Welcome to Abstracting Games!
A blog devoted to looking at games a little more closely.
Peruse essays on the intersection of gaming and philosophical inquiry.
Latest from the Blog
Moral Choices: On Forgiveness
If a character in a game was evil, but then joins the good guys, when do you forgive them? This question may seem difficult, but it’s a question that is rarely – if ever – posed through a game’s narrative. But by stepping back and thinking more carefully about what it means to “forgive” we can see how these narratives ignore the problem and how we might better incorporate these questions into video games.
Oops, You Missed Something!
It can feel aggravating to go through a game and find out that there’s something you missed, and that you can’t go back and get it. And yet, it can also feel aggravating to spend hours searching and re-searching areas just to make sure you haven’t missed anything. So how might we reach some kind of middle ground that can protect our sense of exploration while preventing us from missing content we want to find?
Playing as Performance
A lot of people like to record themselves playing games, and a lot of other people enjoy watching those recordings. But how does the mere act of performing change the way we relate to video games, whether when we’re being observed or even when we’re playing on our own?
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