Jonathan Blow on Terra Nova.
Catching up on my feeds this sunday morning, I found a discussion about something Jonathan Blow (of Braid fame) - said a couple of weeks ago. The original interview was by itself well worth a read but he really grabed my attention when he asserted that the core mechanic constituting the experience of most current MMO’s is “unethical”. A strong word that was sure to bring the ire of many fans but also this insightful discussion on Terra Nova. It’s fun noting that Randy Farmer (of Habitat) was almost saying the same thing back in 2000!
I’m late to the discussion and there’s so much to say about the subject that it would hardly fit in a blog post. Still, a couple of remarks off the top of my head:
- On Richard Bartle’s comment that teaching through virtual worlds or games would make them antinomic with art.
As always with discussions about what is or isn’t art, everything hinges on what your definition of art is. In my view, games have to fight for their inclusion in the art category precisely because they are pushing the boundaries of the generally accepted definition. Games, unlike the classical arts, have a functional core. Players do things in games. Because doing is learning, players can learn in games if the mechanics are carefully designed.
- On progamer’s comment that game designers “…don’t have an ethical duty to anyone.”
My previous remark should at least partly explain why game designers do have a responsibility to think about the social effects of their designs. Because gaming’s interactive, a player can change the state of a game but a game can also change the state of a player! Which is why game designers should definitely be thinking about the social impact of their games and why society at large should take a much closer look at what’s happening within them.
Coming back to the main debate, if we define the current virtual world grind as an extremely powerful, non skill based reinforcement schedule in a social network, one has to wonder what its effect on society will be if/when it engages large parts of our planet’s population. To put it more simply, what happens to society if/when massive amount of people spend most of their lifetime, learning or doing nothing useful?
Although I’m not yet ready to go as far as calling the grind unethical, I am concerned that - on the grand scale of things - there might be a serious problem looming…
