Conserving Interaction
What should we conserve of a video game? Doesn’t a video suffice? We must define the heart, but also the form, of a video game. It is characterized by its interactivity in addition to it traditional artistic elements (text, image, and sound). It is this mastery of the art of interactivity that provides the quality of the recreational experience and must be conserved. This implies preserving, in addition to computer data and machines (computers, consoles, telephones) that the games run on, the user interfaces.
Emulators only provide a part of the solution; we cannot forget the joysticks that go with the games, and this term has become too simplistic faced with the range of contemporary interfaces. Should we count on enthusiasts worldwide who, with practices that sometimes test the limits of legality, contribute to this work by programming these simulators for free or by resuscitating an old title with an obsolete support, making it easy to conserve?
Art-Science Think Tank: Wednesday, June 12