The Quest
My field is an extended exercise in logical, eloquent speculation. My field is so young that none of the rules have been yet written, and nearly every gaze-able direction is a frontier daring others to explore it, to push its boundaries farther and deeper, and ultimately to understand it in some meaningful way. Due to the relative youth of the field, all current theories fall short in several areas, and often times these areas are not complementary to each other. In all earnestness, I don't know what I am doing. My understanding of the current scholarship on games is very frequently tenuous, at best. More questions lie beneath every uncovered answer. Are games really that amorphous? Is this medium really that good at shrugging off unified analysis and meaning? Apparently, yes it is. Easily enjoyed, yet barely understood is the myriad phenomenon of the Game. It is the untameable, beautiful beast that, like Captain Ahab of Moby Dick, I have chosen to hunt down and eventually "get" someday. Granted, I've never been maimed or lost a leg to my White Whale. But the challenge of pursuit has never been so arduous--or so motivating.
