Usually I don't take too keen of an interest in theologian studies, I always considered it a branch of philosophy that tried a little harder than the rest to take itself seriously. But the idea of some sort of anti-materialistic approach to science has always intrigued me, it's why I have studied quantum mechanics as much as I have, it's why I take a keen interest in lateral thinking, it's why I listen to speeches on creativity and eastern philosophy, it's because there's actual substance there, it's practical and it resonates with you and you don't have to work to deny or prove it because it's well situated into our humanity.
Truth be told, one of the biggest reasons I want to be a biologist is so that I can understand the scientific model of the world as well as I can so that I can then begin to think around it. I believe the universe is capable of being further understood beyond our current realm of understanding, and I believe that materialism is simply the current layer we're digging through. If there's any hope of prying open the nature of reality and ultimate truth or whatever 'that thing' we're looking for is, we need to question everything and even entertain ideas that aren't completely comfortable with us. It's all part of the process, y'know.
Anyway, I've come across two links that have stirred my philosophical juices, and made me re-question my spiritual orientation. The first is an essay that explains the nature of consciousness and why we view it the way we do in modern society. Very enlightening. The other is a lecture given by Keith Ward on how misguided our viewpoints really are concerning different schools of thought. It is very outright inspiring to see people discussing intelligent design in an educated fashion, using actual reasoning to inspire and encouraging people to think for themselves. In that regard, I hate to say it, but a part of me hopes that religion would just kind of die, and in its ashes be reborn a passionate and vigorous reshaping of spiritual ideals. I don't like living in a society where people spend their time debunking other people's beliefs rather than building on their own, so I kind of wish we could do away with fundamentalism so that we can continue to evolve science and religion's relationship with each other. Anyway... there's nothing I can say that those two links don't say already, so just click them. :P
In other news, I'm interested in game design again. I actually wanted to be an AI programmer once, it was my first career choice, but I quickly opted for other fields that I felt were more adequate for my thinking style, but I learned a few things from my temporary foray into programming and I still regret not becoming more familiar with it, because game design is one of those hobbies I have that all I can do is think tank on without ever actually being able to test my hypothesis on. It's a shame because I highly admire independent game designers that think outside the box concerning interactive entertainment because they know more than most how much of an unrealized medium games actually are. It's a shame because video-games today, I feel, are viewed upon as juvenile and counter-productive. The game industry as a whole is doing very precious little to change its reputation into something more respectable, and I believe that ultimately has to do with nobody really knowing how because people are kind of 'stuck' on perceiving games in a certain way that the mold has hardened to a degree that's hard to break out of. The state of our current economy sure isn't helping, but I digress, that's not the point I'm getting at...
So I was trying to figure out what exactly constituted a 'game', so I took the simplest game I could think of and thought of its components. Pong, right? You need a control mechanism with clear established limits, (the paddle's ability to either go up or down) you need a game-play system that responds to the controls, (the ball's very simple physics engine) and you need a reward system. (the points that accumulate when the ball breaches the opponent's paddle) I continued this line of thinking until I realized I was falling in the same trap every other game designer falls into, I was following a specific mold, not actually analyzing the core of game-play.
As a kid, I remember my funnest hobbies being exploration, going through the woods and wetlands, treating it as some sort of large sandbox where I could pretend to be anything I wanted, part of any world I could imagine. This was me 'playing' but I wasn't limited by game-play mechanics or being rewarded with a meaningless point system. The reward was in the experience, the act of discovery, the act of figuring out the 'system'. I realized this type of playing differs from traditional games like sports is because the reward isn't in the competitive aspect, but the creative aspect, the process of discovery and understanding.
Anyway, I thought I was on the right track so I searched for games that followed similar approaches. I was already inspired by two games by Jason Rohrer: Gravitation and Passage. Make sure to read the notes after you play them, it will help give insight into what kind of experience you just had. I don't want to spoil anything, but these two games were different in that the game isn't about reaching some type of goal, but trying to understand what the game-play means in a deeper and emotional sense. They're reflective in nature, meaning at first you're just dicking around but when the game reveals something to you, you take a look back and analyze your own actions, you realize there's meaning there, and it makes you contemplate the premise in mind.
Then I came across this pecular site, Towlr, which turns out explores the same basic idea but in more of a mechanical way. There's no theme or underlying message in these games, but the idea of using the process of discovery as a game-play mechanic is right there in its rawest form. The point is not only to win the 'game', but to figure out how to win the 'game'. Interesting method, because it plays with the idea that most of what constitutes a game actually occurs inside the player's mind, and not necessarily just his ability to do everything the game tells him to do. I still think something's not fully realized in these games though as they're entirely logic-based and don't deal with any serious themes, so something medium transforming would have to take this process and figure out a way to make it strike a chord with the players. Like in other art-forms, it's never about the actual product, but how it inspires the person viewing it.
Anyway, this is a work in progress, more as it develops.
No comments:
Post a Comment