I kinda get what you're going for with the emphasis on players' thoughts (insofar as we can consider what a player's attention, anticipation, feelings, etc. might be), but it seems like a strange target for design. After all, thoughts aren't observable; a game where we sit and think at each other would be both dull and incomprehensible! Game design may be mind control, per the Vincent Baker quote, but we can only judge the success of our mind control attempt by what people do under our games' influence.