The Grid.

Here are some summaries of game theory and game design. Click to zoom in.

1. Games are art

We could argue forever about what art and what isn’t. But to boil the debate down to its essence, art is about using representation in a creative way in order to make yourself, or someone else feel a certain way. All the different aspects of a game (Graphics, music/audio, story elements, architecture/level design, voice acting, narrative, and so on) are artforms in themselves. Games combine elements from fine art, film, literature, music, and technology in order to make a unified coherent whole. Anyone who says games isn’t art is missing the glaringly obvious point that the components of games are bits and pieces of art in themselves.

2. Good game design is about teaching without a word.

We’ll go into depths about this later. But what is the first thing that you do when starting a game? You learn its controls. You learn its world. You learn the logic, what is permissible and what isn’t. You find out about how to combine different controls together to create effects. In some games, learning patterns is a requirement. All of this learning has to effectively be done through experience of playing the game itself. Unfortunately, game designers seem to have forgotten about the power of experience and experimentation in teaching a player how to play their game. The best way to learn is to do it! Not go through hours of tutorials and text just to gain an understanding. The best games make learning their world not feel like learning at all and instead they make it feel like a natural extension of your will.

3. Press X to escape reality.

Games simulate reality. Other games create their own realities. The “suspension of disbelief” in films, or devices such as the fourth wall in theatre, literature and so on. These are all things to maintain the illusion of reality and experience. Games take this a step further. They create a kind of trance. They create a temporal space. In games it isn’t “the suspension of disbelief” but the opposite, “the creation of belief.”

4. A better word for player would be controller

What art form has control as the central part of the viewer experience? When you look at a painting, read a book, or watch a film, you passively receive the image into your mind. In some senses, you control your reaction to these mediums, but within gaming, the element of control is so vital and so central to the experience that it becomes an active process. One of the great words of our 21st century is interactivity. You aren’t a passive observer, you are the controller of the game’s reality. This virtual element of response, of instant gratification, of manipulated time is what makes games unique in comparison to other traditional art forms.

5. Imagine a 12 hour film where you essentially become God.

This is where games have more in common with books than anything. Films are a slave to a time limit. We may see 3 hour films, or series and boxsets that deliver a 12-24 hour experience in one hour chunks. Books inherently have more longevity because of content. Games can be anywhere from a few seconds to hundreds of hours. And within this time, whether short or long, you become a God like figure in the sense that you control life and death of characters, their fates, in some cases you control their sense of morality. Games feature control on the “micro” level (pressing buttons to perform an action) and “macro” control (controlling the flow of the game, objectives, narrative choices). When we play, we transcend.

6. Games as a state of being.

When playing a game, you enter a mentally created space that dampens the sense of time passing, your own thoughts, and even your behaviour towards others. This is not as different to films for example, but rather than dissolve into the anonymous mass of “the audience” a gamer becomes an individual. They assume the role of a character, like an actor on stage. They behave in ways that fulfils their fantasies or behave in ways that they wouldn’t normally do in reality. Obvious examples of the GTA series with people becoming senseless drivers, stealing and killing people as they wish. RPG’s make players assume the role of someone or something. In essence, the “being” of a game is personal, reactive and dynamic. It is constantly changing according to what we do and what variables the designers choose to put. More analysis on this later.

So those were some thoughts to get the ball rolling in terms of how we can think about games in an intelligent way. To take them more seriously is to appreciate the work and the craftsmanship of the product.

Introduction.

Games have widely been regarded as entertainment devices. That is to say, you plug it in, you have a good time, you take it out and then you get back to work. Between those processes, a lot of people have argued that there isn’t much thought involved. But for something so emotionally involving, something that takes years to create, and being one of the largest industries in entertainment, it can’t simply be thoughtless. I argue that there is a lot of thought involved – but like a hidden stage or item, it’s done in such a way where it emotionally pushes you first.

This is a blog that is dedicated to the analysis and discussion of video games. If you are looking for detailed discussions about games, game design and the more philosophical side of games, this is the place.

Why has this image captured us?

Is it really that simple though? Our emotions and our thinking is constantly being updated and shifted while we watch a film, watch a sports game, or while we’re in class or reading books. I want to unravel that process that causes us to press buttons with passion. My argument is that it isn’t that simple and we can reverse engineer, or deconstruct our gaming experiences and our perceptions . 

In some specific posts, we’ll deal with a case study, a particular game and the way it works. Other posts we’ll go more broadly into genres, styles, content using many different examples. Gaming is representation. It is art. It is more involved than you think.