Recent content by Robert Yang

Philosophy of Game Design - Part Four Our overview of the philosophy of videogame design ends by examining whether or not all games - traditional, experimental, or otherwise - are all forced to adhere to the same set of rules. Read Full Article

Philosophy of Game Design - Part Three Before discussing whether or not games are art, you must first decide what "art" really means. Read Full Article

I'm not sure if depth is the goal of this series, seeing as I'm attempting a general survey of game design AND philosophy. Just one would've been difficult enough. And I think game design is the synthesis of science, art and politics. Why shouldn't I draw from all three?

Philosophy of Game Design - Part Two Data, observation, and player input are either crucial or irrelevant to good game design, depending on which philosophy you follow. Read Full Article

1) Sorry to all the people I've disappointed, apparently! 2) I extrapolate from political philosophy because that seems to be the most general "philosophy-ish" kind of thing. You might be right, in saying I should've gone with aesthetics or something, but this is the one I took so I gotta...

Zamn: It's part 1, so I was trying to lay a base, and it seemed logical to start with the Greeks as a base. Part 2 might be more to your tastes.

Haha. What a fantastic man.

Hey everybody! I'll be the first to tell you that my understanding of philosophy is "imperfect" to put it mildly. Thanks for calling me out on everything. BUT also understand that: (a) the main reason for this series is to get YOU to talk about what a philosophy of game design would look...

I miss the days when gaming was just to put the cartridge in the socket, turn it on, and play. I've got nothing against debate, on the contrary, but I cannot see the point of these. Even with my simplistic example, gaming is an industry, and industry that focus on profits. To make sure to...

The Philosophy of Game Design (part 1) When you argue with your friends whether Starcraft 2 is a good game or if it sucks, it helps to actually define what makes a game "good." Robert Yang discusses game design using the philosophies of a couple Greek dudes you might have heard of before...

Only if there's interactive male-on-male sex scenes.

Not That There's Anything Wrong With That For straight gamers, videogames can often be an escape from a painful reality. But for gay gamers, videogames offer little respite from prejudice and homophobia. Robert Yang recalls his experience developing a Half-Life 2 mod featuring gay characters...

Well, one of the weird paradoxes I talk about in the article is about how "playing down" the importance was my way of "playing it up." It was an important detail to me, obviously, but still just a detail. Which is why it disturbed me when people critique the "gayness" as the main "flaw," when...

Err, perhaps I should've allotted a few more words to that sentence in the article... To be specific, an editor brought up the concern of homophobia and gave me the choice to censor it or not. The recent comments on my mod convinced me to heed their advice, so I explained that to them and agreed...

Well, just keep telling yourself that and maybe it'll be true someday.