Joystiq

We're goin to appeal to your patience and mental flexibility, again, reader, as we point you to this fantastic article that develops an alternate theory on the origins of man and busts the myth that we've been almighty hunters for a very long time.

First, read the article. Even if you don't see an immediate connection to gaming, there's plenty to like, what with images of giant pre-historic cousins of cats, dogs and eagles sinking their fangs, claws and talons into human skulls.

Next, think about what this means for games. Though games are cultural artifacts and therefore don't question cultural norms and standards, many successful games do manage to violently yank us back to a time when we were mere prey being hunted for someone else's dinner. Think about those jump-out-of-your-skin moments from Half-Life: such game moments play on fear that comes from hundreds of thousands of years spent fleeing from jaws of death.

The second critical thought in the article is that cooperation with fellow humans is what lead us to build technologies that protected us from predatory animals, and this urge too is echoed in games through coop modes that drive home the idea that we're stronger together than we are apart. And so we come to a view of games in which all game designers simulate just a few archetypal situations (flight, fight or cooperate) not because they lack creativity, but because we're still rather close to an age when mortal conflict dominated every waking moment.