Unlearn what play should be
Unlearn what play should be
Unlearn what play should be
By David Monreal Becerra
September 15, 2020
Summary
Without really knowing why, I got bored of video games and ended up forgetting about them for a decade.
At the end of that period, 3 things brought my attention back to games, although from a different perspective: the concept of gamification, the rediscovery of storytelling tabletop Role Playing Games and finding out about the indie developer community.
How is the concept of a game bounded? What still counts as a game and what no longer does? Can you give the boundary? No. You can draw one; for none has so far been drawn.
As could not be otherwise, my notion of video game was totally conditioned by the video games I had played, or had seen, or had read about.
If you think about it, the genres and subgenres that have come to define the different possible categories of video games just happen to be there by natural selection.
At some moment, a game mechanic was compelling enough for the players so that designers decided to reincorporate it in later video games.
World Wild Web is a collaboratively designed non-profit video game where players will realize the power of digital persuasion, its economic, political and social influence and its ubiquitous weight on social media.
We were extremely lucky and our idea was awarded the first prize, which allowed us to finance the development of the video game.
To conclude, I would like to encourage everyone to constantly unlearn what games are, or should be Let the indefiniteness of play surprise you.
David Monreal Becerra is the Creative Director and Narrative Designer of 'World Wild Web', a game commissioned by the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona.
Reference
Becerra, D. (2020, September 15). Unlearn what play should be. Retrieved October 13, 2020, from https://www.ludogogy.co.uk/article/unlearn-what-play-should-be/