At the 2007 Montreal Games Summit, Jonathan Blow, creator of 2006 IGF Design Innovation award winner Braid, addressed the subtle assumptions that underlie the modern game development process.

Many of these assumptions, he asserted, are damaging, founded in the fabric of tradition and consistently reinforced by a lifetime of games. According to the report from gamasutra, Blow proposed a fresh mindset and the need for a new perspective on game design, with the goal of fostering enhanced creativity and deeper, more meaningful games.

When asked why do players want to play mmo, he said:" I have a concern here, My concern is that games designers of today lack discernment when we think about whether games are good or bad. If players play it and report they,re having fun, we say, 'hey that,s a good game.' If not, we say, 'they don,t understand it.'"

"Sometimes we take this really far," Blow noted, "MMOs are notorious for having relatively empty gameplay, but keeping players hooked with constant fake rewards this creates 'the treadmill.' Rewards are a way of lying to the player so they feel good and continue to play the game." He noted some extreme examples of this, such as reported incidents of Chinese or Korean MMO players dying at the computer.

In addition, Blow talked about "The WoW Drug", he believes that according to WoW, the game's rules are its meaning of life. "The meaning of life in WoW is you,re some schmo that doesn,t have anything better to do than sit around pressing a button and killing imaginary monsters," he explained. "It doesn't matter if you're smart or how adept you are, it,s just how much time you sink in. You don't need to do anything exceptional, you just need to run the treadmill like everyone else."

"You don't come away from WoW with that in your head, but that comes through subtly and subconsciously," Blow added. "It's like advertising and brand identity. People identify with their activities, same thing with games, people are products of their origins and their environments. We're giving them these environments and helping to determine what they,re going to be."

Jonathan Blow also talked about many MMOs' current situation such as what games provide and what are games going to be. For more information, please read: MIGS 2007: Jonathan Blow On The 'WoW Drug', Meaningful Games

News Original From: gamasutra

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