The New York Public Library has long been a place in which serious discussions as it pertains to the world of books and cinema have taken place. And said discussions have all been led by senior librarian Thomas Knowlton, who recently added a third topic for debate: video games.
According to Polygon, the NYPLarcade Game Club launched in May and their first discussion centered on the celebrated PSN offering Journey. The primary topic up for analysis was if Jenova Chen, the game's creator, was influenced by his own interest in the Theory of Flow.
Knowlton explains how his discussions work:
"We talk about narrative, but if I have a hidden agenda it's to move the conversation along to talk about game design and game mechanics and how those influence the experience… I'm always trying to bring out the unique aspects of games and how the interactive nature of them sets it apart from film.
I do find a lot of film theory is applicable to talking about game design. We can borrow a lot from film theory, because game theory is still in its infancy and still evolving."
Why video games? Why not. After all, NYC is filled too the brim with interested parties, due to the large number of game makers and educators that are currently in the Big Apple.
Knowlton adds:
"For about a year I was kind of asking myself, 'What could the library bring to this kind of interesting video game scene that's going on in New York?'… Eventually something kind of clicked with me. A lot of it was the games themselves, specifically independent games, just the fact that that so many of them are coming out on big consoles."
Indie games also contain another advantage when it comes to being topics for discussion, and that's brevity…
"Indie games tend to be shorter, self-contained experiences and, as a result, they offer an immediacy to both gamers and non-gamers, which is hard to replicate with a longer, AAA title."
The fact that many are often created by just one person, or clearly displays a single vision, is also helpful. Which, again, is consistent with film criticism.
