3 Thoughts about Video Games
Context, Stories and Open Worlds
Open World Games: something that other media can’t do
Satire, dystopia, implication and characteristics of open-world games are among the main topics of The Grand Dystopic Vision of the Open World Game, by L. Rhodes: «The difficulties opened by narrative games are particularly complex since the assumptions that carry us in good stead in other mediums often turn treacherous when ported over to one premised on interaction. Satirical tools that have been honed to precision by novelists since Satyricon lend themselves to strange uses when unleashed in an open world.»
More: «Open worlds are tricky precisely because they shrink reality down to the measure of the game’s most ubiquitous parts. If we don’t make a special effort to understand how they differ from the incomplete worlds we craft in other media, the system can twist a well-honed tool like satire.»
Cross-platform video game developement
How to approach video game developement when we now have «three very different consoles, each staking their fortunes on only marginally compatible notions of how players ought to interact with their games»?
«How those differences affect the process of making games will determine the prospects for cross-platform development for a generation of games to come», says L. Rhodes in Mind the Gap.
Different game play experience in different environment means changes both in game play itself and game creation and production. We have a similar problem to face when we think about content creation and production in publishing, too. When paper is not anymore the only reading environement we have, how should content production change to have the better experience? And how this is affecting readers expectations?
Context Is King (in video games too)
How the different immersion in stories we live playing video games impacts on the context creation? How this changes the story and the way we experience it? Adam Boffa discusses some ideas in his Context is King.
If you are looking for more ideas on these topics don’t miss Play Time, a collection by @StuHorvath.
