Video Games, in Search of a Warp Zone. By Eryk Salvaggio.
The birth of modern gaming probably began in 1968, the launch date for the Magnavox Odyssey video game system. It wasn't the first video game, but it was the first video game console capable of supporting a library of external software. It launched the one-system, many-games model of gaming we know today. At 41 years old, gaming is facing a mid-life crisis: not only are the original players of games beginning to grapple with existential pangs of self-doubt --- so is the industry that supports them. And so the market --- and the audience, and the independent crafters of code --- have collided to create games that address the desire for meaning and maturity left out of younger days spent killing time and space creatures for the accumulation of superficial rewards. One of the central questions addressed at Floating Points 6: Games of Culture | Art of Games, a conference hosted at Emerson University and co-sponsored by Turbulence.org, is the notion of game maturity: the idea that video games can transcend "gaming" to emerge as a distinct artistic medium with an exclusive set of qualities. Simple version: How do we make video games that can tackle issues meaningful to the first generation of players, who are just now beginning to panic about their own lives and mortality? Is there any doubt that the gaming market cannot expand to address these concerns? more... http://transition.turbulence.org/blog/2009/03/24/video-games-in-search-of-a-warp-zone/ _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
