Ah, this is a good one from Mark:
Tragedy requires that the characters be blind (as we ourselves, at times, are blind), and if you let a sane and sensible reader into the room, everything is bound to collapse. Take Hamlet: it’s absolutely obvious that he should go back to school, get roaring drunk, get laid, and await his opportunity. He knows this. Horatio knows this, Ophelia knows this. Even Claudius and Gertrude know — why else send for his college pals? Nobody can bring themselves to say the words — that’s the tragedy. But what’s to stop the reader? Only brute force and error messages (“You can’t do that”) that call attention to the arbitrary boundaries of the world. If you make Hamlet a game, it has to be rigged.
There’s a bit more in a blog post, and lots more in My Friend Hamlet, subscription only)
foxu
yes .. thanks !!