redundancy

a lot of how we talk about videogames seems to take it for granted that you're making art for a world where no other art exists. i'm more interested in what it means to make work in the full knowledge that so many people are also making work. what's still worth doing? what can you leave undone? like it doesn't feel worthwhile for me to put intricate combo systems in a game if it's something other people - who are actually interested in that kind of thing, who have ideas and opinions about it, who are dedicated to it - are doing the same thing.

all games become one in memory. the distinction between "collective" and "individualist" gamedev (roughly corresponding to an idea of what's "politically good" vs "politically bad") tends to rely on the artificial boundary of a studio. socialism in one company..! but we are unfortunately all stuck talking to, working with and around each other to some extent, even without the benefit of formal employment contracts saying so.

the most egotistically "individual" art becomes "collective" as soon as it's experienced by someone else, as part of the totality of everything they see, part of what fills out that space of possibility.