This was somewhat triggered by
Thomas's post about exploring worlds and the necessity to guide players.
One of the things that fascinates me about this medium is that we can create things that
exist. Not just as material, or even as thought. But we can actually create little worlds that really exist. Worlds that are, to some extent, alive. Worlds that exist, even if you're not interacting with them.
This is especially true for persistent online worlds, but with a little imagination it can be true for single player experiences that you run on your own computer as well (somewhere in the world, someone could be running the game, keeping the world alive).
I find it very inspiring to think of our creations not just as reflections or expressions about life, but as life in and of themselves, as additions to existence, new life forms. When we are creating a game, we're not just crafting an experience for a player, we're also giving birth to a living organism, an organism that people can develop a relationship with. Not just the characters, but the entire game world.
The idea that the virtual world that we built, exists somewhere, even when we're not playing, is very poetic to me. I guess it's a bit like a
holiday destination. It's always there for us. We can visit whenever we want.
Thinking about our work in this way also helps to embrace non-linearity.
We often tend to focus on interactivity as the one import unique property of this medium. But in my mind, there are
three important aspects to digital media: interactivity, generativity and non-linearity. All three are equally unique to the medium and deserve to be explored.
