Do Videogame Designers Use The Medium Is Not The Message Idea?

2025-08-27 16:41:30 373

4 Answers

Hazel
Hazel
2025-08-28 13:26:17
I tinker with prototypes on a laptop and phone, so I look at this question through a very hands-on lens. To me, the idea that 'the medium is not the message' feels like a tempting shortcut — designers who take it literally often ship trimmed-down versions of an experience that lose what made it special. When I prototype, I always ask: which of these feelings need precise timing, which need freedom to explore, and which will die if controls are clumsy? That’s how the medium becomes part of the message.

Practical examples keep me grounded. 'Papers, Please' turns clunky bureaucracy into a gameplay mechanic that communicates morality and fatigue; you can’t get the same effect in a non-interactive medium without losing the sense of agency. Meanwhile, indie teams sometimes try to tell cinematic stories on touch devices without reworking pacing or input, and players notice. So yes, designers often treat the medium as an expressive partner — whether they admit it or not — and I try to design around that partnership rather than fight it.
Xavier
Xavier
2025-08-29 02:06:31
Lately I’ve been reading more theory alongside playtesting, and that’s sharpened my view: medium and message in videogames exist in a reciprocal relationship. Unlike a novel where prose primarily carries meaning, in games the affordances — input methods, feedback loops, save systems, and networks — are themselves carriers of meaning. I’ve compared 'Spec Ops: The Line' and 'The Last of Us' in essays and found that while narrative content overlaps, the mechanics and interactivity in the former actively force players to confront complicity, which is harder to achieve in purely cinematic storytelling.

From an analytical perspective, saying the medium is not the message underestimates things like emergent play and player interpretation. Mods and multiplayer communities rewrite the communicative intent of a game: 'Minecraft' becomes education, art platform, or social space depending on how players interact with its systems. Designers aware of this often design 'metatext' — rules and tools that anticipate player creativity — which acknowledges the medium’s communicative power. I find that balance fascinating: games that ignore medium-specific constraints frequently feel hollow, whereas those that lean into them can produce meanings unique to the form.
Brandon
Brandon
2025-09-02 02:28:05
Sometimes I just look at a phone port and laugh because it betrays the whole point of the original. From my quick gaming sessions between classes, it’s obvious that designers can’t pretend the medium doesn’t matter. Input, screen size, social features — they all change what a game can say.

I like when devs embrace that and design with the platform in mind; 'Animal Crossing' on mobile feels different because of session length and notifications, but that actually suits its social-aspect message. So no, they don’t really use the 'not the message' stance seriously — at least not if they want players to feel what they intended. I keep watching how studios adapt ideas across platforms because that’s where the clever stuff shows up.
Aaron
Aaron
2025-09-02 12:25:42
Back when I was pulling all-nighters trying to mod 'Skyrim' and arguing on forums, I started noticing something: designers rarely act like the medium is irrelevant. They might say story matters, or that mechanics should sing, but the tools and constraints always sneak into the final product.

I’ve seen this play out in small ways and huge ones. A controller’s vibration or a mouse’s precision changes how I approach a challenge; 'Dark Souls' feels different because its combat window, stamina meter, and camera make every encounter a negotiation. Conversely, 'Journey' uses pared-down input and visual focus to create emotional pacing that a book or film would have to work very differently to replicate. So in practice, I don’t think many designers truly buy the idea that the medium is not the message — they design with the medium’s voice in mind even when they claim to be focusing on narrative or theme.

That said, some teams act like the medium is a neutral container: porting a complex PC-only control scheme to touch screens without rethinking interactions, for example. When that happens, the message stumbles. I like games that respect both content and medium, and I get nerdily excited when a dev leverages platform quirks to make meaning instead of pretending the medium isn’t shaping the experience.
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