Games are great.

Computer games are an artform. People seem to overlook this fact. They are the cutting edge expressive entertainment. There is nothing more rewarding for me than sitting in front of my PC or my Xbox 360 and spending a couple of hours in a well-crafted world, actively bringing a good storyline to its fruition. The sort of games I'm talking about aren't your FIFA's or your multiplayer deathmatch FPS's. I'm talking about games like Oblivion of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Games like these have storylines that draw you in and can make you forget about the passage of time completely. They compel you to play them.

I have always been a solitary gamer. I do enjoy multiplayer Goldeneye or Mario Kart but, for me, the real meat of gaming comes when I can sit down on my own and play some deeply involving game. I remember, quite vividly, the day I completed Deus Ex. It was a Saturday and I sat down about 2 in the afternoon. As the levels progressed and I was drawn deeper into the conspiracies that Ion Storm had layed out I forgot about the outside world. I completed it that night and viewed all three endings. It was most exhilarating. I looked up from my screen and noticed that it was still daylight outside. Then I looked at my watch and realised to my amazement that it was 5.30am! My point is that, like a good book, you can get drawn in and you don't want to put it down until you see what happens next. I find myself saying, "I'll just finish this next level..." then 3 hours have passed and whatever I was going to do has fallen by the wayside. One of my crowning achievements was the day I completed Neverwinter Nights. Bioware games are amazing and they're excellent value. Bioware are the Amish workers of the computer game industry. They build their games better than most others and they make them one and a half times longer than other developers. There is nothing worse than getting to the end of a game and going, "Is that it?". Games cost a lot of money these days and so I want a game that has a long life. I want 100 hours of gameplay in rich environments. I want Baldur's Gate or Morrowind. Games like these are amazing examples of my parallels with a good book but they're so much more. The character in these games is customised and personalised so it is you and you decide how the story pans out. With these games the stories are fairly linear but not two gamers will have the same experience when they play it. Its better than a book because you're not just told what happens, verbatim. You decide how it happens. The journey is yours.

The artistry is in the construction. It is bringing life to stories and environments that draw you into them. We need developers to keep pushing the boundaries of their imagination. That's where the art is. The creativity that draws you into a story and makes it unfold around you is what we need more of. We need developers like Bethesda, Rockstar and Bioware to keep doing what they do. These guys make games art.