"No Man's Sky" as Humanist Adventure

The true value of No Man’s Sky lies in something both incredibly simple and breathtaking. The point of the game is to discover and share knowledge with the other inhabitants of the universe. It’s almost as if the developers took the Enlightenment-era Encycloédie and turned it into a science fiction video game; a true testament to the best qualities and powers of the Information Age. While the sheer size may overwhelm some or risk boredom for others, players shouldn’t ignore the larger insight: that our discoveries outlast us all, and are continually built up higher and higher into something grander. There may well be intense competition as to who can discover the most planets or catalogue the most lifeforms, or skirmishes that leave the defeated players frustrated, but as was noted by the long lifespan of the average Japanese citizen, any one player’s impact would hardly make a dent. Only with everyone sharing information with everyone else does a fuller picture begin to come into view, and every individual, given the game’s size, is guaranteed to leave their mark. It is at once a stunning technological achievement as well as a beautiful message of boundless discovery.

Trent Trepanier, No Man’s Sky: Vastness and Humanism Inhabit a Video Game (24 MAY 2016)

• discovery
• exploration
• games
• humanism
• video games