The mind becomes mired in the labyrinth of its own cleverness. The mind can be shipwrecked by its own sirens. The esthetic or play value of the game, appreciated by only a few, then supersedes its truth value, and so becomes irrelevant to life at large. Distracted by the intrinsic satisfactions of problem solving, the mind allows the problems of the larger world to go unheeded. Thus, personal games and private dramas take up so much of the collective energy that there is a kind of global brain drain away from the large-scale issues affecting human destiny.
Evolution gives way to convolution.
The formal qualities of an activity or situation come to attention when we consider it as play rather than as serious. These functions compete as well as complement each other. The world of an activity has its own momentum that can divert its ostensible purpose. An activity may be aimed at the world, but covertly satisfy the need of the mind to play within formally structured bounds. Cognitive activities have their formal game-like structure, and many activities considered gratuitous perform a mediating cognitive role.