On not creating desire

[droqen]

i read v buckenham's "On creating desire" and i knew, i immediately knew, that it was the very thing i am opposed to.

desire like plastic is useful, it can even be beautiful, but we manufacture it at a global scale and what do we get? nothing good.

banning plastic straws is not the solution.

[droqen]

v writes with seeming reverence "What a magic trick, to design a system such that these bytes have such weight!" while i grouchily sharpen my knives: just another desire-system to kill. add it to the pile.

[droqen]

v asks, "I'm fascinated by this magic trick we do when we design a game. Where does this desire come from?" and now these days i am happy to not ask this question, to remain innocent to the dark magic of creating desire.

[droqen]

v concludes, "I realised I actually had some practical advice for game designers coming out of this. And that advice is: remember that you are not just responding to desire, but also creating it. A system which takes existing desire and works out how to resolve it is a tool, not a game."

this is correct advice for game designers, and it is also what makes gameplay my enemy... the very thing. i do not want to create desire. the creation of desire has produced such a ruckus that each desire must be louder than the last! must scream to be heard over the cacophony.

[droqen]

kill "created desire"

[droqen]

and perhaps i will be able to hear again

[droqen]

i have thought about this in the past a fair bit, but it's nice to be here where things make sense (if only for a moment), let me dwell in it.

the state of things... i've claimed in the past that i take no offence at individual games or players (not entirely true), but at the state of things that lead to the desire for gameplay.

recasting this as the desire for created desire, i have the question, WHY IS OUR PREEXISTING DESIRE SO INSUFFICIENT? to what end is desire created? are we starved of desire? are we simply creatures OF desire? is it right to create new desire while we have desires unfulfilled? do we have desires unfulfilled?

[droqen]

perhaps all desire is created,
and perhaps a life without desire is a bad life,
and therefore creating desire is something that must be done in order for people to live good lives.

in my experience people have desire enough already, but not satisfaction, resolution, closure, which (i theorize) is what leads to the appeal of created, manufactured desire: that which is artificially created can be artificially resolved too. there is an answer. at last, our dreams can come true... when the dreams are selected for their ability to be fulfilled, when we create dreams safely out of materials completely within our control and understanding.

[droqen]

are these safe dreams worth having?

i think, to make subtext text, i must think they are not. i feel that such safe dreaming ill prepares us for real dreaming. our desires about things that can be controlled and surely satisfied... do they teach us a valuable emotional thing, that dreams can come true? or do they undercut real dreams by teaching us, mainly, that safe dreams that have no part in reality are the dreams that come true best?

[droqen]

perhaps dreams coming true (or, desires being satisfied) is not the point at all and the point is to have desire, just to have it and be in that desirous state.

[droqen]

consider the nature of desire unresolved for now.

something to return to,

or to want to return to.

[droqen]

~ hedonism? buddhism?