Bogost on the metaphysics videogame

If anyone can bring a serious philosophy videogame to life, Ian Bogost would be that person. AND NOW HE’S GETTING SERIOUS.

Funny to see some snippets from our early correspondence. I remembered the conversation, of course, but not the exact words.

Especially interesting is this claim by Bogost:

“If film was the medium of the 20th century, then videogames are the medium of the 21st.”

This sounds right to me, though Bogost will be able to spell out the reasons much better than I can.

If a medium suddenly starts drawing lots of new money, inspires fanatical devotion and near-obsessive behavior, and taps the imagination of thousands of gifted designers, then it needs to be taken seriously rather than being written off as “commercial” or “lowbrow.” Just as the theater was once viewed as the haunt of lowlifes before being retransformed into high culture, it’s possible to imagine that the great philosophical works of the year 2100 would be videogames rather than books. I still can’t visualize exactly what they would look like, but am starting to get more of a feel for the principle involved.