Jaws is one of my all time favourite movies. I discovered this when devising a complex algorithm, you couldn’t possibly understand, that could calculate the specific set of parameters required to determine the perfect movie. Jaws matched that criteria. Encompassing a variety of qualities and depth often reserved for more opulant cinematic experiences, Jaws is a thriller with assured performances, singular direction from a filmmakers sophomore theatrical release, imbued with an iconic score and populated with actual humans that resonate on a personal level. Sure “Bruce” is about as realistic as a Conservative manifesto, but its what you don’t see that makes it such a suspenseful and effective thriller. I can quote a plathora of diologue with emphatic precision, much to the chagrin of my colleagues and partner. If I’m channel surfing and I come across it, regardless of where it is in the story, I have to watch it. I was even lucky enough to experience this glorious piece of cinema in all of its “Amity” glory at the theater a few years ago. I became fascinated by its production, watching documentaries that detailed the rigerous adversities that plagued its production. Watching interviews, behind the scenes footage. Seeking every nuanced anecdote or obscure trivia concerning its making just so I could retain this knowledge and recite it to anyone and everyone. You’d think that this kind of fanatical intrigue would be applicable to gaming, my preferred means of entertainment. But honestly I’ve never really taken a keen interest into the complexities of video game design.

There should be something inherently fascinating about the creative process. An intrigue into the manifestation of a concept and how its gestation from idea to development came to fruition. Yet for some inexplicable reason the intricacies that goes into the development process, the anecdotal yarns of those intimately tethered to the project is infinitely less desirable. Perhaps its the immersion. Arresting a disassociation from the product you’ve spent hours enveloped in isn’t really that interesting. Reconciling that detachment between the labour and the outcome of a game is difficult when the game requires a greater investment on personal participation. A movie is more relaxed. Sure the tone of film is to illicit a specific emotion, fear for instance, but its still a vicarious experience. With a game the emphasis is on you being the character. You saving the world from whatever generic menace threatens to conquer/destroy “insert fantasy world here”.

To me there is no production. No behind the scene gossip. No crunch times and delays. Its real. The protagonist, the story, is all being experienced for the first time by me, not a pre-determined set of circumstances and variables designed to create the illusion of autonomy. Personally I don’t think this is a bad way of looking at things.