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Denver, 3:20 PM
Wed Nov 25
53 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/15/08
The context to which a game applies is itself. Not even artificial languages like Sindarin or Klingon are that insular. Perhaps machinema could be considered the only use of a game as language, but I'd say that it's then a medium - like film, or radio, which uses languages be they verbal, or gesture-based that we already understand from other contexts - but not a language itself. (Yes, even things like color filters, camera angles, dramatic pacing, etc.)
That said, there are language-like constructs found all throughout games. For a while now I've heard some game journalists speak about the "syntax" of more straightforward games like the Mega Man series as it applies to controls, and the stimulus/response tests throughout a level. An MMO without a good emote system IMO falls flat, and I have had many conversations using only the emotes in some games. While the emotes could be a limited language, the game itself isn't.
Still, it's certainly something worth considering seriously. I'd say a strong lead to lean toward games as language would be writings like Neil Cohn's Visual Syntactic Structures and related pieces. These writings cover many nonverbal languages and linguistic constructs that can certainly be found in many games.
11/16/08
Do you believe gaming would lead to a universal verbal/NVC among gamers or languages among gamers? I am sure the different syntax usage from different countries would also show up if a gaming language were to be created and would form some sort of regionalisation of gaming worlds.
I am actually inclined to suggest that we look at forms like roflcopter/roflcopting/roflcopted as terms that have made it into some sort of gaming lexicon that originally appeared in the game Warcraft 3.
11/16/08
I don't think that games themselves are universal enough to generate a universal language. I agree that the culture of the players is more likely to regionalize it to an extent.
I didn't know roflcopter had anything to do with WC3... there will certainly be neologisms out of gaming subcultures. (w00t, pwned) but I think those are more products of the players, even if they are known specifically in gaming circles. They don't seem to bear any artifacts of the games they were originated in for the most part.
I did think of something after posting though: The mechanic of controlling a character on screen might be considered a very limited language: You must send instructions to the character, and depending on circumstances, they may react to it, or even understand your intention and react differently depending on their own context. If they are unable to fulfill a request, then in a well designed game, that would be communicated back to the user, providing feedback essential to two way communication. What do you think?
11/15/08
23 tank LF2M VC have heals PST!
11/15/08
11/16/08
11/15/08
when we get a complete gaming language there will be no vowels. it would be disemvoweled by the time it became a language.
11/16/08