LeBreton is the lead level designer for Bioshock 2. He gives a pretty good opinion piece on some of the issues surrounding the past and future of video game design. Here is an excerpt:
As of 2009, the game industry seems to want two fairly contradictory things:
– Make games, using proven mechanics from the last 20 years, that sell millions of copies.
– Give people a broad range of experiences that affect them as powerfully as those found in other forms of art.
We can debate whether encompassing a broader range of human experience is indeed a goal of importance, but if even a God of War game feels the need to have scenes that evoke strong emotions, you might at least concede that it’s something many developers seem interested in furthering.
You can read the piece in its entirety here.
Good article, definitely worth a read. There are also some good comments.