Jordan Magnuson spearheaded this session, talking about his main research focus, game poetry. He asked us many questions surrounding this topic to try to inspire us.
- What is a game poem, and why should you care?
- How can the basic building blocks of video games be used to explore tough topics, create new, thoughtful experiences, etc
- How do we often talk about making good video games?
- What about tiny games that explore the loose ends of life?
He then continued on to what a game is perceived to be and how it links within poetry.
A game’s aspects should be…
- Narrative – telling good stories
- Gameplay/mechanics – balanced gameplay
- Mechanics, unique, feel, satisfying
- Complicated emotions, tragic events, unknown areas, and experiences.
A game can be a poem without words from the feelings it invokes.
Poems juxtapose signified meaning with material meaning; they are hyperbolic, short and subjective.
I found this very provocative and gave me a new viewpoint on a link that I generally wasn’t interested in. I feel like this talk has showcased the fact that games do not need to be complicated to evoke a strong feeling, as shown by Jordan’s poetry games. I will take this into account when pushing my idea further for my project proposal.