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How Art Games work - Outland
we can use games to communicate forms of agency.
C. Thi Nguyen • Games: Agency As Art (Thinking Art)
In order to be absorbed in a game, we must behave as if winning were a final end. That end must phenomenally engulf us, if we are to be gripped by the game and if its thrills and threats are to have emotional punch for us. We must pursue the goals of the game wholeheartedly, putting our larger purpose out of mind. In other words, we must submerge o
... See moreC. Thi Nguyen • Games: Agency As Art (Thinking Art)
Games, then, are a unique social technology. They are a method for inscribing forms of agency into artifactual vessels:
C. Thi Nguyen • Games: Agency As Art (Thinking Art)
Above all, people need agency. They need to feel in control. Sometimes, that means designing for subversive behavior. I mean, isn't the most fun often had when you're breaking rules? But this is enormously difficult in software, where you must design almost everythingfrom scratch. Unlike life, you don't get a common repertoire of actions for free –... See more
XH • Internet Playgrounds
The principal critique of SimCity is that it harbors a “‘hidden curriculum.’”5 In this appraisal, players unconsciously naturalize invisible assumptions, many of which are problematic. Which assumptions are nefarious depends, of course, on one’s own worldview, which is the sharp point of this critique: simulations ought to make their inner workings
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