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Why I love games
In a recent interview at a game dev company, I was asked a fairly typical and straightforward question: "Why do you want to work on games in particular?"
I can hardly believe how relatively unprepared to answer the question I seemed to be. Besides being a question that I had expected to be asked, it's also something I've thought about many times and a question I've answered in many in-depth conversations in the past. Perhaps the problem was that I'd never actually attempted to articulate my answer succinctly in a few sentences, not to mention under some amount of pressure. That part of the interview process was rather informal, though, so it gives me some amount of pause that I feel I fumbled on my response to the very question that I should have by all means been able to answer best.
The experience helped me realize how great a question it really is: why do I care about games so much? I'd like to take the time to (begin to) answer the question for myself, but I'd also like to hear some of my peers answer the question as well. At the end of this post, I'm going to call on a few friends in particular who I am hoping will follow suit.
(PSA: I'm not even going to try to shorten the length of this post. As much as I appreciate brevity and aspire to express my ideas as concisely as possible when blogging, I think this is one of those times when my desire to just-get-it-out-there-for-goodness-sake will have to take priority.)
Games are a big part of who I am
Games were the biggest influence inspiring me to continue pursuing my artistic skills. As my dad enjoys recalling, it was almost always images inspired by Mortal Kombat (which he graciously brought me to arcades to play) and Command & Conquer (which he bought me for Christmas one year and changed my life forever) that kept me drawing on a consistent basis. So games weren't just something I always enjoyed playing -- they were something through which I found my joy of creative expression. To me, games have always clearly represented a great gateway for enrichment in terms of simultaneously entertaining and edifying play.
Games are what got me into philosophy. Alpha Centauri in particular helped me understand that a lot of classic and modern philosophy deals with issues that have only become more important as the technology of Western civilization has progressed. AC and Civilization were the first pieces of media that really pushed me to consider how technology, economics, and politics play together in the real world. They really helped me understand and appreciate written history.
Perhaps most importantly, though, games were one thing that was always there for me, not just as something to keep my mind away from boredom or to distract me from the occasional lonely times, but as a very deep reminder of the beauty of life and the endless ways in which we, as artists, craftspeople, and engineers can create products that truly reflect our joy for life and allow us to share it with others.
I know that at least one of my friends can't help but snicker every time I mention this, but those who share my love for Final Fantasy III (US) and who shared the same sort of experiences with it as a kid understand well what the game meant to me. In a very profound way, FF III and a select few other games served as a consistent reminder of greater things in life. They were anchors to some of my greater spiritual beliefs and reminders that there's more to life that what the troubling halls of middle and high school and the seemingly dreary world of so-called "adult life" had to offer.
Infinite horizons
As I grew up and particularly as I went through college at WPI I became more and more convinced of the virtues of games as a hobby and profession. The last three years in particular have been encouraging, with the rapid growth of casual and serious games and Nintendo's revolution being particularly noteworthy.
I'm find it very refreshing and inspiring to see how well the industry is starting to diversify. (We may have a long way to go in terms of solidarity and mutual appreciation, but still....) My dreams and vision for the future of games has never diminished and has only grown over time. It now seems almost self-apparent to me that there is something fundamentally play-oriented about our nature as humans, and games provide the structure to make play meaningful on so many social and personal levels for those who play them. Thus, as electronic games have the advantage of being essentially restricted only by the imaginations of those who make them, the potential of the medium is nearly limitless.
The nature of play and the foundation of interacting with an environment in a structured way makes games an incredibly powerful force for persuasion, edification, and entertainment. With games, we write the rules as developers and as players. We can explore new worlds (imagined, emotional, or otherwise), prototype solutions to non-trivial problems, learn about the relationships between our decisions and their corresponding outcomes, and so much more.
I know the pieces fit
Looking at it from the view at 60,000 feet, it's obvious, even from an almost purely logical point of view, why I desire to work with games as a life-long pursuit. It's simple, actually: I want to constantly aspire to improve and apply my skills to help with the development of things that serve a purpose about which I feel strongly supportive. Ultimately, I'd like to work with a medium or media that allow me to express my creative desires to help others see the beauty in all aspects of life. I want to work with brilliant, passionate people with a whole-hearted love for life and a genuine desire to make the product of their labor no less than the fullest possible realization of their dreams, speaking in short and long terms. (And in general, I just love working with people who love working together!)
Developers and producers in the so called "mainstream/hardcore" games market are starting to see the writing on the wall and are making efforts to change how they develop in the name of sustainability. Those sick of the traditional industry are striking out in a myriad of different ways, with pretty darned inspiring results thus far. And perhaps best of all, it seems that we're finally establishing a strong and well-recognized "indie" scene. Go read Jon Mak's interview with Gamasutra about Everyday Shooter or read about the success of Armadillo Run and tell me it doesn't help reaffirm your faith that games can be innovative and still get due exposure, providing enough financial sustenance to keep their artists focused on what they're so great at.
So why do I choose games? I choose games because in my mind interactive entertainment seems to exist at an almost impossibly beautiful meeting point of my creative and life-accomplishment desires. I see games as the vehicle through which pretty much all the things I love most in life will continue to manifest in greater and greater forms throughout my life.
So for now, I hope this sufficiently answers the question of why I love games and want to work on them for a living -- or at least starts the process of answering it. Indeed, exploring why games mean so much to us may be the ultimate expression of our love for them and the very thing that will always keep us coming back to games, in one form or another.
If anyone who reads this would also like to make a similar post, please leave a comment here linking to your post as I'd love to hear them. You don't have to love the industry as much as I do or anything, but I know that at the very least Craig and Darius should have plenty to say about this. Why do you guys love games so much and what makes you want to work on them (professionally or just on the side)?
