ince these bimonths' musings are themed by Solomon's times you can tack to the end of each idea, as you would reading Ecclesiastics, "because you're gonna die".

We struggle to live. But we don't generally prefer to struggle. When a man's life is pressed he is forced to fight; his body and will set themselves against whatever'd end him. During our leisure it is hard to care about anything enough to work for it (habits easing the effort). There are more gamers than aspirant game designers. More game design is done to earn bread than fancifully. It is easier to destroy than to create. So more content's created for destructibility than to engender creation.



Halo 3's Forge is a true "level editor". Most tool-packages w/that moniker allowed users to make levels from scratch. Forge just lets us tweak what's already in the level. I made a variant of narrows w/a full budget's worth of explosive crates stacked at the upper bridge's center. When friends played there was unanimous assent: that stack was the map's highlight. Someone taking cover to be blown apart, multiple ricocheting explosives, and the laugh inducing scene of a body juggled by fire made it great.



Both God of War games, Fallouts, the Unreal series and others are great for their goriness. When bullet's impact sprays no blood and dead enemies fall as faultless corpses a game world loses believability. Grenades should send intestines unwinding through the air and fingertips into onlookers mouths. Such degrees of violence are more realistic, if inaccurate or exaggerated, a display than no effect. A beauty in destruction is its' inverse quantification of our power. The less remains after our avatar hits the more strength is in him. How much harder it is for players to revel in a PC's ability when the gameworld is unchanged by his actions.

*MILD SPOILERS*
Planescape:Torment was rich in story. It was also replete w/ways to betray party-members. Players can find a foul sentient spellbook that requires bargains for its' lore. Fulfilling its' wishes would mean selling a companion into slavery. Annah's hidden heart can be tormented by kissing her romantic rival. The Nameless One may shove Morte back into the Pillar of Skulls. Bonds hours in the making can be teased or torn by pressing "1". I'd too much affection for my party to turn against any of them. I only convinced Vhailor to die b/c I'd loaded an old game after discovering his betrayal's inevitability.
*END OF SPOILERS*

We create entropic situations for love of spectacle, demolish to find our limits, and maintain worthy alliances despite the ease of severing them.

I'll leave exploration of Red Faction for someone who played it :)