ik wil eccky spelen.

Sorry Quincy, I don’t know what this means. What language is this, anyone, so that I can use a translator?

I agree with you that invention springs from the individual - and a continuum sounds like a very good model for authorware-gameware.

I’d like to complicate your idea of the “level of freedom,” however:

On the authorware end of the spectrum is the “freedom to design” with greater choice and less constraint. Many poets might argue that less constraint is not necc. desireable, but there it is freedom nonetheless.

On the gameware end of the spectrum is the “freedom to participate” with greater access - literally, you are not required to read a manual or spend 20-100 hours of prep and debug time. You may freely enter.

Perhaps I’m framing this in part due to my exposure to Free Software Foundation folks and Richard Stallman’s “Free as in Freedom / Free as in Beer” distinction. But while the freedom on the authorware end of the spectrum is rights / abilities, and the freedom on the gameware end is in some sense economic (literally, participation has a low “opportunity cost”) it strikes me that these both have importance in this context.

More generally, perhaps software like Dreamweaver and projects like Mystery House Taken Over are interesting because they are dual-mode - attempting to cover more of the spectrum, giving us easy access to rip-mix-burn while also appealing to our Freedom To Tinker.