debate

Almost ever since humanity has scritched a design in the ground, we have been playing games of one sort or another. There are some games that are thousands of years old, like Mancala and Go still being played today. So, considering games' vast history, to think that games will be gone in 20 years is extremely short-sighted.

Our society will ebb and flow with games' fads and rennaisances, but games, and those that play them, will endure. And while we play games, some (like us, here, of this forum) will feel the urge to always tweak the rules, to make the games a bit better. And there will be those of us that will want to play these new innovations, creating a market for -- you guessed it -- the game designer.

I just find it sad that some unenlightened soul will argue the opposite of you, that there will be no game designers in 20 years. Good luck on your assignment.

I agree with Yerkrats.... Game designers will persist because people have always played games. As long as there is people, they will play games. As long as people play games, designers will create/modify them. I think your opposition's only arguments could be is that 1)all the games worth playing will have already have been created, or 2)people will stop playing games or 3)There will be no more people (the world will end through some calamity).

For point 1 you just have to prove the constant progression of game designs throughout history. Why would the trend suddenly end in 20 years?

For point 2, You simply have to prove games will still be played. Again games have been played throughout history, what is so special about the next 20 years as to cause people to stop playing them? Short of some severe world condition (famine, plague, world war, etc) that will make game playing trivial, I don't see this happening.

For point 3, well it's not really even a point to contend and actually you can use it in your favor. I.E., Short of the world ending, people will continue to play games and people will continue to design new ones.

Just curious, is the debate focused on all games in general (board, video, sports, gambling,etc. ) or just *board* games. I.E. Video games will bring about the death of board games? That is a very important distinction to make and would bring about a completely different debate. If it's not that, then I think you've got a 'slam dunk' because I don't see how any one could argue that designers will become obselete in 20 years.

-Darke (Hope this helps)

For us to worry that computers (instead of people) will be designing games (or anything) in the future is like someone in the past worrying that slide-rules (instead of people) were designing moon rockets. No matter what tools are being used in the design process, design requires purpose, and purpose requires sentience. Computers may be able to simulate intelligence, but they will always be mere machines. They will never be self aware.

By the way, what syllogism are you basing your position on? If you don’t have one yet, (or don’t know what a syllogism is) here’s a link to a down and dirty (as in real quick) study on how to argue:

http://www.str.org/cgi-bin/shop.pl/task=detail/SID=104523021/item=BK188

Good luck,

Leland