Comments on 030303 Collective Play Notes
Comments
commentson 4 March 2003 : 07:30, Outlandish Josh sez:

One of the underlying themes in your notes is a lingering question as to what I will call the social value of videogames. Do they signal cultural decline and decadence? How are the relavent in a world full of injustice? I'm glad to see these questions surfacing in peoples minds.

I'm currently very interested in bringing the artist's mindset to the world of gaming. It seems to me that games represent a new form of creative expression, and as such they have the potential to allow both the development and the degradation of culture. Whether it's in designing the underlying mechanics of the game experience or scripting a captivating and uplifting line of story, I see an immense opportunity over the next few decades for games to have a positive impact on global culture.

Of course, there's the possibility of an equally negative impact too, but I believe that by looking at videogames as a means of conveying culture and ideas -- the perspective I take on my work as an artist -- they can be put to positive social use. To be clear, I'm not talking about reducing game violence or creating didactic little moral simulations, but about crafting works of interactive art and technology which make use of the whole realm of human experience to stimulate the audience, even inviting the gamer to become a participant.

With the advent of massively networked gaming, exciting opportunities exist for games to become modes of expression for gamers themselves. While the phenomina of "EverCrack" is gives one pause when consideing how to go about making use of these new forms, it also illustrates the potential power of videogames linking individuals. Given that people are likely to spend x amount of time in front of a screen in any case, I think creating artful, imaginative and parhaps even educational games as an alternative to simple television is a worthwhile pursuit.

While it's likely that traditional market forces will continue to push for an endless stream of thumb-blistering shoot-em-ups and addictive MMORPGs, hopefully some autonomous zones of videogame development will persist. When more and more games are created that are -expressing- something, and inviting the gamer to express, rather than simply attempting to capture the players attention by whatever means necessary (lowest common denominator), then we will begin to see the true potential of gaming culture.

commentson 5 March 2003 : 15:28, Justin sez:

Amen! Josh - absolutely. Seeing the potential of games has been my occupation for the last few years - trying to see what more is possible, how the simple-seeming simulations and human-computer-human interactions might lead to more great art and a change in our perceptions of our humanity. Whew! Exciting times for that - to watch the development of a new medium. I think that's what Jane is tracking over at Game Girl Advance.

commentson 10 March 2003 : 16:58, Outlandish Josh sez:

Indeed. I just read:

http://www.gamegirladvance.com/archives/2003/03/04/the_destiny_of_games.html

...and am duly fired up.

commentson 23 June 2004 : 13:38, mimi sez:

nice site :)

commentson 27 June 2004 : 16:05, stropinela sez:

gg

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