Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Your Alternate Description - Steve Jackson Games Forums

Your Alternate Description - Steve Jackson Games Forums:

I wish I can find more people into Gaming Kaizen or Philosophy. I know many others are out there are taking what they learned and putting it into how they run their game.

particularly those who like to use Ethics, Philosophy, Game theory, and Science to understand the world and convert it to fun playable chunks in their game.

The internet is a big place, and anyone who is into Kaizen or Learning will need a sounding board to test and challenge their ideas so that it can be refined or retired thanks to criticism of other critical minds.

I bet there would be a community out there somewhere hope someone can point me to the direction where they all are Gaming Freethinkers.

1 comment:

Dagda (Brooks Harrel) said...

I've found that the creative practice of taking worthwhile insights into the nature of the world, and converting them directly into game elements, does little to create a worthwhile game/experience.

Then again, the fundamental label I'd assign to my game design efforts is neither "philosopher" nor "artist"; it's "craftsman". The drive here is to start from a concept- whether it's yours or someone else's, brilliant or utter trash- and make it into something great, something that has an *impact* on people. The more it can move someone, the more it can engage them, the more it can enrich their lives, the better job you've done.

Having that deep, extensive understanding of the world is vital, no question about that. But I really think it's a mistake to adopt a didactic approach. Just focus on making a good story/game/etc.; if you *have* that insight into the ways of the world, it'll naturally inform and inspire your craft. People will look at your creations and applaud layers of depth that you hadn't even consciously thought about until now.