I’ve always considered myself a writer first and foremost

So when I drifted from fiction writing, to script writing, to game writing and interactive narrative design, things did not change all that much for me. 

At my core, I am still a creative writer. However, the way I was perceived by others shifted significantly and so did my understanding of the capabilities of storytelling across diverse mediums.

People had difficulty labeling what I do even though they could easily define creative writing.

This was always odd to me because people seem to separate traditional and digital media writing drastically. 

It goes back to what I reiterate that composition is not just words on a page. 

While the various mediums of writing have different specialized requirements and functions, at their core they are both tools for engaging with creativity.

This fictional barrier between the digital and physical world is crumbling. 

We often viewed digital spaces as something separate from reality, but it's a part of our reality. 

New media is just  becoming a “modality” for experiences and creating. 

In Post-Digital Rhetoric and New Aestheticism, Justin Hodgson explores this blending of worlds. 

I would like to focus on sections where he discusses the act of play and games in digital spaces. 

He states that post digital rhetoric creates inventive spaces that require a willingness to play.

“Technology and design encourage play with us, not for us or against us. 

They are a modality and form of expression.”

I was surprised to find his references to Miguel Sicart’s Play Matters. 

His writings around ludology influenced much of my research throughout my Masters. 

Sicart explains how humans naturally play. 

Without a platform to do so, they begin creating their own games out of nothing. Therefore, technology is really just an extension of that play. 

These two authors explore a topic I have been researching around player agency and motivations along with immersive gaming experiences. 

One way Hodgson explains how the gaming world and the physical melt together is with fourth wall breaking. 

He references the way play station controllers react to gameplay in the physical world. 

Even keyboards have rgb light changing colors to reflect what is happening in the game. 

These are small ways the worlds blend.

Gaming is not just an experience in the digital space nor is any digital rhetoric.

Sicart suggests that designers should encourage play rather than dictate it to focus on these user experiences.

We can see this occur through assimilation between the protagonist and the player. 

It occurs through the sound design which reflects the world, emotions, and action. 

It occurs through the environmental design where the barriers seem limitless and the designer's hand becomes almost invisible as the player explores the digital space. 

It occurs through play where the user can take actions that influence their experience, the world, and the people in it. 

All of this feels real because it is a real experience crafted by the designer.

The digital and physical worlds are not binary even if one is designed with binary code. 

Both can be used as playful creative mediums.

And understanding the nature of human technology interaction can lead to greater experiences.