Thoughts on Game Development and Game Design. Expect quick-thought blog posts, scripted videos, and even podcasts. If you want to learn my philosophy on video game development, this is a great place to start (and end).
With so much "top of the food chain" justification for humanity's many environmental exploits, it's impressive that we experience feelings of insignificance. But we do. These momentary lapses in bravado are testament to the strange ways of the human brain. Our ability to recognize our insignificance is matched by our ability to rationalize our significance. That’s a legitimate Catch-22 for you.
My cat is gray. But she was born black. An objective fact that you didn't care about has become a fact you do care about. That's how good narrative works.
What Remains of Edith Finch shows us that narrative can define and manipulate simultaneously, that story isn’t a matter of fact but rather a matter of understanding. And while facts may help us understand, facts alone are weak. Their power comes from how they are presented. This is why we have lawyers, afterall. This is why we have news anchors. This is why we have documentaries. Facts alone are weak. Facts change nothing. Facts need narrative.
Humans use story to justify their actions. Without justification other humans cannot anticipate action and therefore cannot form coherent societies and strong bonds within those societies. What Remains of Edith Finch narrows this concept all the way down to the family unit. This game explores how narrative can be used with good intent to form such bonds, but also how narrative can fracture trust by challenging facts.
I made a videogame! Here I talk about the game, and I offer a few thoughts about why I made the videogame. Play "Playing Nightmare Creators 4" now at https://calebjross.itch.io/playing-nightmare-creators-4 Mentioned: My Itch.io page with all my games that I've created.
To understand fanpersonism is to understand choice-supportive bias. This is the idea that once you've made a choice about something, you'll naturally look favorably upon things that support your choice and will downplay or ignore things that don't. Said another way, it's trying to avoid buyer's remorse.
Deindividuation is what causes a generally rational and non-confrontational person to become a terrible, rude, reference point for when parents and lawmakers tell us online multiplayer video games like League of Legends and Call of Duty are turning our good kids bad. This happens in two ways: