What computer entertainment lacks most I think is a sense of mystery. It's too left-brain.... I think there might be real promise in game designs that offer less of a sense of nitpicking mastery and control, and more of a sense of sleaziness and bluesiness and smokiness. Not neat tinkertoy puzzles to be decoded, not "treasure-hunts for assets," but creations with some deeper sense of genuine artistic mystery.
It's a really good read (long though). This quote sticks out the most to me, because it's the lack of mystery/magic/whatever that's just killed my desire to play any mmog, in release or in dev.
Another rif on computer games as ART damnit! from 1991...
He does have a couple of decent points, buried in a mount of sheed delight listening to himself talk. Games being so tied to the platform they are developed for is one of them, but with the prevalences of games being made for several systems simultaneous as the existance of many emulators, I think its not a strong a point as it once was.
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If you want to woo the muse of the odd, don't read Shakespeare. Read Webster's revenge plays. Don't read Homer and Aristotle. Read Herodotus where he's off talking about Egyptian women having public sex with goats.
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