(Walking Simulator Reading Response)
Games are defined as methods of interaction, created with a defined set of goals and rules. Goals are defined as actions we wish to achieve in the scope of the game. Rules are defined as limitations that control the way we accomplish these goals.
What are games but abstractions of what we see, hear and feel, and what is art but explorations of precisely that. Games, just as with art, are nothing without the audience. We don’t just play games – we immerse ourselves with them and become a part of it. Games are art, art is life, and life is a game.
Some of us may think that these games are somehow different from reality, and that we may perform unspeakable acts within our virtual creations, destroying our world from the inside out, with the expectation that it will continually renew itself at every playthrough.
We are real, and the games we play are also real. While the actions performed in our games may exist only in an imagined space, these actions impact us in very physical ways. Games, like all methods of human communication, directly affect our mood, our feelings, and our very state of being in our time. If the things we do say more about us than what we say, then playing games provides a window into how we think as a society and as a people.
