Games create experiences. Not developers.

If I could summarize a thousand posts into one phrase, it would be this:

Games create experiences. Developers do not.

A big problem is that people are entering gaming or, unfortunately, trying to steer their game to force experiences. Often this might be a cutscene or the camera panning around to shove the player’s face into ‘how’ the developer wishes you to see something.

All the focus on ‘stories’ is the myth that developers create experiences. They don’t. Games create experiences.

I laugh when I hit a home run. I cry when I strike out. But the makers of baseball (if such makers existed) had nothing to do with creating those experiences.

In Civilization, I cheer when I nuke a city. I cry when my city gets nuked. It is the game creating this experience. It is not the developer.

In Minecraft, I get scared when I fall down a hole filled with monsters. I get happy when I discover diamond. Notch did not literally create those experiences. The game created those experiences.

“But the developers made the game, Malstrom!” True. But to say the developer made the experience is like saying the clockmaker told the time of Noon. The clockmaker did no such thing. The clock told the time of Noon.