Speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, Margaret Robertson has said that developers should be able to justify why playing their games is worthwhile.
“The games industry takes from people the single most precious thing they have, which is time. It’s the one thing they can’t ever get back. And we suck hours and hours and hours away from people who could be using it to do other things.”
Robertson used Braid as an example of the messages that games can give to their players.
“[The] focus is on making sure that after you’ve played this game, fundamentally, you are a better person than before you played it, and this tends to make people really uncomfortable.”
Robertson went on to say that if developers were going to take a “hours and hours of somebody’s life” they need to be able to justify it, and if they can’t, then they may be “a bad person.”
“We need to embrace the idea that our games should have some weight behind them, some meat on their bones, and something they’re trying to communicate if we want them to matter to people.”
So next time you’re playing your favourite game, try not to cut the cut scenes. You may learn something new.
