The Tragic Flaw

"I've decided that all game designers are masochistic." -- Max Nichols

Today, Max and I spent the majority of our 8 hour work day on creating a paper prototype to test every single AI calculation that each of the 10 players on a soccer field would go through. With 4 tabs of random number generators and about 25 sheets of paper containing each of the checks and rules for each individual player, we played until the synaptic gaps of the nerves in our brain began to grow larger as our intelligence dribbled out our ears -- it is at this time that I have reached the highest record of Tetris lines completed!

Things with the project on the whole are going really well. Max and I are beginning to work much more closely with Joel, our QA Lead, and will soon start meeting more frequently with the writers and programmers as well. The project still needs more money, and anyone interested in learning more about the project or are interested in donating, please visit the Empowering Play project website.

On another note, Ray Ortgeisen, a Champlain College student, got a very thought provoking blog post about serious games posted on Gamasutra yesterday. Since reading it, I have thought very heavily about how the language we use within the game industry affects how others perceive gaming culture and how the industry communicates with one another. The gist of his article states that separating certain games into a genre titled "serious" inherently states that all other games that are not within this genre are not serious -- which is false and rather insulting. I agree with him on this point, and I think it brings about the ever fervent issue about language within this community. Once my brains fully stop dribbling, I'll come to some conclusions about how we can change how we portray ourselves to the masses and about how we can better communicate what we aim to do as a medium. It is rather upsetting that social stigmas against video games cause the industry to respond with somewhat discriminatory acts -- just like creating a genre called "serious games". If everyone could just accept that all games have the potential to be serious, perhaps then a different term would be used when describing the characteristics that serious games have.

I do think that the Tragic Flaw of the video game industry is the business nature of it sometimes. I also think that a flaw (but not a tragic one) of video game designers is our need to create something and completely destroy it though analyzation -- hence, masochism. While Max said that in jest, it is true, and we should all just sigh, laugh, and love that we do it. Unlike a tragic flaw, our ability to do so will lead us to greatness.