Critical Cycle

Originally published January 24, 2020. In this post I’ll reflect on how games could be seen as art, and how they fit (or do not fit) into art culture. Games as Art The core of art, for me, is its aesthetic intentions. It’s something that was conceived or created in order to appeal to our aesthetic sense, rather than as a practical tool/innovation. Whether it’s sad, scary, delightful, fun, beautiful, the whole range of aesthetic experiences apply. Games are largely created for these intentions, with the small exceptions of edugames and things like Kriegsspiel . Fun is often dismissed, because in other mediums fun is largely relegated to genre fiction/movies and other art that isn’t very respected, and some wouldn’t call art in the first place. But Football means too much to people to put it in the same box as brainless fun action movies like The Fast and the Furious (Universal Pictures, 2001). Decision making, physical mastery, pattern recognition and more ensure that game...

Originally published January 24, 2020. I’ve seen this pop up a few times now. First with Sid Meier’s talk about design (2010) where he is constantly kowtowing to a hypothetical playtester and filing off the rough edges he likes in order to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Then in a paper prototyping lecture there was a lot about how to realize your idea in writing, communicate it with the team, and what you should be aiming for; the audience was obviously part of this. But the way “player experience goals” were presented, I’m not a fan. These are a description of what your players should feel when they play your game, kind of similar to saying “I want my game to be fun” and then cutting any features that a playtester doesn’t find directly contributes to fun for them. A lot of games are about challenge, and a very common design mantra is how you shouldn’t listen to your players because they will actively ruin their own experience. They may have a motivation (like t...