This quote was presented by designer Martin Hollis during his talk at a
GDC panel called How Designing for Love Can Change the World. Of course,
the overwhelming majority of games people play--be they board games,
card games, or multiplayer video games--are about conflict and
competition. Chess, one of the oldest games known to humankind,
symbolizes a war, and the first video game I can remember playing was a
simple two-player tank combat game. Both of these end with one winner
and one loser. I don't generally mind games with violence or
competition, and I often love them, but at times I've wondered if the
preponderance of such games is an inevitable reflection of human nature,
or if we can create a more diverse gaming landscape; one in which other
values, themes and emotions also flourish.
Sometimes games stay with us as a result of their emotional impact rather than their gameplay.
Hollis--no stranger to violent games, having produced and directed GoldenEye 007--posited
that a change is in the air where video games are concerned. Everyone
is swimming to make competitive games, and there is an ocean of
possibility for those who want to make romantic games. Hollis voiced a
hope that thousands of years from now, at GDC 7001, the balance will
have shifted somewhat, and that perhaps only half the games discussed
will be about war, with the other half being focused on love.
