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
Opaque Systems
In this short essay, I look at how games teach us how their mechanics work, and one way in which that teaching goes wrong: when the mechanics are too hard to understand because we aren’t given enough information.
On Storytelling: Blasphemous
Stories have a wonderful ability to allow us to explore complex moral topics without needing to engage in the direct harms that happen in those stories. Using the game Blasphemous, I wanted to explore the concept of guilt and how guilt figures into being a moral person according to the game’s themes.
On Storytelling: Undertale
Video games demand that we keep going and continually work to overcome the hurdles that confront us…but is that always a good thing? Using the game Undertale, I look at the theme of determination, and how the game portrays determination as a way of exploring the value of sticking to your goals and seeing them through.
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Abstracting Games 