In advance I want to make clear that this is a very abstract mindgame which is why I don't want to start a "possible-impossible" discussion. Still I had the nearly fractious impulse to write down and publish my thoughts concerning this. I also want to highlight that it is not my intention to appear blasphemous even if I might do so. It is also not my intention to offend religious people with my words. This text conerns religion too but it's not the main topic in my opinion. So in advance I apologize to all the people who feel offended in their belief after reading this text.
How do I get to such a topic? I got the impule while being in my bed where I get many ideas. I couldn't sleep so I thought about what kind of game I would develop if I was in the position. Many ideas came to my mind and I got all worked up with it and finally I thought about how brillant it would be to develop an entire simulation of a whole world. A so-called "open world" without borders, just like ours (in a way).
I had many plans about what job I'd do in the future: writing books, making movies and developing games are outstanding among all the others but in order to get away from me personally: there are a few crucial differences between those 3 jobs or rather those 3 media. Particularly speaking, differences between developing a game and the other 2 options. A book, just as a film, tells a story. Books and films will never be able to go further and that's what makes them what they are. You can easily overview them and they end in a not so far away future. Still you can let yourself go and sink into their worlds and depending on their qulity they might not let you leave too early.
But that is nothing compared to the opportunities a game can provide. In this case one should rather talk about a simulation than about a mere game but I'll stay with the designation "game" for simplicity. However, a game can, just like a boof or a film, tell a story but with the crucial difference that as a gamer you can step in yourself. Where lines in a book or pictures in a film restrict us and strictly regulate what we see (on a screen or in mind) -character X makes a step to the right, jumps onto a moving car- a game leaves us with options. But that's not my point here. I don't want to say that's why games are better than books or films. The other 2 have their advantages. It was necessary to make clear the uniqueness of games and why they meet the requirements of a "divine creation" more than others.
Well, we know that games with their respective worlds are limited to a certain extent. That goes for Tetris over Assassin's Creed to World of Warcraft. So there are games that bind the player tightly to the story (the invisibler barriers, not to be passed by any player) and there are games that do not value a story. For such games, a genre has been created, "Simulation". Let's take The Sims for example. As the palyer you control the life of all playable Sims, just as detailed as the mind of the developer developer and the computer capacity allow. Of course the world of The Sims is not comparable to ours, which seems so incredibly complex. But the Sims developers are working on it since the very first day. Countless Add-Ons have been published in order to make the game more and more realistic. So how long will it be till the Sim, in order to make himself food, has to learn how to do it? From his Sim-mother or a Sim-course for example.
Then what did the developers create? That's what this text is about. How far did you go as a developer, when you created a game in which it is possible to create a game just as complex as the original one? All of that is a dream of the future when it comes to soft- and hardware but theoretically all I described is possible in my opinion. You could see our world as a copy & paste creation in which patterns are repetetive after all. To answer the question: For me, such an act is comparable with the creation of our world. Developers create (or will create) an alternate universe.
Many (or most of you) would argue that there are things human beings cannot emulate. That there are things in here which makes the whole concept of this world unique. Of course you are talking about us humans. We are aware beings. We are aware of ourselves and our environment. If that crazy theory was true, we also
could be mere constructs made of code. I respond: Yes, that's what I think. Here you can see how essential the idea of the film The Matrix is. How do we know if passenger X in Assassin's Creed is thinking about his financial situation or not? Or when are we talking about an aware being? Is artificial intelligence comparable with ours which we call natural? I can't answer those questions yet but I don't want to space possible options out. Yes, it might be true that we are just constructions of a genius developer (see the religious sense behind it).
Now I want to extend this little mindgame: Why should we be satisfied with a copy of our world? We could create other universes. Let's take Assassin's Creed as an example now (yes, it's my favorite franchise). I'm no expert on the field of molecular-biology but I assume that in our world it is impossible to gain access to memories of our ancestors with the help of our DNA and a machine. Not to mention that we couldn't possibly enter them. Even though the explanation ingame sounds quite plausible (that's why it is my favorite franchise).
Now, if we could change the physical laws in our alternate universe so that this becomes possible and the universe is logical within itself, then we gain unlimited options as developers. Fantasyworlds evolve , just as realistic as ours.
So if we leave the future and take a look at ourselves (or gamedevelopers of our time), don't we see gods in an embryo-state on the way to the top? And at the same time we could be products of a developer ourselves. In the end every single one of us has to decide for himself if such an act is divine or not. For me there is a clear relation, while of course for me there is more than just creating in the To-Do list of a god. Anyway I didn't find a better designation or comparison for it. So next time when you dive into your favorite game, maybe think about this for a while; maybe you too are just figures in a huge game - puppeteer and puppet at the same time...someone should make a movie about this.
