Come Out And Play

Over the past few weeks, we've been working with a few common threads here at SVGL. We talked a lot about what creates our emotional attachment to games, and discovered that a lot of it has to do with why our childhood memories of video games are so strong even though games were much simpler then: imagination.

These days, games like ICO and Portal earn such dear spots in both our hearts and our pop culture because of all the things they've left unsaid; I'd add to the mix the world of BioShock's Rapture, which presents us a living ruin and then leaves so many of the empty spaces up to our roaming imaginations to fill.

Remember our discussion on the Last Guardian trailer and how it created a similar imagination-connection? We noted at the time that the games that are the best at this have something interesting in common: their creators aren't strictly game designers. Fumito Ueda was a student of art before ever taking his gifts to the game industry; the writers of Portal are exactly that -- writers -- and they would have been writing even if not for a video game (and to you designers who say you don't need writers to truly succeed, good luck with that).

I've also gotten an overwhelmingly positive response (thank you guys!) to the video on which I collaborated with the fantastic Daniel Floyd on why a growing female presence both in the games audience and the games industry is essential to the medium's creative development.

All of our recent discussions, then, have one core value in common: Diversity. The most valuable perspectives come from non-traditional creators, and the industry will thrive on being less insular. It's no coincidence, then, that I recently quizzed you guys in the latest SVGL sidebar poll on how you spend your time.

First of all, thanks for making this the best SVGL poll yet with 918 responses. And given that this is a pretty specific kinda video game blog, it's unsurprising that only 1 percent of you said that games are "pretty minor" in your life. About a third of you count games as your main activity in life, at 31 percent, and 53 percent of you say games take the lead among a few other hobbies. Only 12 percent of you would say you have "many" hobbies aside from video games.

I asked you about this because I wanted to find out how diverse you are in terms of your interests. Last weekend I was enjoying the great weather at a wonderful outdoor concert, and, tongue-in-cheek, scolded gamers via Twitter for spending the weekend indoors when there tends to be lots to do in the summer. Of course, I was largely teasing, but I was alarmed at how virulent some of the responses were. As if it were unacceptable, completely out-of-line, for me to imply that there's anything wrong with focusing on video games to the exclusion of all other things.

We're entering an era of cross-media IP (huh? More on that tomorrow), and I think it'll be a good thing for games when they can diversify in terms of who's creating them and in terms of how audiences can access gameworlds. And while we need diversity on the development side, our insularity as players isn't very helpful to the culture of games either.

I spend so much time on music these days that a lot of people ask me, "well, why don't you become a music journalist?" Because I like being a video game journalist -- I just feel that one's experience of any entertainment medium can only be enriched by the lessons and experiences from other entertainment media. Being into music has helped me enjoy games more, and I want to encourage everyone out there to find new ways to enjoy games through other established art. It's good for us!

That's what I had in mind when I wrote my recent Kotaku feature, in which I invited a popular band from the Brooklyn show scene I've been spending a lot of my free time enjoying to come and play Rock Band with me. Was it a successful ambassadorship? Read it and find out!

I'm slowly digging my way out of a backlog to get back to you guys. More polls, more posts, and more fun stuff soon!

Kings and Kings

Thanks for hanging in there, guys -- been super busy at Gamasutra lately, so I haven't had much time to think about blogging. I still don't, but look for that trend to reverse next week!

Meanwhile, I just got Little King's Story and I can't wait to start playing; been looking forward to it since I had it previewed for me last year. So cute -- and be sure and check out Gamasutra's feature today interviewing the game's creator, Yoshio Kimura. Fascinating! One of those auteur types we all love to love. Feature's worth reading for his strange/adorable/amazing drawings alone.

What are you guys playing this weekend? Is it just me, or is now a real good time largely to revisit old favorites (like the complete King's Quest collection now out on Steam for just $15, omg omg) rather than look for new releases?

King me!

Nostalgia Trip

Remember when I asked you about your childhood memories, and spent a lot of time bugging you about your evolving relationship to games as you've aged? All those questions about imagination and abstraction?

All that was for an article that went up today at the Escapist for its fourth-birthday edition (happy anniversary, friends!) -- check it out. I got an overwhelming number of responses and of course couldn't use them all, but I'd like to heartily thank all of you for sharing your memories with me.

Hopefully this article serves as a fun wrap-up to some of the stuff we've been discussing here at SVGL over the past couple weeks!

Imagination And Abstraction

We've been talking childhood nostalgia here lately -- last week, a lot of you responded to my call for stories of childhood play, and hopefully you'll be seeing the fruits of that little survey soon. Hearty thanks to everyone who participated!

We also again beat our previous record for SVGL polling with 887 votes! You guys are awesome! I asked you whether your emotional relationship to games has changed as you grew out of childhood.

I was under the impression that for most of us, the good old days were the best old days, and that even though games have evolved by leaps and bounds since our youth, it's been hard to recapture that lovin' feeling, whether it's because we're not imaginitive little kiddoes anymore, because we're attached to the past or because today's titles are so sophisticated they leave less room to fill in the blanks.

But that's not true for most of you, apparently -- 43% of respondents said they feel just as emotional about games these days as you did when you were kids. 27% of you said it's just not the same anymore -- but almost the same amount, 23%, said you actually get more out of games emotionally as an adult now that you really "get" what you're doing when you play and why. Just 5% of you said you'd never felt "touched" by games.

I've been really interested in imagination and abstraction lately, if you hadn't noticed -- my last Kotaku feature, between whose lines you probably picked up an aversion to gesture-based control schemes on my part, asserted that classic buttons-and-sticks work well because it's more interesting to abstract interaction in game worlds rather than act it out literally. And it gives you more options, too.

At the same time, when we all discussed Fumito Ueda's work recently, we all concluded that one of the main reasons why his games inspire the imagination so much is because of all of the things they leave unsaid. The quietude and minimalism of ICO and Colossus make you want to fill in the blanks, and that's a big part of why they get your gears turning. I always believed that we're so fond of old games for a similar reason -- when your hero's just a little blob on a screen, when there's no narrative and only a minimal, generalized backstory, it's more fun to make up your own.

Anyway, more on all of this stuff later. Meanwhile, I've got a new poll question for you -- just how big a role do games play in your life? Vote in the right-hand sidebar, please. Can we top the last turnout? Yeah. I think we can. Let's do this thang!