http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/06/ar...odaysheadlines
The more artificial an object is, the more arbitrary the restrictions are on its movements, the simpler the rules governing the play, the more powerful a game seems to become. A game establishes its own world.
Yet over the last two decades, the evolution of video games has involved a quest for the opposite. One of the major goals of video game systems has been to simulate the real, to create images so lifelike, and movements so natural that there is no sense of artifice.But in many video games, the technology is put in service to creating a world that could do very well without it and doesn't exactly welcome technology to begin with.
This sentiment is often accompanied by nostalgia and affection for more "primitive," earlier-generation games.In this struggle, technology is an emblem of both the game's limits and its promises; it helps determine what can and cannot be done. And game designers — like game players — keep exploring those boundaries. But through every gaming generation, no matter what the technology, the player is still the classic adolescent: at once uncertain and arrogant, proud and disgusted, resenting the demands being made and, finally, cherishing the ability to master them.
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