Thursday, September 27, 2007

Digital Games as Creative Tools

(An abstract. Warning: WIP carelessly translated from Portuguese)

Digital Games as Creative Tools

Chico Queiroz

Within the debate on the role of imagination and the imaginary in design theory and practice, there is a correlate issue that should be addressed. An issue within the scope of that debate, but that subverts the original perspective: the role of design in imaginary and creative practices. The objective of this analysis is to identify and discuss aspects and features that enable virtual ludic environments, such as electronic games, as catalysts for imaginative and creative processes. In order to investigate such connections, both terms that incorporate the definition of our subject must be taken in consideration: The ludic qualities, or sense of play, that makes them games, and also the elements that differentiate them as virtual, system-based, electronic. Digital tools have been used for all kinds of purposes. They are routinely used as extensions of our memories, via databases and storage spaces, and our senses, through the use of communication devices such as webcams. What is being proposed here is an investigation on how new technologies, more specifically video games, can function as extensions of our imagination and creativity - and how playfulness, inherent to such cultural artifacts, could relate to this technology, lending and borrowing qualities capable of amplifying their potentials, resulting in a successful and powerful combination that insufflates the creative process. This analysis takes in consideration perspectives presented by contemporary game and new media studies, and also by studies on traditional games and play.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not certain I'm quite catching the drift here. If the topic is whether or not digital games can be used as tools of creative expression, I think it's pretty self evident that they can be. Particularly games which don't adhere to a rigorous linear plot of the author/designer's devising, or allow the audience access to the system and development tools.

Chico Queiroz said...

Hello Corvus!

Thanks for commenting. Well, there´s not a drift... yet. This is only the abstract for a paper I still have to finish. I promise that the analysis itself will be more interesting (or complete, at least) :)

But as a topic, what do you think?

(maybe I should mention that the audience for this paper would be predominantly unfamiliar to game studies)

Chico Queiroz said...

On a second thought, I don´t believe most people realize that games can be used as tools for creative practice. In fact, I´m not sure most gamers use games that way (counciously, at least).

Copyright, Chico Queiroz