Elegy for a Dead World pushes the boundaries as to what people find to be a game. Players become an explorer who is tasked with exploring three dead civilizations based on British romance poetry and left to write the only account of them that the rest of civilization will ever know.
Cliqist checks in with Elegy for a Dead World, crowdfunded by developers Dejobaan Games and Popcannibal, as it celebrates 10,000 shared stories.
In “A Defence of Poetry”, Percy Shelley made the famous (if slightly self-aggrandizing) claim that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world”. Language and its inherent desire for rhythm, order and harmony made the poetic sensibility not just relevant to “the authors of language and of music, of the dance, and architecture, and statuary, and painting”; poets are also “the institutors of laws, and the founders of civil society.” Reason, to Shelley, is an insufficient tool for maintaining our civilization: imagination, as a cultivated awareness of beauty and truth, plays an ‘unacknowledged’ part in our species’ greatest feats.
Rob Manuel of G4@Syfygames writes:
"It's hard to imagine video games helping out with your daily life; becoming a better dancer, seeing more of your world, or getting more exercise. We often run to games to escape reality, not make it better. You can probably point out some of the games that already exist to help you lose weight or help you in various school subjects (Thank you, Carmen Sandiego). I want to look at some games that move outside the realm of education and create a world for you to explore. And when you're done, you'll take away something from the experience and never really know it."
