Of missing elements

There's something I remember experiencing when playing 2D games that is how they made you imagine the other D. For instance, side-scrollers never let you see the floors, and top-down games like rpgs never let you see the sky and surrounding landscape.

These games had it so limited that seeing that world in artworks were always a thrill. Sometimes the games would present us some pictures or a cutscene that showed the world from a different perspective, and that used to be such a rewarding final gift for us players.

It's something about the released catharsis, being forced to see the floors, the grass, the water, the sand. In the end, seeing the sky would always be such an incredible thing. It made the world look more interesting, somehow. It made me think of how, from the character's point of view, he was seeing those clouds, or that dungeon ceiling droping water all along. Playing games like this now make me so much more immersed.

Of course, I could bet these game developers would hardly think of that, considering it's only recently that videogames are starting to be studied theoretically the same way cinema or theatre, but still it seems to be mostly psychological studies to make mmo players more addicted. Anyway, I still hold a place in my heart for all those gems I've played on the Genesis and SNES...