Note: This editorial does not express the feelings of Agora Games as a company, and is solely the opinion of the author.

Art, by definition is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination typically in a visual form. A video game by definition is a game played by electronically manipulating images produced by a computer program on a television screen or other display screen. By both definitions of each word, video games may be considered a form of art. The computer program which electronically manipulates images on a display screen must be created by a human. This human, must apply creative skill to create such images as well as the manipulation of images, images being a visual form. The definition of art clearly states that a the expression of human creativity is typically in a visual form, which video games by definition clearly do. Therefore, technically disregarding all personal opinions, culture, and other variable elements video games by definition are art. 

I strongly believe that video games are a form of art. Video games in fact include almost every single element of art there is. Let us analyze one of the most “accepted” forms of art in society which is included in video games, literature. Many video games these days staff writers to create a story for the particular game at hand. In fact, many game journalists include the quality of story within their review of a game. How much different is that then the New York Times reviewing a new novel? In fact, with games currently averaging about 20+ hours of gameplay it is safe to say that a well developed short story, or even a novel may be included within a video game. 

While one might argue that the quality of story is rather poor does this not also hold true to several novels? Sure one might say Gears of War had very poor dialogue and a rather poor story progression however, other titles provide players with a very well developed story and dialogue. An example of such a game in my opinion would be Mass Effect, in which a character Lorik Qui’in after you the player say, “I will let you go.” states the following, “Let me go? Do humans consider conversation a form of imprisonment? That would explain why so few of you are willing to sit down and talk…” This dialogue being directed at my character, therefore an extension of myself since I am controlling the character. The communication is not passive in nature, it is directed at myself and therefore directly impacts my thoughts and feelings on a personal level since it is I who am controlling this character, I who am a living breathing human being. The character being addressed is not print on a paper, it is my character, my choices which insinuated this response from Lorik. 

This method of immersion can not be achieved through a novel. Koster, touches on this subject by saying, “…games are very fundamental and powerful learning tools. It’s one thing to read in a book that “the map is not the territory” and another to have your armies rolled over by your opponent in a game. When the latter happens, you’re gonna get the point even if the actual armies aren’t marching into your suburban home.” Furthermore, video games are an accessible medium to any given audience. That is to say, while a certain skill is required to play a video game, both a novice gamer and an experience gamer will both be able to direct their in game experience into the subconscious, intuitive mind. However, in the art of literature, an experienced reader will gain a better experience into their subconscious, intuitive mind rather than a novice reader. 

Koster, in fact hits on this topic by comparing literature to games. “Consider the key differences between something like a book and different kinds of games. A book can do the logical conscious part of the brain pretty well. And really good readers have an ability to slurp that info directly into the subconscious, intuitive mind. But what a book will never be able to do is accelerate the grokking process to the degree that games do, because you cannot practice a pattern and run permutations on it with a book.” In essence, within a book you do not have the option to experience a scenario or event which you caused and observe the various outcomes of your actions. 

In addition to providing players with an immersive experience through literature, video games also provide creative visual elements which allow players to continue their immersion in a video game. Furthermore, combining both visual and literary elements provide the player with a unique experience which can not be simulated by any other form of art. Artists, art directors, and creative directors work in unison to give players a certain “feeling” or evoke a certain “emotion” while playing the game. 

The complexity and infancy of video games make the legitimacy of video games as a medium of art rather difficult to swallow. However, many other forms of art when first introduced went through the same life cycle. From the 1900s to the 1940s on screen films went from short black and white movies to full length hour long movies fully dressed with color and sound. As video games begin to mature and designers, programmers, artists, and musicians begin to become more experienced within this form of art I can only hope that the social stigma and media literacy problem evolves as well. One day I truly believe we will be walking through a museum watching interactive displays featuring some of the greatest forms of art, video games. 

Applications go through various stages of development.  The shining moments for an application are usually in the early stages.  There isn’t much complexity, there is plenty of time left until ‘launch day’, and developers are usually relaxed when coding.  Eventually every application suffers from poor feature requests, bad design, and rushed code.  The beautiful grassy plain of peace your application used to be is turned into a bustling city.

Boston is a city in Massachusetts that was founded a whole buncha years ago.  Back in the day, the guys pushing wagons around, and mules laden with baggage didn’t care about paths that they plodded into the ground.  All they cared about was getting their goods to where ever they needed to be.  If there was a ginormous rock in the way, they could just path around it.  After a while, cars started getting pretty cool.  Cars need roads, so all the roads were built right on top of those paths.

At that time, it was easier to just build a road on top of the path.  No one knew the windy mess of wagon-path converted roads would cause tons of lost tourists and traffic accidents today.  It might have been better to just nuke the ginormous rock out of the way, and make the road straight.  Unfortunately, that ginormous rock is some type of historical monument now, so it’s not possible anymore.

