I started picking up my first console when I was around four years old. It was Nintendo’s Gameboy Advance console. To this day, I still remember my first time inserting the cartridges, booting up the machine, and blasting hours and hours into Pokémon FireRed. The feeling of being immersed into an alternate world despite it being on a screen a few inches wide, and with few buttons to press, still blows my mind.
Gameboy Advance. Nintendo.
Even if it’s just 8 buttons, the console opened a rift to a new reality
Igoe clarifies that interactivity should be a gateway to endless possibilities rather than a fixated destination. Similarly, the console’s interactiveness only goes as far as the buttons and screen, yet game developers utilize those mechanics to propel the user one step closer to experiencing the Kanto Region (Pokémon FireRed’s world).
Video games, to me, are a new type of art–a premature one that is. Unlike paintings, books, or movies, it is a medium of art that takes shape by the user, rather than the author. Plus, because of how young they are, there is still room for the medium to grow.
I was thinking about how physical computing machines mentioned in Igoe’s post are not commercialized. Because these are new ideas, they still require rigorous testing and adjustments to fit our society. Yet, video game console challenges this idea. Floor dances, gloves, VR headsets, all these new devices are the pillars of future technologies. Hence, is it not better for us to embrace it as soon as possible?