Things I Learned at Fantastic Arcade

According to locals Adam Saltsman (Canabalt, Gravity Hook), David Kalina (Spider), and Mike Wilford ('Splosion Man), the real reasons to move your operations to Austin: cost of living and tacos.

Timecrimes director Nacho Vigalondo's broken English offered some remarkable insight into the gaming world. For example, "It's not the length of the game, it's about the joyness of each moment." That's some Roberto Benigni Academy-Award-accepting-level cuteness.

The "Ethics in Games" panel could have been several hours long. Highlights: Cross-media smart guy Jim Munroe reminding the audience that games, like comedy, can be used to lower defenses and diffuse or discuss controversial subjects. Moderator Eddo Stern also dropped knowledge, boiling down war-simulation games as a have-your-cake-and-eat-it situation. He paraphrased an obviously unethical war-game developer saying, "This game is about the reality of war, but we want it to be fun." Shudder.

Paolo Pedercini of art-game studio Molle Industria expressed his hope that the expectation that games be fun has an expiration date, noting that movies had transcended this expectation decades ago. Based on the number of attendees overheard muttering "This isn't fun" at many of the Fantastic Arcade showcase games, we hope he doesn't hold his breath.

Craig D. Adams (aka Superbrothers) apparently has the ability to offhandedly make a brilliant idea for a game. In a panel discussing the pros and cons of wizard-and-warrior gaming tropes, Adams postulated a god game where the player controls a person instead of a civilization. However, the computer-controlled characters would take notice if the player (god) had his charge do anything too out of the ordinary. As an example, Adams used Joan of Arc, whose unflappable faith in her higher power led to her persecution and subsequent demise. Could you control Joan and not get her killed?

All in all, the general disregard for marketability and price-points was refreshing. Instead the designers and experts spent their time focused on the nature of fun and the merits and limitations of interactive art.