Will Wright on games (Revolution based)

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.nintendo (More info?)

This from Will Wright's excellent book - A Theory of Fun. (read it, it's
good). Applicable to the Revolution.



"Games, however, are always formal. The historical trend in games has
shown that when a new genre of game is invented, it follows a trajectory
where incresing complexity is added to it, until eventually the games on
the market are so complex and advanced that newcomers can't get into
them - the barrier of entry is too high. You could call this the jargon
factor becuase it is common to ALL format systems. Priesthoods develop,
terms enter common use, and soon only the educated few can hack it.

In most media, the way out of this has been the development of a new
formal principle (as well as a cultural shift). Sometimes it was a
development in knowledge of the form. Sometimes it was the developement
of a competing medium that usurped the place of the old medium, as when
photography forced painters to undergo a radical reevaluation of their
art form. Games, though, aren't tending to do this all that much. By and
large, we have seen an inexorable march toward greater complexity. This
has led to a prieshood of those who can speak the language, master the
intricacies, and keep up to date.

Every once in a while games come along that appeal to the masses, and
thank goodness. Because frankly, preisthoods are a perversion of what
games are about as well. The worst possible fate for games (and by
extension, for our species) would be for games to become niche,
something played by only a few elite who have the training to do so. It
was bad for music, it was bad for writing, and it would be bad for games
as well."



And as soembody who almost cried spending days learning how to play Rome
- Total War, I tend to agree.