When game design is outlawed…
Allen Varney included my answer is his Escapist article I Will Survive. The question: if you were legally enjoined from making games, what would you do? My answer:
I’d play music in seedy bars, and write, and maybe draw cartoons. All the while, I’d secretly develop games, passing them around on illicit CD-Rs, always tempting fate. Sprites would be traded in back alleys with other like-minded ludotraffickers, and I’d be looking up algorithms on a loose network of pirate BBSes that would go up and down. Eventually, my counterculture existence would attract attention, and depending on how the roll of the dice goes, I’d end up raided by the FBI, a martyr to the movement, and a cause celebre; or I’d be vanished, to work for the NSA providing military-grade puzzle games to keep the troops amused.
Or maybe I’d be an accountant.
8 Responses to “When game design is outlawed…”
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Good Lord …
Okay — new game: I call it “Seppuku”
A world without games would be like a world without sex. A world without both would be like … ?
…The Republican Convention? 😛
I kid, I kid.
They’re going to get me now…
oh, wait! that’s easy … a day at my in-laws
Working in scientific computing or studying cog sci most likely. In other words, I’d be playing games with numbers of playing games with neurons instead of making games.
I’ve already demonstrated that I’m perfectly willing to work in foreign countries. 😉
Though, that’s not a very fun answer.
If I couldn’t make games in ANY country, I could pursue any of a number of careers, including:
1.) Regular old programmer.
2.) Electrical engineer.
3.) Music composer.
4.) Costumer / Tailor / Milliner.
5.) Writer.
6.) Brewer.
7.) Soldier.
8.) Government agent.
9.) Artist.
10.) Academic.
Also, every time I walk past an empty store front, I dream of opening up a game shop chain, where half the shelf space is dedicated to unsigned games.
Why limit that dream to a tangible location? The internet is wide open and a practical breeding ground for ideas like this. Best of all, it won’t cost you a couple thousand a month for a store front, at least hopefully not until you’re making a good amount more back.
Well, there are already people who are working on getting that base covered. Besides, there are still plenty of gamers who primarily get their games from bricks-and-mortar shops. Most importantly, I don’t need to be at all practical about my silly pipe dreams. 😉
That’s kinda scary, that we’re talking about this kind of thing. I’d definitely go underground and keep working on games. Or maybe I’d go back to music, or programming, or artist.
Man, I think it would be a huge blow to society if game creation was outlawed.