I enjoyed Friday's lecture - though that is possibly becaise it was Philosophy centred and I have a degree in pointless waffling... erm I mean Philosophy ;)
Seriously though it was good and got me thinking. As I've been writing a LOT about teh Magic Circle and the distinct 'game world' and 'real world' the lecture on Friday and some comments from people during discussion in the lecture reminded me of the Ontological Argument for God's existence (it goes (VERY BASICALLY) along the lines of I have an idea of God - the idea of God is of the greatest possible being - the 'greatest possible being' would not be if it didn't exist as 'existence' is one of it's attributes - therefore God must exist).
The thing is, with this argument you can pretty much think ANYTHING into existence so long as 'existence' is one of it's attributes. The Unicorn and Santa being two good examples (not that I'm saying Santa doesn't exist, and if you're reading this Santa, I have been good - all year - and my Christmas list can be found on my desk under the monitor!)
Anywho... linking back to the Magic Circle idea. In an Ontological Styleee you can bring anything within the circle in to existence. It manifests while you play, but it has all the attributes of a real thing. Say for instance (as I'm going to play on WoW after this), we take my Night Elf character Alef. She has all the attributes of existence that I have (very bascially). In fact, I would argue she has EVERY attribute of someone you have not yet met.
In the games we play, either on computers or not, we create things - characters, places etc that we give real world attributes to (even though play takes place withing in the 'Magic Circle' which is suppsoed to be distinct from the 'real world'). And this, I think, plays a massive role in our immersion as we can on a 'non-play' level find attachement and familiarity with what we play as well as on a ludic (I think that's the right term) level.
So yes, that's my thinking for the day. I'm off to run around the Terrokkar Forest for a bit!
I'm Stef! I'm a 3D Artist and all round good egg :) This is my blog - originally from when I was at uni doing my Masters in Games Design and now for my general ramblings and thoughts. My portfolio can be found at www.stefbow.com - it's all kinds of tasty!
