Soul in Games re: Warren Spector's article · 1001 days ago
Too Hot! Too Hot for the Hot tub!
Not that kind of soul. But Meaning…
This is something I’ve had on my list of things to write about for a while. I don’t like to link other articles with only a short one of my own, but I think Warren Spector’s article is worth reading.
He makes the choices seem perhaps a little more dramatic than I think they are, but it’s something I really, really wish more people would think about, and he’s put a lot of thought into the subject.
Lately I’ve seen far too many articles talking about advertising in games. There’s enough advertising everywhere else, I don’t want to see more in my fantasy worlds. I look over any of the game design books I have and most of them are about pigeon holing your game into some given category, everything is talked about from a business and marketing sense.
Talking about the end of the world, it’s a good practice to imagine yourself dead tomorrow, or why not in two hours. What have you done today? What are you doing right now? Does it matter to you… to anyone? Do you want this to be the last thing you do in life? Is this who you wanted to be?
I want to see games tackle some big ideas. And if they don’t tackle big ideas I want to see the people behind the games in the game, I want to see your blood and sweat and love come out. I don’t want to see marketing decisions and optimized addictive gameplay. Just forget about it, just make the game, and stop thinking so much!
I’ll try to do the same,
-clint