Learning t(he)o Game
- Erin Conway
- Jan 28, 2024
- 1 min read
Space is an element
Of good games
Space is physical,
Not empty,
Open
Space
Is
Waiting
For the
End
Without knowing
How to play
What do I already
Know about games
Rewards
Means planning
For the
End
Decisions
Means arriving
At an
End
Gamers ask:
How many lives do we have?
Before we must accept an end?
What’s the goal?
That makes us feel
like our decisions matter?
When I started
Learning to game
I felt no connection
I planned without emotion.
I was safe
Inside a box
A rectangle
A screen
When I started
Learning to game
I had
Time
Unlimited
Time
Lives
Unlimited
Lives
The game
Paused
The world
I thought I wanted to learn
How to build a game.
Except
Everything outside the box
is
But I wish
it wasn’t
the game.
Before Oct. 7, my niece started a coding class. I was with her when she picked up her new headphones. I was with her on Oct. 7, and then I flew home to continue to make sense of befores, durings and afters.
Before and during and after I draft a new manuscript, I read. This is the final poem, maybe, in a new novel in verse. This is my most recent reading list.
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