Comments on: How Board Games Explain Everything — Part 4: Utopia, Sex, Art http://littlebobeep.com/2010/board-games-explain-part-4-utopia-sex-art/ Welcome to Little Bo Beep, a site for news and discussion of gaming, science fiction, and the creative ramblings of the overeducated and underemployed. Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:40:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Dane http://littlebobeep.com/2010/board-games-explain-part-4-utopia-sex-art/comment-page-1/#comment-431 Dane Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:03:18 +0000 http://littlebobeep.com/?p=3463#comment-431 One obvious candidate for activity #4 in utopia is socializing -- hanging out, philosophizing, and just talking. Sex and games are both interpersonal, but neither is about interpersonality for its own sake. Wouldn't that be a pretty big part of any society, utopian or otherwise? One obvious candidate for activity #4 in utopia is socializing — hanging out, philosophizing, and just talking. Sex and games are both interpersonal, but neither is about interpersonality for its own sake. Wouldn’t that be a pretty big part of any society, utopian or otherwise?

]]> By: Josh Foreman http://littlebobeep.com/2010/board-games-explain-part-4-utopia-sex-art/comment-page-1/#comment-345 Josh Foreman Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:09:08 +0000 http://littlebobeep.com/?p=3463#comment-345 I think it's odd that Suites does not apply the same logic towards games that he does to sex and art. Whatever mulligan stew of nuanced motivations that compel us to create art and make love are surely present in our motives for play. Competition is clearly a large factor in all of these areas and is part and parcel with avarice, envy, war and all those other unpleasantries that he feels the need to dispense with in order to define his Utopia. I'm not sure how much you read in the video game design field. But Gamasutra.com is a good place to find this sort of discussion concerning unified theories of design, proposals for a cohesive vocabulary, etc. I've read a lot of articles with these goals, but currently the game design industry has a few factors keeping this from happening. A lack of any real design credentials or methodologies means we have a majority of designers being kids who just have intuitive knowledge of what is fun. Most of them seem very specific about the "what" of fun, but are not very articulate about the "why". This will change as a larger percentage grows and matures. I think it’s odd that Suites does not apply the same logic towards games that he does to sex and art. Whatever mulligan stew of nuanced motivations that compel us to create art and make love are surely present in our motives for play. Competition is clearly a large factor in all of these areas and is part and parcel with avarice, envy, war and all those other unpleasantries that he feels the need to dispense with in order to define his Utopia.

I’m not sure how much you read in the video game design field. But Gamasutra.com is a good place to find this sort of discussion concerning unified theories of design, proposals for a cohesive vocabulary, etc. I’ve read a lot of articles with these goals, but currently the game design industry has a few factors keeping this from happening. A lack of any real design credentials or methodologies means we have a majority of designers being kids who just have intuitive knowledge of what is fun. Most of them seem very specific about the “what” of fun, but are not very articulate about the “why”. This will change as a larger percentage grows and matures.

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