Part of me still wants to care about video games.
It’s been a long time since I felt truly immersed in a game, so much so that I felt compelled to finish it (I think Grim Fandango from LucasArts was the last thing that really grabbed me, and that was in ‘98).
I went through an all-too-brief period of orgasmic excitement a few years ago when massively-multiplayer online offerings such as EverQuest were announced, because the potential for a new paradigm of gaming, of a virtual existence, really, was so intoxicating. I guess it still is, but as we’ve seen, every technological step forward seems to devolve into a new, boring way to smash skeletons or club bears to death. In fairness, the relatively recent game Second Life is doing a lot of things right in their implementation of the online virtual world, even if it’s got a lot of bugs to work out.
I stumbled across this article yesterday, which is an essay by Harvey Smith, a game developer whose credits include Deus Ex, among other notable titles. It’s called The Future of Game Design, and in it, he addresses some interesting problems with today’s games and how they can be overcome to deliver richer simulations and allow for greater experimentation and expression on the part of the player, resulting in much less linear gameplay.
It’s an interesting read, and not overly technical, so if you’re at all passionate (or used to be) about the future of gaming or vitual reality, check it out.