Answering the Pleas of Suicidal Businessmen: When Doves Cry, 2012

There came a point when I could find no more suicidal businessmen to save. I continued flying through the city, but could not find a single distressed thought wafting up the heights of the building tops. The city was dead; it was quiet. So I just flew. I flew and flew and flew. The process was intoxicating. I must have been at it for thirty minutes before I realized that I'd been doing nothing for the games' sake. Instead, I'd been flying through this fictional city without a care in the world, completely unaware of my own time, completely focused on flying.

I was a pigeon.

The city was dark. evening was here. The moon was out and the sun was just going down behind the skyline.

This experience has made me think of goals and how they are used in games. Goals are typically the focal point of any game. I suppose this is because we define a game as a competition of sorts, with rules and goals. The rules of a game distinguish the structure of the world in which you enter. The goals are intended to give you direction. These goals offer to identify what is important and what is necessary to accomplish. It should be noted that the goals are informed by the rules of the game. This is quite natural. Take for example the laws of gravity. These laws inform our goals, probably in ways which we take for granted. Practically speaking, this means that we can not, as a goal, intend to fly today. Gravity will not allow it. [of course, this did not stop the Wright brothers, and many others, from experimenting with aeronautics in the hopes of defying that very law]

It's interesting to think that I was able to ignore the goals of this game and simply experience it for what it was. Granted, I was confined to its rules and to its structure. I was confined to fly through the city, being a pigeon and all. But I'd be lying if I didn't say that I enjoyed being lost in flight.

When Doves Cry is a browser title created for the MolyJam 2012.


platform utilized: browser
genre: other
where to find: When Doves Cry can be played right here.