Anything is possible in software (with limit to it’s own scope), the only constraint is time.  Time is the key element here, it’s something you can’t get back.  Every decision that is made in software has an effect on how long something else will take.  Every second saved by hacking around something today, is going to cost you two seconds tomorrow.

“Tomorrow is so far away though, and I need this to work now.”  When the pressure is on, and time is short, this is a common approach to decision making.  It’s in these essential minutes during an applications life span, that hacks start to leak into every crevice.  To make things worse, instead of refactoring the hacks out, time is spent building more new features.  Eventually those crevices become a major fault line, and it causes changes to the code base to take three times as long.  By this time, new developers have no chance of contributing, and the existing developers hate working on the application because everything they do causes an earthquake.

A major problem with software development is the existing solution.

Things change, standards form, upgrades happen.  The best idea you ever had yesterday, can probably be done better today.  Don’t let your legacy code stink take over, get rid of it, refactor it, and upgrade it.  There is always a better way to approach a problem in software and in most every case the quickest solution is the worst solution.

      That’s right, myself and three others flew over to Anaheim, California to the Anaheim Convention Center for Blizzard’s 3rd Annual BlizzCon!  This year Blizzard featured all three of its games at the Con: World of Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo. I decided that despite the embarrassment which I might endure, I would dress up as a Blood Elf, featured in Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. I was a bit nervous at first. While approaching the convention center I saw no one dressed up in costume in sight, and there I was, sporting these ridiculous elf ears.  Once I entered the convention center I was astounded.  About 40% of the 15,000 people who showed up for the convention were dressed up in the most elaborate outfits.  From bulked up Horde warlocks to Alliance elves skimpy bikinis, it was all there.  Our goodie bags were amazing too!  Filled to the brim with fun swag, including a blow up Frostmourne, keychains, Starcraft “Zerg Creep”, Diablo III stress balls, BlizzCon hand sanitizer, mints, Warcraft trading card game starter kit, bottle opener, n00b tissues, paper WoW masks, Starcraft II beta key, polar bear mount for WoW, mouse pads, and these nifty Blizzard Digipass Authenticator by Vasco!

      Tickets to Blizzcon were about $100, which was pretty good considering everything at the Con other than food was free.  They had free pictures with a background of the game of your choice. You can view more of these photo’s at www.politeinpublic.com  Someone actually proposed in one of the photos - and don’t worry, she said yes!

      During many of the developer panels - where they explained the new game World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - I was texting our lead QA pro Dave Loya of all of the awesome new details for the new unveiled class, The Death Knight.  The Con also had several computer set-ups for participants to play Starcraft II, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and Diablo III.  I ended up demoing Diablo III, and it truly looks fantastic!  They have some more work to do on the game, but they did unveil a new class as well, the Wizard! 

      The Con itself was a sight to see.  There were meet and greets galore! Participants had the opportunity to meet with Blizzard employees and obtain free swag such as professional pictures, figure prints, trading cards and so much more!  We all waited in line for about two hours to get plush Murocs, which Jinx was all sold out by 6 p.m the first evening.  I tried to get pictures of everyone that were dressed up,  I even found a few fellow Blood Elves!  My crew was very recognizable due to the fact that we were all wearing red matching Tabards.  They are a exact replica of our guild tabards in game which are The Bloodrocutioners.  Chelsea (Designer, 1st Playable Productions) made all of the Tabards  worn at the Con all on her own with some sewing help from our other friends who came along for the trip.  The painstaking work totally paid off as people were shouting “Look!  Guildies!” and snapping pictures in our faces.  I think we averaged about 150 photos taken of us by random people per day.  By 10p.m. both nights I was seeing spots.  I couldn’t believe that if you were dressed up, you were photographed like a celebrity.  I even had one kid ask us to sign his Warcraft book with our names, realm name and guild name.  There were also many gals paid by Blizzard to model official WoW costumes! Also, My crew and myself were interviewed my two different websites!

      The final night had a great concert by Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, which is Blizzards metal band. Even the CEO was in the band!  The Orchestra concluded the evening with powerful music from Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo.  The theme music from World of Warcraft I must say, did give me goosebumps. I encourage anyone who plays any of the Blizzard games to check out the next Con in 2009, because I know I will be there!  It was an amazing time and so surreal with the ambience of gaming and fantasy combined into two fun filled days which was BlizzCon 2008!

Guild Interview

Our VP of Sales, Peter Ryan is famous!  Well, maybe not, but we’re proud of his post on Gamasutra.  Check it out here:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3828/building_social_communities_for_.php

Sometimes, things go wrong.

Sometimes, things go horribly, horribly wrong, and there’s nothing you can do to stop the slow-motion train wreck unfolding before your very eyes. (Like that one senior prom where you spilled your dinner all over your date’s dress. On the upside, you didn’t need that $200 anyway.) When things go that awry, there’s no way to fix it. (She never did return your phone calls, did she?) The only thing you can do with a mistake like that is to make sure it never, ever happens again.

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