The Scarcity Ratchet

In order for a game of any kind, there has to be something scarce. As we play games, we get better at them and as more people play a game, they get ever more competitive. This creates a scarcity ratchet. The very fact that there is a game makes the thing that's scarce even more scarce. When you're playing a game to win, instead of playing a game because you enjoy it, scarcity gets amplified. So we end up keeping score of something that maybe we don't even care about. You can see this on social media, people figuring out short cuts, ways to game the system,. so they can get followers, so they canget fnd s,