Moving Pixels Plays Telephone: "Ganking" Broken Systems in Video Games

This week my fellow Moving Pixels bloggers and myself decided to play a game of telephone in order to discuss some gaming related topics. Beginning with a post by L.B. Jeffries on Tuesday, we are considering how the concept of "ganking" (a term normally associated with multiplayer experiences) might apply if considered in relation to single player experiences.

What resulted is a discussion that has largely considered issues concerning player freedom and design intentions and how those two sometimes competing interests may or may not be resolvable. I posted a continuation of the discussion today, and Nick Dinicola will serve as the anchor for the discussion on Friday. If you are interested, I am providing links to all of these parts of the discussion here (so, check back here or on PopMatters on Friday for Nick's essay and the discussion's conclusion.

Oh, and as I noted in response to some comments on L.B.'s essay, this is a game of telephone. As such, we are playing fast and loose with semantics assuming that games of telephone are about allowing unusual correlations and correpondences in language to emerge as a result of passing a message along and allowing it to be reinterpreted. We are playing fast and loose with terminology here, but that's kind of the fun of telephone, right (and, of course, we always run the risk of ending the game with a very different message by the end)?

Moving Pixels Plays Telephone Part 1: Considering “Ganking” the System in Video Games

Moving Pixels Plays Telephone Part 2: “Ganking” Broken Systems in Video Games

Moving Pixels Plays Telephone Part 3: The Right to “Gank” the System in Video Games