I truly do feel that we have the power to bring up our industry as a whole and do what radio, television and film are seemingly incapable of doing: Making quality fulfilling products that use a broader understanding of the human psychy to not only provide entertainment and pleasure but also to make people consistently think, to challenge their ideals and strive for a better life. I think this is only possible in a medium that forces the audience to take part, instantly activating entire portions of their brain that go to sleep with anything else. That increased activity alone puts people in a state afterwards that is better off than they were in before, and it is when we can get people to do in this state of mind that truly truly inspires me. Can we get them to vote? Can we get them to recycle? Can we get them to treat people with compassion? Other mediums merely put a dormant thought into a dormant brain that has been shut off in order to partake in a passive medium, and then put the onus on the watcher to ‘wake up’ afterwards AND go out and put into motion something that was shown to them while their brains were completely switched off. Did you know there have been brain studies done that show the levels of activity while staring at a blank wall is higher than while watching television, and they expect people to get up and be proactive when they are told to over the tube? Come on.

I dream that our industry will rise above the others and not simply rely on the gimmicks of pandering to the lowest common denominator of fear, sex and violence and start being able to apply the insight and learning described in that last article of yours I broadcast and achieve the same results of pleasure and stimuli without needing to use the lazy and pathetic ways out that the film and television media have been relying on for half a century. I am not sure if this occurs to the people you are working with, but on my team I have pushed this hard with all 46 of our members. Every design decision must carefully way in the emotional and psychological goals before it can be implemented.. All visual designs must do the same, entire sections and areas of the game have overall macro psychological and emotional goals that we use as a compass to guide us in how we design the story. And of course to blanket all of that is our overall macro goal for the entire game which acts as the river, always keeping us on course. Painful as it may be to have to question every single design and story direction I truly feel that it is necessary to unlock some of the potential this medium has in regards to what I described above about what we can do to our audience and make them do with themselves outside of the gaming experience.

Tags: video game industry