Game design discourse is something I'm kind of interested in looking at from the outside, but I see something like that and I'm like, you know what, I'll just stick to reading these old Beep! Mega Drive magazines for contemporary opinions of an ancient ass game. It's fine, I'm satisfied here.
There's actual literature on this stuff though. I recommend A Theory of Fun (Raph Koster), Uncertainty in Games (Greg Costikyan) and Depth in Strategic Games (Frank Lantz et. al.). Haven't yet finished Game Feel (Steve Swink) or The Aesthetic of Play (Brian Upton), but liked what I read in both.