26th February, 2010: Scanning the Enlarged Horizon: the Future of Games [Meta-post]
So, I finally wrote my inaugural post over at the awesome Vikki’s new project, GirlGamersSuck.com, and, as a result of many of the concerned musings I’ve read over the past couple of days about Jesse Schell’s DICE talk, I decided to post an editorial on my take on the future of games.
Please do have a read here: Scanning the Enlarged Horizon: The Future of Games.
In summary? Yes, I agree with those (such as Sirlin) who assert that the latter part of Jesse Schell’s talk is quite scary and a dystopian vision of the future – that the pursuit of external, rather than intrinsic rewards can, as George Kokoris wrote, “lead to a dilution of self-actualisation”. I assert, however, that this is not a failing of games which blend game mechanics with real-world activities, rather a failing of the individual game design that Schell presents; such can of course be the case for game design in any format, be it a board game, console game, or indeed, a pervasive/real-life game. As always, good design is paramount.
Additionally, to put some of this in context, I’m actually actively interested and involved in the different games at varying points along this wide spectrum:
- The first is a project for my PhD work (my research area is investigating innovations in controller technology, and what happens as we’re increasingly physically embodied).
- Another is an ‘abstract’ game, as a kind of personal, self-expressive, outlet (which I alluded to in my previous post).
- Finally, the third, is a pervasive game-like project, which is designed to positively benefit people – and importantly, be fun (alluded to a few times on twitter as my #supersekkritproject). You’ll be hearing more about this soon, hopefully.
I’m proposing that the future of games is not any one type of game, of course, but that we are seeing this ever-widening spectrum of what games can possibly be. There is room for all, and that is pretty exciting.
[As an even more personal sidenote, it was an interesting writing experiment too – I’m used to writing academically, or just for myself (as I mostly do here on my blog!). Therefore, trying to write for a more "general audience" for the first time in a long time was interesting (i.e. trying not to get too in-depth/complex, etc). Not sure how I did. But we shall see.]
Posted at 6:17 pm | View Comments
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L.Z. Hannon
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shaunmcilroy