A 20-Minute Nerd Rant About Mega Man X’s Awesomeness

Confession: Although I have no desire to ever make a videogame, I love videogame design. I love who the medium of videogames can use its interactivity to lead the player, educate the player, and emotionally control the player, especially when its not done overtly. Even when a game doesn’t have literary elements — i.e., a story with its own themes and allusions and such — I still think games can be art simply in the way they interact with the player.

So I love this video from Egoraptor explaining in the nerd rant-iest way possible about why he considers Mega Man X a pinnacle of game design. Warning, though: His stuttering, over-excited shtick can be a bit obnoxious, and he keeps it up for all 20 minutes (it would be better suited to a 5-minute video) — if you can’t handle that, I totally understand. It’s still worth it to me, though, for the way he shows how Capcom’s game programmers make sure the player knows everything he/she needs to know without ever once throwing explanatory text on the screen. They do it purely with game design, and even if you don’t think it’s art, I hope you’ll agree it is an art — an art that definitely seems to be lost nowadays. (Via Nerd Bastards)