January 20, 2006
Video Games, Design and Predetermination
I came across a discussion that I created about predetermination and video games. I argued a case that video game design involves predetermination to some degree. While I agree with Dr. Jerz's statement that "there is a difference between predetermination in the sense that the designer has built a system that has one optimal outcome (winning) and multiple deaths that end progress. There's another kind of predetermination that focuses on the interaction of a small number of farily simple rules, which lead to emergent game play." But when you design something, isn't that defeating the purpose?
Even Dr. Jerz himself defines design as: "anything that is planned, tested, modified, or rearranged with a specific purpose." I argue that, to some degree there is pretermination in games, whether it be conscious or sub-conscious. Otherwise, game design would be a free-for-all of people just throwing out random rules and seeing what happens next.
Posted by EvanReynolds at January 20, 2006 2:54 PM
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