The Trouble with Origin Stories
As I am trying to write this chapter on the history of online rp games, I realize that the main obstacle that is preventing my from being wholly productive is the question of origin. Each time I write something and move on, I realize that there is some more 'back story' that contextualizes the first statement. Without covering the entire history of technology, I know I must draw a line and acknowledge the line, and move on. But for some reason, it is alot harder than it would appear. I am struggling with definitions as well - online games seemed quite explicit to me in the beginning. But as I research the history, what has often been attributed to "online" I would actually define as "networked" since there is a very explicit line between closed university networks that these games were created in (almost simultaneously and quite oblivious to each other) and the shift in game design and audienc once the internet faciliated connectivity. How far back I go and within what definitions has been paralyzing me in a seemingly simple task of defining the linear history of gameplay, design and aesthetic...
On this note, I guess I should get back to work..
On this note, I guess I should get back to work..
posted by Kelly at
15:16
2 Comments:
Good point here. And that certainly is always the problem of writing a history of anything. Makes me think of Foucault actually, and how he argued that history wasn't about the full and actual fact of a period, but rather more about the selection of events that should be included, and more importantly, about what was left out in the telling. That whole "micro physics of power" in historical stories.
By
Unknown, at 2/5/07 11:59 a.m.
i settled it by writing an introductory disclaimer stating that this is a linear history, not meant to be a cumulative one in terms of game play development and design. That some games and platforms may have more or less influence on the current mmog crop (give or take a few "better written" sentences!)
By
Kelly, at 2/5/07 12:32 p.m.
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