Comments on Game Cabaret: The Existential Gamer

Interesting. I usually find myself creating my own...

2008-07-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

Interesting. I usually find myself creating my own story to a game that is vague in its own storytelling. Not quite the level of immersion described in your article. The one thing I do enjoy the most is coming up with my own interpretation of the gaming experience of a particular title, no matter how linear it may be. To find deeper meanings and connections to video games is an art in itself.

It's an excellent article.I am somewhat unsure how...

2008-03-01T11:44:00.000-08:00

It's an excellent article.

I am somewhat unsure how I feel during gameplay.

I am pretty sure I had the same experience as othe...

2008-02-22T20:34:00.000-08:00

I am pretty sure I had the same experience as other gamers during the sex in Mass Effect.

Think they are fixed now guttertalk. Thanks for po...

2008-02-21T11:57:00.000-08:00

Think they are fixed now guttertalk. Thanks for pointing it out though.

Oh, and truth be said that ioannis character might have a point y'know. Perhaps he could even let us reprint something of his concerning v.g. narrative. Perhaps he'd be so kind as to translate it himself too...

I agree that some games would not lend themselves ...

2008-02-20T07:55:00.000-08:00

I agree that some games would not lend themselves to creating your own adventure, but in a sense, don't you at least to some degree?

In Mass Effect, which is a very complex story, I'm definitely creating my own character, which of course the game wants you to. I think you could take it even further than the game allows.

Back when I was beta testing different MMOs, I played one in which the player defined all sorts of things about their character, including a backstory, parent and sibling names, etc.

I very clumsily was suggesting that it is as much writing our own game as well as our own story. Both have beginnings and endings, but the structure can be what you want. The challenge could be trying to author your own game/story in a game that might not easily allow you to do so.

The Thousand Plateaus reference was, I see now, too underdeveloped. I was making two points here: one is owning our games (authoring as you say) and the other is removing our boundaries between our gaming and the other parts of our lives. (For many kids, playing is more serious to them than schoolwork, which is not as bad as it sounds IMO.) The Plateaus reference was for the benefit of the latter point. It's something to probably something to have left to a different post.

BTW, gnome, the comments on your other blogs are missing.

Very interesting article, and I'll second gnome on...

2008-02-20T05:59:00.000-08:00

Very interesting article, and I'll second gnome on the toy thing. Your suggestions on 'opening up' play do evoke an approach to videogames as toys. But I wonder whether this would apply to more 'authored' games as well: wouldn't I be missing something of the point of a deliberately complex narrative game if I superimposed my own off-the-hook interpretation on it?

And what about grand strategy games, like Civ? Is there a useful sense of 'opening' those up? They do afford some chance for 'role-playing' or 'narrative', but how far can you go from the goal of beating the AI?

I can't follow the 1000 plateaus angle, but I'd be interested to hear more on the conundrum of identifying the structure of a videogame vs. imposing a structure of your own.

Very, very interesting. It sort of reminded me the...

2008-02-20T04:11:00.000-08:00

Very, very interesting. It sort of reminded me the way I used to approach games and toys, or at least, the way I think I did. A meta-game of sorts...

Anyway. Happy thing is you're still not into cosplay and Heinlein wasn't that young when he begun writing.