The Mammon Philosophy

There’s an ongoing debate in the gaming community as to whether or not videogames could be considered “art.” It tends to go around in meaningless circles: the terms are too loosely defined, and the whole exercise is made moot by the necessity of gaming as a profitable enterprise. There’s simply no room for a mass-marketed title to be a failure, or even a marginal success, on the razor-thin edge of interactive media.

Thus, the only way to advance the medium is by taking a full-on philosophical approach, finding the new and experimental techniques in the fringes of development, such that they can be applied at the top level once we know what works and what doesn’t. A complete grounding in the past and present of game design is the only way to ensure that mistakes aren’t repeated in the future. And given the nature of the modern market, any game which encompasses these lessons is likely to reach the forefront of the gaming community and make a small fortune.

At Mammon Philosophy, I bring this approach to bear on whatever I happen to be playing at the time: new games, old games, games from all over the spectrum, each with their own knowledge to impart. At some point, it’s my intention to apply this knowledge to projects of my own; for now, I simply hope my observations are found intriguing and thought-provoking.