Reading Response 2

Will Wright, one of the video game world’s most respected game developers takes time to write the article “Dream Machines”. In the article he discusses how video games are viewed in society, and how he feels they are much greater tools for the human imagination, and even child development. Wright states that video games are “a rapid cycle of hypothesis, experiment, and analysis.” Wright looks at how children and teenagers now go about problem solving differently than any other previous generation. It stated that previous generations went ahead with problem solving, especially in games, in a linear fashion. This is different than the current generation, that when they get a new game to play, they skip over reading the instruction manual, and start an assault on the controller, mashing buttons, quickly figuring out what each button does or does not do. Wright continues to go on to say “This isn’t a random process; it’s the essence of the scientific method.”
Differently than movies, which do not provide the “what ifs” in a story life, video games allow for user interactivity, and as the games get more advanced, even more interactivity. For example, in a movie, there is only one plotline, only one way the characters are portrayed, and one ending (minus some that come out on DVD with an “alternate-never –before-seen-ending.”) In one of the newer games released for the Xbox 360, Fable II, you create the character you portray, editing even the smallest details about them . For true interactivity, the plotlines can completely change from a story of “good” to a story of “evil” based upon choices (moral and routine) throughout the game. If you decide to try and steal from a shopkeeper in the game, you slowly go down the evil path. If you decide to return the priceless ring to the lady who lost it, you go down the path of the holy. They even have some choices in the game that make you choose between the lesser of two evils.
In essence, this opens up the world of imagination that Wright describes, when making such open ended games such as SimCity and The Sims. Games are no longer like Pong was originally, but are around to truly to explore the realms of possibility, especially in children. As the human mind evolves from child to teenager, the more games are available to play. Higher thinking, exploring, and imagining are opened up to us from that point. As Wright closes his article, he says “games are evolving to entertain, educate, and engage us individually.” How true this is. If you don’t believe Wright, pick up a copy of The Sims or Fable II, and see how engaged you become in it.