This evening we began the Art History of Games symposium here in Atlanta, organized by Savannah College of Art and Design – Atlanta and Georgia Tech. After introductions, myself and my co-organizers John Sharp and Michael Nitsche presented a discussion of the concept of an art history of games. Then John Romero presented his keynote “Masters among Us,” about learning from designers of the past. One of the points that stuck with me from Romero’s talk: today’s game platforms are more, not less constrained than the Apple ][ or the Atari 2600, precisely because they impose greater limitation on designers’ and publishers’ expectations of what a game is.
Want more detail? Charles Pratt is covering the event for Gamasutra.