[-empyre-] Collaborative Games and Development

[George Karalis]

As this month's topic comes to an end, perhaps it is worth considering
collaboration in both developing and playing games.

At the beginning of the month (3/2), Renate mentioned the failed
attempt to bring together art and engineering students at Cornell
twelve years ago. Not much has changed, as game design programs focus
on mechanics and resource interactions rather than meaning or nuance.
It's an approach that works very well, just not for art. Likewise the
technical barriers to entry are high for artists without programming
knowledge. The divide between "art" and "gaming" is still rather
palpable. I was glad to see that line blur during these discussions!

Then we have collaboration in gameplay itself, with multiplayer gaming
or the uncertain upstart of "social games," which nobody seems to
understand. Raph Koster has argued that all games are social because
we always share our game experiences. I like this notion--that digital
games, of which we tend to focus on the human-computer aspect, are
more generally vehicles for human-human interaction. Many -empyre-
posts this month, I believe, speak to this too.

Thank you all,

George

--
George Karalis
Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences
College Scholar Class of 2013
gsk52 at cornell.edu