What's a bonemonkey, you ask? Well wouldn't you like to know? Hmmm, normally I'd make you earn that shit, but since we're kicking this thing off, I'll give you a freebie. Bonemonkeys are those prehistoric humans in the beginning of the film 2001, their minds awakened to new possibilities by the monolithic benefactor they discover. The name is specifically derived from the conclusion of the scene as one of them tosses a bone into the air and we see it become a space station.

Keep it mind, that bone had just previously been used to kill another prehistoric human.

I feel like that's where we are in the evolution of games right now. We've been exposed to this wonderful new potential that interactive entertainment posesses. But mostly, we use this medium to create clever means of killing things in virtual environments. I'm okay with that. What else were the bonemonkeys going to do in that first moment of enlightenment other than to improve the efficiency of violence?

Games are evolving through that natural stage as well. It's easy to make a game that simulates violence: something moves, you shoot it, it stops moving. Trying to simulate an engaging dinner conversation with a virtual character will be orders of magnitude more difficult if you keep it fully interactive (3-choice dialogue boxes won't cut it - conversation involves eye contact, body movement, vocal inflection, and more). But we seem to be literally reaching the point where there will be nothing left to see or do in a violent game that hasn't been done before. By necessity, our interests in new game experiences, and the tools to create them, will have to evolve. And I for one am looking forward to spending some time on that space station.

 

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