I want to explore video games as a system. I grew up with video games and my favorite games tend to be RPGs (role-playing games) with complex and engrossing storylines, like Final Fantasy 7. Games, generally speaking, function as a system of rules that guide players through a very specific experience. The actions that players choose to take determine different outcomes, the most basic of which include winning and losing.
Video games, as systems, encompass more than just rules. They have characters, landscapes, worlds, stories, dynamics, mechanics, and audiovisual elements, to name a few things. Some consider video games works of art. Independent video game developers often view themselves as artists, and pour their hearts into making their games. Games like Super Meat Boy became instant hits. The beauty of the game is in its simplicity and its aesthetic, endearing qualities. The heart of the game is what I’m trying to get at and fully understand. How a game like this, as a system, is able to generate such depth of emotion while maintaining its beautiful simplicity is what I want to dive into this semester.
I’m trying to focus on maybe one aspect of games, because the universe of video games is quite massive. I’m leaning towards storylines and/or the universes that are created as the settings for video games, but this is all yet to be determined.
Here’s a short presentation I made for the class: