The Problem

Ok, now I actually have time to make some posts, so I'd like to go further into detail about what this blog is about.

Let me start out by saying that I am a rather fervant fan of video games, and my concern about there future is not borne out of pessimism, but rather a view of video games as being deep emotional experiences. One could say that video games already deal with emotion, such as stress, enjoyment, frustration, and panic, which is true.

One of the problems I have with games as "emotional noise". I would describe this as saying, "Sure there is emotion, but I am so flooded with other things (and emotions) right now, that I just can't focus on it." Imagine trying to look at a painting that you particularly like with people walking in front of you constantly. I doubt you would be able to appreciate it unless it had already burned into your retina. Generally, I excuse myself for walking in front of people browsing a bookstore, but I would not dare cross the stream of emotion from a piece of art to an observer. Obviously games don't have the same hold on the observer, because my brother often nonchalantly walks in front of the TV while I'm playing. (Ok, that's not a real support to my argument). Currently there are only one or two games I have played where I sit in awe at the strength of the message being conveyed and not the graphics alone.

So where does this noise come from, and how can we remove it? One source is the "core" of what makes a video game: gameplay. Of course we can't take out gameplay, otherwise we would have a movie. But we can make gameplay more conducive to emotional experiences.

This post is already getting a little long, so I'm going to continue it with my next post.

Welcome!

Hello Reader,

This is my first blog ever, and I'm going to use it to chronicle my thoughts about video game design, particularly about advancing video game design as a means of expression. Currently I see video game design as a craft, but not art (with a few exceptions). I hope to explain my views in more detail soon, and I'll probably have another post before anyone even knows this blog exists.

The title, "Emotive Deficiency" represents what I see as the main problem of video games in their current state. I hope that by discussing this issue, I will enable others to think about how game design can be approached as an expressive problem, rather than an engineering problem. I am an engineering student, however, so my analysis of art and expression may be a little scientific. Hopefully I can provide a bit of the perspective we need to foster this new medium of Game Design.