"Ultimately, games are trying to deal with the human desire to clean things up." That's a fascinating way of looking at things.<p>In games like Quake, the "cleaning up" is eliminating opponents. But even in educational trivia, one could say the "cleaning up" is getting as many correct answers as possible. Our instinctual desires to organize, i.e. "clean".
Has Romero done anything worthwhile since touching Quake? and who is Brenda Braithwaite? Maybe I am out of date...<p>I'd take it all with a pinch of salt - but then I am a game programmer talking about game designers - so take me with a pinch as well. :)<p>I think Valve have the right idea on game design from what they have shared. For one thing they actually ship consistently good games - for another they take a very scientific and reproducable approach. No confusing, unsubstantiated theories floating around, or guesses based on vague psychology... just iteration based on experiment.<p>Its a shame more developers don't share more with their crazy NDA happy approaches. I think it would be good if game design was considered more seriously as a field, but its not going to happen when academia and industry are far apart and the industry is keeping all of its knowledge of the field locked away behind NDAs.<p><a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3408/the_cabal_valves_design_process_.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3408/the_cabal_valves_...</a><p><a href="http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2006/GDC2006_HL2DesignProcess.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2006/GDC2006_HL2De...</a><p><a href="http://www.computerandvideogames.com/147512/interviewslooking-back-half-life-2-episode-one/" rel="nofollow">http://www.computerandvideogames.com/147512/interviewslookin...</a>
"the human desire to clean things up."<p>I'm not sure I like where popular game-design seems to be headed.
Core game mechanics driven by completing tasks, leveling up, reducing entropy, and competing with friends certainly have their place, and you probably couldn't dissect 'mafia wars' any other way. But it irks me that this is a trend, and that they're trying to hack through the average gamer's mental framework.<p>I've played at least 20 games that've mesmerized me and gotten me addicted purely through their graphics, characters, soundtrack, ambience and game world. My experience with the Final Fantasy series early on, was memorable despite the core gameplay mechanics. I was mostly drawn in by the vivid, dreamy environments and the interesting/quirky characters.