Via: Designer Notes – Soren Johnson’s Game Design Journal
Soren Johnson’s Serious Games Summit Keynote at GDC 2010 - Theme is Not Meaning
Serious Games Summit keynote on theme-vs-mechanics delivered by Soren Johnson from EA Maxis, the studio that developed Will Wright’s Spore, has received highly positive feedbacks was either quoted or reproduced by many different online sources.
He built a compelling case for why a videogame’s theme doesn’t necessarily indicate its meaning. Just because a game appears in a particular setting or involves certain characters, doesn’t automatically mean that’s what the game is about. He argued that, just because Spore involves single-cell organisms and prehistoric tide pools and survival of the fittest, doesn’t mean it’s a game about evolution. He argued that, at its core, the game was really about creativity.
Soren Johnson has also posted the slides to a direct link. He also considers the Destructoid piece almost being a transcript.
Theme is Not Meaning: The Slides
Find the full article at Destructoid - GDC 10 – Theme is Not Meaning