I want to scrutinise the lens in which we view bodies of interactive work we typically associate with "videogames" and ask; "What is an interactive work of art that does not rely on competition, goals, rewards, winning or losing?"

1. Make art, not games
I want to scrutinise the lens in which we view
bodies of interactive work we typically
associate with "videogames" and ask; "What
is an interactive work of art that does not
rely on competition, goals, rewards, winning
or losing?"

2. Intro I
“Those beautiful moments when we feel like
we’re in another world, when we find
ourselves enthralled and immersed with
complete disregard of the prize that we
might be winning or losing.”

3. Intro II
“Rare moments that are all too often
shattered by the demands of the game. What
if we remove all “unnatural” constraints and
create an experience that consists only of
such beautiful moments?”

4. Examples
These "games" are controversial in their rejection of
conventional elements typical for the medium and are
affectionately known as; Visual Novel (Danganronpa),
Interactive Movie (Heavy Rain), Interactive Experience
(Journey), Walking Simulator (Gone Home), etc...

5. Case studies
Some of these are dubbed with affection, but
not all are said with flattery. "Interactive
movie" or "walking simulator" is a reductive
remark meant to criticise how far these
games are from... well, "games".

6. Interactive movies (Heavy Rain)
With Heavy Rain, there's a relentless focus on story; with
no fail states (characters die, the story continues) and an
emphasis on momentum through subtle character-
driven hints and time sensitive scenarios.

7. Walking Simulator (Gone Home)
Gone Home can be seen as a reductive experience of
playing a Bioshock game. It was in removing typical
game elements that gave them the means to tell a really
personal and emotive story.

8. Observation
With both these "games", the creators freed
themselves from typical conventions, which
opened up the medium to a wealth of
possibilities with which they were able to
explore and deliver a powerful experience
with.

9. TV shows as an example
I'd like to look at the structure of the hour-
long "drama" and how its constraints
dictated the type of experiences you would
find on TV. In doing so, we can witness a
situation that is analogous with game
development.

10. The hour long "drama"; a history
Shows are designed around the structure of the format,
with the "goal" to prevent people from changing the
channel. Cliffhangers before each commercial break and
standalone episodes are there to "game" the system.

11. The problem with constraints
The constraints of these "dramas" take the making of a
show away from being some kind of exercise in artistic
expression, and take it more and more into being an
engineering problem.

12. HBO - no commercials or syndication
TV had to change structurally before
it got better. Film makers got better
too along the line, but the format had
to adjust itself by removing those
constraints in order to provide that
canvas for purer expression, and
thus higher quality content.

13. Gamification: Gamifying games
As "game" developers we tend to narrow our
expressive abilities by trying to fit our work
into the format. We can often see games with
high ambitions that are undermined by their
exhaustive efforts to fit as games.

14. Museum Analogy I
The experience of exploring a museum is in
immersing yourself with all its riches and
wonders, and using your curiosity and tastes
to guide yourself and earn the appreciation
of what is on offer.

15. Museum Analogy II
If we enter a museum with a bunch of quests
of what to do and where to go, we’re
disabling people from letting their own
curiosity and taste guide them, and hurting
their ability to appreciate what’s on offer.

16. Blind gamification
We often see ludonarrative dissonance as a
direct result of the clash between the
message a game is trying to make, with the
gamification of the game itself. How much
better would Bioshock Infinite be without
combat!?

17. Conclusion I
To conclude, I'd like to share this quote: "The
shape of a container determines what can be
contained". This is a broad truth I'd like to
highlight as the shortcoming of many
"videogames".

18. Conclusion II
In freeing ourselves of the constraints of the
format, we can allow ourselves a broader
canvas for artistic expression. A possibility
space much richer than what is traditionally
associated with what we know as "games".

19. Conclusion III
We can achieve this by removing the word
"game" from the creation process altogether,
and to consider the technical possibilities of
the medium itself; creating a space for a
wider range of more rich and thoughtful
experiences.

20. Thank you!
Thank you for listening to my thoughts on the medium. I
believe it is a space rife with possibilities, and I look
forward to witnessing as many kinds of experiences
possible within it. Cheers!
This talk was inspired by the blog "notgames" by Tale of
Tales and the lecture "The medium is the message" by
Jonathan Blow.