Statement Of Intent.

I’m coming up on my fiftieth post and starting to work out exactly what my purpose is with this blog, so the next few entries might get a little overly pretentious as I attempt to solidify my own voice. I apologise in advance.

 

We are all of us blind, stumbling around in the dark trying to get a hold on this extensive concept that lies before us, games and gaming. Each of us is holding desperately to their one portion, trying to make sense of what we have in our hands and whether it bares any relation to the whole. Simulation, narrative, edutainment, graphics, gameplay, interface, each of these concept, each of these elements, are important but on their own they do little to inform our understanding of the greater whole.

We are the blind men groping the elephant.

 

We are all of us prisoners, studying the shadows playing across the wall convinced that we understand the world. We have the potential to break free, to cast aside our bonds and go out the world. We might be blinded by the brightness and confused and scared by what we see but in time we will understand that what we once knew as reality was only a pale imitation of the true potential of reality. We might not like the way games and gaming is going, it might be scaring and unpleasant but in time we too will learn to look back on what we once knew and held dear and see them as mere shadows on the wall, appealing certainly, but plae imitations of what is truly possible.

We are the prisioners in the cave.

 

So how do we start to form a full picture of the true potential of games and gaming? How do we go from individual elements to a cohesive whole? How do we go from pale shadows and imitations to an enlightened understanding? By asking two very simple, but profoundly important, questions. How? Why?

How does narrative relate to gameplay? How can we entertain and educate in equal measure?

Why do we define games game genres, by mechanics not thematic content? Why does the same mechanic not always provide the same aesthetic experience?

I might not be a student of philosophy, or classical literature, or gender studies, or psychology, or critical thought; I am not an intellectual, or a storyteller. There are others eminently more qualified in those fields, individuals who spend significant time and effort striving to understand games and gaming from their own perspective, who each have important and relevant insight to bring to the field. All these people, and many more I have unfairly left unmentioned, are important to the growth and development of this industry and should be supported in their endeavours.

As for me, I try to bring all these elements together to better understand gaming as a whole. To quote Einstein as I am wont to do:

“I have no particular talent. I am merely inquisitive.”