelming majority of software built today has some objectives baked in, which includes all software that I've successfully shipped up to this point in my life.

Maybe it's time to ponder the following question: what does a software that actively eschews objectives and rules look like? Only way to know is to build, I guess.