Lunde

I'm looking for more video games that explore ambiguity in their realities and representation. This may seem like a counter-intuitive ambition in a medium in which artists frequently strive for photorealism. Yet beyond recreation, I want more games that challenge and thus grow my imagination. Let me explain.

The greatest worth of video games -- as a human endeavor -- may be their potential to nurture our imaginations. This is a familiar argument but different proponents seem to assert different things. Let's first examine a popular version of the argument, and then unpack a second version that may be more interesting.

It seems most often that the argument for games' potential to nurture our imaginations refers to games that provide a "mostly complete" experience. This experience starts in the creator's mind, and then a player accesses it through interaction with the game. A player mostly uses their imagination to emotionally connect with the experience, not to define it. If the game is a box of cake mix, the player just adds water. The essential substance of such a game is the vividness of the direct impressions delivered by the game, from the creator's imagination to the player's imagination.

We might say that a player gets to experience the creator's waking dream. In this frame and in order to leverage greater potential, a game needs more vivid direct impressions, especially more directness and realism in representation and simulation (e.g., in fabric, in hair, in dogs). This is the goal that most AAA game development seems to pursue, and it's the tantalizing promise of the soon-to-be launched virtual reality headsets (e.g., the Oculus Rift).

A sterling example of this pursuit of vividness is the excellent game The Last of Us. It delivers a transporting experience through realistic graphics and sound, including engrossing action set pieces and richly emotive voice acting. Yet, one of the greatest strengths of such games is also one of their weaknesses. As a player in this kind of game, the journey that my imagination can take is mostly confined to the creator's vision.

For example, if you and I each play The Last of Us, then we both experience essentially the same sequence with the giraffes. On the one hand, our imaginative experiences vary somewhat, including how we move Joel or the camera and what we each bring from our personal lives to bear on what we're engaged with in this sequence. For example, the sequence reminds me of visiting Hogle Zoo as a child (from whence the giraffes probably escaped), while you may never have been to Salt Lake City in real life. On the other hand, we both see things that are clearly giraffes moving in a distinctly giraffe-like way. With this box of cake mix, there's only one cake to make.

I want more games that challenge and thus grow my imagination because I deeply believe in the vast, inestimable worth of imagination. I say this as a gamer and as a game designer, as well as a psychologist, parent, and educator. A strong imagination powerfully supports creativity, and creativity is invaluable in our lives, from solving household problems to streamlining processes at work to inventing new technologies. Imagination and creativity depend on having a certain care-free attitude (or disposition) -- a freedom from judgment. Goofing off can help foster this attitude. Video games have tremendous, still unrealized power to exercise our imaginations while goofing off and, thus, to strengthen our imagination and creativity.