I believe people today are in desperate need of ways to deal with the complexity of our contemporary lives. And I believe thoughtful games can fulfil this role.
This is interesting and important. It's actually a huge topic to discuss but... I remember that when I studied philosophy I was encountering similar thing that I encounter now on these forums. Just like them, you guys like to talk a bit too much (for my taste, of course) about theory, not about practice. Like the idea to create notgames because you THINK it might be great. Practical way would be to do it because you find it better or more accurate to your needs. In other words: searching through practice is more exciting and gives better results as searching through thinking. The difference would be like between a person who tries to paint something on canvas and person who writes long books about it but sits in his academic room.
And I remember that the only period of human thought that I ever found really inspiring and amazing is Ancient times. Ancient Greeks were trying to answer the question "how to live a good life?". And they were actively looking for this answer. Somewhere later in the history of humanity this question was lost or forgotten or (how?!) were suddenly considered not important or already answered (again, how?!). This question is what is so fundamental for us, humans. How to achieve happiness and not lose it? How to stay in constant feeling of goodness and pleasure, whatever we find pleasurable and good. Is it harmony? Is it chaos? Is it active creativity or laziness? Is it learning or teaching? Or perhaps is it playing latest PS3 hit?
I find this question so fundamental that I think it would be appropriate for parents to encourage their children to first answer this question in their lives before making any serious decisions. Finding the way before walking forward.
Now, I highly, highly doubt games are capable of helping people organize their lives, finding answers. Look at us right now. Do we make games about this subject or do we use the internet and use English language to communicate? We meditate and philosophize (is philosophy the answer?
). Use of language in many mediums is what makes those mediums really valuable. Theatre and literature. So old, and so experienced in asking and answering many questions. Finally cinema that follows the same path as videogames. Technical excellence over plot. And it is plot that is capable of carrying everything that valuable and enriching. I think that videogames are lost. It's enough to me to see how many copies of Modern Warfare 2 has been sold already and, basing on it, how does "your typical gamer of 2nd decade of XXI Century" looks like. He isn't really another Socrates
But, I believe that notgames (or however we are going to call them) are capable of it. And that serious, interesting, encouraging to think and fulfilled with emotional content interactive stories can be (in the same time) entertaining. And I do not necessarily think of "boom boom bang bang" entertainment. "Lethal Weapon" isn't really the way (although it isn't completely worthless). But perhaps "Shawshank Redemption" is ("Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes, really. Pressure and time"). Perhaps "The Prisoner" ("I'm not a number!") or "Evangelion" ("Humans found a god, and thus tried to obtain it. As a result humanity was punished. The god that they found vanished."; ironically, there is a lot of "boom boom" in this one). Perhaps many others. Not to mention movies, plays and books considered classics.
How could games be capable of doing something like that? Do we get a candy every for every minute of movie we have watched? We don't, and that's how games work. They do not really nurture our inner child. What they do is they infantilize (reduce to an infantile state) teenagers and adult people. Winnie the Pooh (original books) is capable of nurture our inner child but I believe it's due to the fact Winnie the Pooh is really a taoistic wise man, not an equivalent of Spongebob Squarepants.
I see no hope for videogames. But I see hope for what videogames not stand for. Maturity.
