Another example that illustrates a potential conflict between developing enjoyable game mechanics and furthering goals such as plot, subtexts and thought-provoking concepts is Deus Ex, which I feel made some major strides in achieving the sort of things that Spector wants to see, but also occasionally allowed the pursuit of enjoyable gameplay to get in the way of the exposition of these arguably deeper elements. At the start of the game you are bombarded with information on the goals of the game, the different approaches you can take, and the tools which you can use to pursue them. You then have to grapple with the game's required skills (stealth, shooting, conversation trees, hacking etc) and try and learn them to a degree that permits further progress in the game. At the same time you are presented with a vast amount of data on the game's characters, their motivations, the game's locations, organisations, plot subtexts etc etc. If it was a film, handling this narrative related info would be straightforward enough, but tasked with learning the core game skills at the same time it becomes overwhelming, and neither side - the gameplay 'fun' or the plots/characters/subtexts/themes - gets appreciated fully.

This primarily applies to the start of the game, however, as I think overall the game does an excellent job of elevating the status of gaming in relation to its treatment of more sophisticated themes, while also providing fun gameplay mechanics. The pace of the title helps, as the exploratory nature of most levels allows you peaceful time to digest what's being presented to you and ponder it. I also think the fact that you're asked to think about your character's development (as it relates to game influencing skill attributes, rather than his emotional development as it pertains to the plot) encourages a more thoughtful demeanour in the player as well, which in turn encourages consideration of narrative elements. This is much like System Shock 2, in which I would often find myself stopping at those stations to upgrade my abilities, while at the same time reading email logs and thinking about the plot; ie the gameplay design and story ended up being almost symbiotic at times. Bioshock seems like it may be similar, in that you will be required to genetically alter your body to survive, thus dehumanising yourself and consequently being forced to consider the game's intended commentary on broader themes, such as the length's people go to in extremes, the role of technology in society and the points at which one's humanity begin and end. To sum up, while there are clear potential conflicts, particularly in the learning phase of a game, or inherent in faster paced action games, I think if you can achieve that kind of synchronicity between gameplay mechanics and these 'higher goals' that Spector speaks of you genuinely can achieve a satisfactory balance between fun and the more mature, demanding aspects of art that may be engaging but not necessarily enjoyable in the sense we commonly think of when considering video-games. 

[deleted spam from taiwan] 

Someone posted my email without asking my permission and now i'm getting spammed. Admins haven't gotten back to me yet. I need some admin to remove my posted email from the "jobs and mappers wanted" board asap. Also, i'v had to abandon 5 accounts already from spam contaminatation. If can't stop the spam, this one will have to abandoned too. Thanks ahead...

as 

If I knew you are so scarry about spams, I would have tried to help you to find mappers for your mod development.
I anyway, I'm very sorry for the conveniences you are facing today. 

And now to something completely different.
Earlier this year I posted some photos from the Zitadelle Spandau in Berlin, Germany. I watched Sin City yesterday and just had to edit one of the photos in that style. Thought I'd post it here too. :)
http://spirit.enjoys.it/photos/IMG_1849_sincity2.jpg 

I just realized the map I'm currently working on has topped 37000 brushes. 

is a Q1 map at least? Lunaram 

http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=164 

holy shit?

can't be q1 can it? i think i got up to about 12k and then qbsp refused to even look at it. 

some secret project at raven - like the new wolfenstein game or something.*

I'd love to work on a new wolfenstein game.

Git.

*honestly, I have no fucking idea. Just a guess. 

nt 

probably cleanup.
http://lunaran.com/pics/bigmap.gif 

if anybody want to contact with me in Quakenet please do this!

/whois Trinca

i�m sick of Scampies craps! already got a kid... dont have enought pacience to another...

hope u guys dont forget me :p 

Good job, Lun. But you should know better than to use carving. ;) 

wolfedit.

hmmm :)

git.

(repost from base pack ;) 

e;f,b but still, I'm surprised you guys are still using brushes as the predominant base for architecture - I guess traditional id-style mapping techniques will be sticking around for a bit... 

only as long as id franchises do.

and who says static models aren't counted as 'primitives'? 

Quake Map Sources released. :D

http://www.rome.ro/ 

I wonder what license they apply to though... 

Just enough of the "WolfEdit" showing there ;) 

But numbers like that suggest you're making stuff that would be done better in some other program unless the editor is vastly improved but I guess you have no choice? 

someone make that news. 

that was fast 

mesh models count as brush primitives in d3 engines too... 

how big a deal would it be to increase the number of sound channels in Fitzquake?