Paper

Cole Means

Art 381

21 February 2017

City of Exploration

            The art of games is vast and what brings about intrigue for the gamer varies greatly. The game theorist, McKenzie Wark, explains the addictive art of gaming in what he refers to as “The Cave” and how games attract gamers into their perspective worlds. He communicates how games are a way of life and once acclimated to “The Cave” it is hard to leave it. There are many aspects that contribute to the success of games, from captivating visuals to success in achieving goals, but one important aspect of a game is a sense of exploration. Exploring a unique world different from our own can give one a sense of discovery and in some cases this sense of discovery and hope for even greater discoveries after that is what pulls the gamer into such a world.

            The art of exploration permeates every part of the game, from story to actual exploration of the gamescape’s setting and environment. Personally, the most important part of a game is a captivating story that causes delving into the lore. For an individual that enjoys the story of a game, unless you’re the type of individual who cares more for good gameplay and does not care about the overall story, will often want to discover and delve into that story’s depths and then delve even deep to find out more. This sense of continually seeking out new information about a game’s story is one interpretation of this idea of exploration. In this case of exploration, an individual is exploring the depth in which a story can take them and for any information gained there is a sense of discovery. But exploration is not limited to the facets of the story alone.

            Exploration of a games setting is important and makes one wonder what will be found around the next corner or in the next dungeon. This form of exploration can be very important and can lead to a game’s overall success even without the inclusion of a deep and captivating story. This is apparent when looking at the games produced by Bethesda, like the popular titles of Fallout and Elder Scrolls. In these games and other sandbox games like them there is a large focus on exploring. For the Fallout game series, you explore the vast nuclear wasteland of a retro futuristic Earth and in the Elder Scrolls games you explore a medieval world of magic, gods and multiple different races like elves. All the games produced by Bethesda process stories, though they are often interesting they are also not quite as intriguing or as good as many other game series, but the true enjoyment in these games come from the side quest and exploration of the worlds. You never know what will be found around the corner and the maps process many locations that are able to be and will be explored. At each location, unique weapons or other items will often be found and finding and discovering such items adds to this sense of exploration and thus enjoyment. While the games mostly lack the important need to explore a deep story, they make up for it with the explorations of their vast worlds.

            It is this idea of exploration that I would like to have in my game/city. For the theme of my city I am going to try and make a cityscape like what you might find in the real world. The old combined with the new, skyscrapers rising alongside castle walls, old homes mixed with newer homes. I think my final finishing point will be somewhere outside of town in a small building of sorts. I want to create a sense/idea of exploration like that of a tourist in some new city and allow the gamer to check out the sights, though in a limited way likely. Ideally the gamer of my game will want to know what is around the corner. I want the individual to lose themselves in the game and have them enjoy it or at least have the game hold their attention for the duration of the game. I would like to have a game that is visually interesting and clean; maybe I will make it have some element of fantasy or futuristic setting elements.

            There are many elements that contribute to successful game art and not many wrong ways of expressing this form of art. Exploration is probably the or one of the most important features to have in a game if it is to be successful. Without the ability to make the gamer want to explore, and through exploring have them lose themselves in the game and to continue wanting more, it is likely that the game will lose interest quickly. It is important to make the world of the game unique and interesting so that the player allows the world to take on an importance that takes a form of a way of life.