Honoring the code : conversations with great game designers Honoring the Code. If youre reading this book then Im guessing you feel like I do about videogames. Theyre fantastic awesome great amazing spectacular the best damn thing in the universe. They have just as much (if not more) cultural importance to me than any book movie or album. Videogames arent a waste of time. Time is a waste of videogames. I encourage you to adopt a similar attitude. Next time someone scolds you for all the time you spend gaming please thank them sincerely for wasting theirs. Are videogames art Considering some people still ask the same of a Picasso or a Pollock I really dont think Im going to be changing anybodys mind about Pac Man. Fortunately I dont need to do that here. I can already tell youre on my side about all this. We can appreciate videogames because weve been playing them since were old enough to roll a quarter into a slot or press play on a tape. But I want you to take one further step and go from being a simple consumer of videogames and metamorphose into a connoisseur. As with any field of creative endeavor there are those who wish to do more than simply experience the art. We want to know something about how it was made and by whom and for what reason. We wish to get into the head of the artist; understand the confluence of energy passion and craziness that somehow results in a masterpiece. No normal person has ever created a great videogame. Just talk to them. They think were nuts for actually paying them to make these things. Now thats not to say they wouldnt like more money. Then they could make more games! Oh and eat!