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A dozen fundamental rights that every game must respect

vladimir cole
Updated ·1 min read
Nude Descending a Staircase

Ernest Adams has posted a "dozen fundamental rights that every game must respect" with regards to players. The list (which is reproduced below in short form) extends a conversation begun by blog Tea Leaves and [MC]Daschande with their own demands for certain inalienable rights.

  • The Right to Play

  • The Right to Win

  • The Right to Instructions

  • The Right to Feedback

  • The Right To Motivation

  • The Right to Make Decisions

  • The Right to a Swift Death

  • The Right To Control Cut-Scenes

  • The Right to Quit, Pause, Save and Resume the Game

  • The Right to Choose Not to Save the Game

  • The Right to Reconfigure the Input Device

  • The Right Not To Be Insulted

Is this stuff even on the right track? Does art have any obligation to provide its consumers with any of this? Marcel Duchamp's famous Nude Descending a Staircase (pictured here) caused a ruckus in 1913 because unsophisticated American art consumers at the time expected certain things of their art and this work confused them (Where's the nude?). Why should game designers be subject to any demands made on them by the unwashed gaming public?

If the game is good, it will sell. Isn't a game designer's own interest in seeing his game become widely played enough incentive for him to do what he feels is right for his game? If that means long, slow deaths and inescapable cut-scenes, then that's his prerogative.