A real connection?

I have been thinking about my last article and whether the digital world is enough, and it launched me into thinking about video games. I talked about making a real connection by experiencing all that a landscape has to offer. Yet, I find that I am at odds with myself when I consider video games and the environments that programmers create. Many artists and designers would argue that video games are not an art form or real places because they so nor stimulate all the sense. For video games I guess they are lacking in the sense of touch, and smell arenas. Innovations are happening everyday, so this may not last very long. Plus You do not need all of the senses to appreciate fine art or a place. First, You can not touch or smell a painting in an art gallery. You smell the gallery just like when you play a video game and you smell your stale pizza and Mountain Dew that sit inches away from your keyboard, or controllers.  Secondly, “Flower” for PS3, you play that game and tell me that it is not art.   Finally, video game designers have to consider form and function while designing a built environment. They also have to consider how people will experience and interact  with their environments. Though the materials required to construct digital landscapes require a computer and a dream. Yet, the concept of human interaction with a digital environment provokes interesting thoughts about how people experience places. Video game engines may provide a new frontier on experimentation with design solutions

Video games can be beneficial to architects and landscape architects during the design process. You may argue that Google SketchUp and other design softwares allow you to zoom in and create animations. Not every landscape, or person experiencing your design will want to follow the exact path the designer laid out. Video games can offer open world experimentation. The video game “The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, made by Bethesda” is an excellent example of an open world gaming engine that allows the user explore the world around them without a linear progression. Most designs will fall into this category where the way a person enters a site will determine the locations of design elements. 

The difference between design and science is that their can be no experiments. Designers can issue surveys and develop statistical reports on elements present in existing built landscapes, but design concepts a.k.a hypothesis can never truly be tested. Simulation allows scientists to test a hypothesis. Architects and landscape architects can utilize video game engines, so people can utilize an avatar to explore designs before they are constructed. Designers could learn a lot about their designs when placing people in hypothetical situations within the context of their design. The possibilities are endless, and it will ultimately result in implementing designs that people actually enjoy.

Landscape design is about the creation of an experience. When places are being designed and built their purpose is to be functional and/or recreational. Designers develop ways of making the daily commute more pleasurable by implementing street trees, or routing a road that pass by magnificent vistas. Parks are designed to pull people in and allow for a sense of retreat from the hustle and bustle of their daily lives. Video game landscapes provide a similar recreational experience when people are looking to get away for a while. Why not utilize this tool during the design process and put video gamers to work on providing information  valuable design information, so that a “real” connection can be made to a place.