On 1UP.com‘s 1 September 2008 1UP FM podcast (with Jonathan Blow, Shawn Elliott, David Hellman, Rod Humble, and Nick Suttner), Rod Humble claims that:
…games are uniquely qualified to address MANY important human issues. More so than other art forms. Listeners, my pretentious meter’s going to go off the dial here, so — go grab a beer. But, the — to me, the greatest philosopher is Socrates, and the most important message that he sent throughout history was that he didn’t write anything. And why? It wasn’t that he couldn’t be bothered, it was he explicitly did not trust any kind of message that you didn’t have a dialogue in. It is — there is something — untrue about anything where, I can’t just probe it — and say, “But wait! I’m talking to you about this,” and you get to respond.
…with games, we can do that by setting up an environment and allowing that dialogue to happen with interactivity.
Shortly thereafter, Johnathan Blow challenges this notion:
…a game inherently…chooses the subject of the dialogue. And as propagandists know, that’s like 90% of the battle. Like if you can choose what the question is, then you almost don’t care what — answers people come up with…
…I do see that there is that value in two-way communication, it’s still, to me does seem kind of one-way.
The whole thing makes for a fascinating listen. It’s undoubtedly the best podcast I’ve heard all year.
Tags: 1UP, Shawn Elliott, Jonathan Blow, Rod Humble, Braid, The Marriage, Nick Suttner, David Hellman, Stars over Half Moon Bay, EA, Electronic Arts, The Sims, Socrates, Number None
