(Before I begin, please understand that this post addresses video gaming first and foremost. The level of innovation found in non-video gaming, such as board games, ARGs and LARPs is not in question or discussion in the following.)
Before I was something of a video game nerd, I was an avid reader. Fictions intended for readers far beyond my demographic were as swiftly accepted and devoured as fairy tales and comic books and cartoon strips. The creation of worlds and universes through the use of a few splotches of carefully organized ink held for me such enormous appeal that even when my family did finally allow our television to have channels, I found I still favored the written word and the permission it granted the mind to craft personalized universes of varying accuracy to the one depicted on the page.
Additionally, as a musician, I've gained an immense respect for the creative process and the efforts through which creative minds must so frequently go. The ability to grasp into nothingness and create a form, a sensation or even an emotion, be it existent within or exclusive from our own reality, is not one I take lightly in the evaluation of any person.
Within the new influx of games as a form of art, media and expression, I find a wealth of potential to create new and unique sensations and expressions yet unexplored, in multitudes and levels yet unexperienced. Man now has within his power the ability to make almost entirely real the tales of grandeur and inspiration that have since man's genesis captivated us. The tales themselves may change, the characters may change in name and in personality, but for all intents and purposes mankind still finds value in fiction of all sorts, and in gaming it has potential unlike any existing medium prior.
While I am, for my ideals, still an advocate of putting food on one's own table, it is because of the immense potential inherent to this field that I regard the increased spattering of bland first-person cover-based violent shooters with a significant amount of disgust. Were I not aware of otherwise, I would surmise that the only story creative minds are interested in conjuring are those of death and murder— not inherently invalid, but, as with any variety of tale, oversaturation of any tale will dull its impact considerably, and the tales of those who look down sniper rifles towards enemies of now wildly diverse descriptions have dulled to a blunt face indeed.
It is with this in mind that I address my intentions for entering the game industry. I intend to explore and utilize this potential to stretch gaming's role beyond mere entertainment. Games are capable, just as movies, records and books before it, of changing how society thinks, behaves and contributes to itself as a whole, and in its current state is only just beginning to become aware of this.
The video gaming world is just now waking up. Instead of passively letting it fall back asleep under the weight of formulaic repetition and lack of innovation, let us guide it up on the legs of the successes of media forms past and let it reach new heights as it awakens further.
6-Blog was organized very clearly and was easy to understand. It showed a clear demonstration of what you were talking about. Good stuff.
ReplyDelete4, I felt the beginning of the writing to be off on a tangent to the second half, but after that I felt it was intelegently addressed
ReplyDeleteI think your reading was really intense and you gave a great exploration and idea of what you wanted to say. Everything was clear to me and I think I understood what you wanted to say.
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