Gaming and thinking

We can speak to one another or write to one another to convey ideas and thoughts. These thoughts are heard or read and then interpreted, so we gain knowledge of the world around us. Because speaking and writing only gets us so far, people have found another way to communicate—through art. Art doesn't only convey a thought or idea. Art allows an audience to experience an idea. When we view a painting, we are able to see someone's feelings with our own eyes. When we listen to music, we are able to hear those feelings with our own ears. When we read a story, we are taken to the world in someone else's imagination. Art allows us to communicate our thoughts and feelings far more deeply and in a much more interesting way.


But what if you could take many of these forms of art and extend the way we feel them? What if you didn't just see and hear the feelings of an artist in their work, but you got to express your own creativity and thoughts back through the same piece of art? What if there was an interactive culmination of poetry, music, painting, architecture, cinema, and more? A surprisingly large amount of this ultimate art form already exists. We call them video games.


Artists of all types come together and collaborate to create a magnificent work in a single game. As an audience, we don't just listen to it or look at it. We get to live it. This factor of interactivity creates an unparalleled creative experience in games. Not only do we get to view a landscape, we get to explore it. Not only do we get to hear music, we get to conduct it and play along. Not only do we get to read a story, we get to take part in how it all unfolds. Like all art, games reach out to us to convey feelings and ideas. And because of the nature of games, we now can now more fully immerse ourselves in these feelings.


This is how I define gaming. As an artist, games have quickly become my favorite artistic medium. Never before were we able to create such an experience and method of expression. I think it's exciting to be a part of an era in which this new art is still budding and evolving.


When I play games, I don't just press buttons to pass the time. I think. I experience. I feel. Games have had a great impact on me philosophically, as they've challenged me to think and feel in ways I previously had not considered. I've seen many viewpoints and experienced many stories in my time as a gamer. And I have started this blog to share my personal thoughts and feelings about and inspired by gaming.

The 3D cinematics in Akitoshi Kawazu's UNLIMITED:Saga use digitally watercolored textures to complement the hand-painted artwork style of the game and give a unique aesthetic appeal to the environment.

UNLIMITED:Saga and artwork are property of Square-Enix.