FOREWORD is that it's not the dots but their relationship that matters. The important corollary for game design is that a single failed part (something out of place) can disrupt an otherwise great experience. We can start to think of game design in terms of what's blocking the fun. In other words, what design element was out of place that pre- vented closure on the intended experience? Let's move away from useless dogma and take the road to more productive thinking. Games are art A common discussion within the games industry revolves around the question of games being art...or not. Many industry luminaries will gladly propose that games are indeed a form of art, and of course, those who aren't in the games industry will claim the opposite. The debate over whether games are art will no doubt continue over the long-term. So what does that mean for us, as we push forward the disci- pline? We don't think our role is in helping to decide which side is right. In fact, we suggest not wasting time engaging in that debate. Instead, we should approach games research in a way that is more meaningful and useful to the creators and consumers of the medium. We should focus more on what the consequences are for a given perspective. It's not so much whether games are art or not. The more relevant question (in our opinion), is "What kind of art?" We must make a distinc- tion between fine art and commercial art. In many cases, games lean toward com- mercial art. In this case, the research focus becomes clearer and debates should revolve around the clarity of the communication of the message from the artist to the consumer. We often refer to this as "realizing the design intent." Of course, the pitfall here is a damaging belief that games research can end up dumbing down one's creative vision, which we know is untrue. Just be ready to educate. The gulf between research and practice It seems that games and entertainment are on the verge of becoming the next hot research topic, which puts us at risk for a lot of the same mistakes made when new areas of application surface. For example, the web became very prev- alent in the HCI and research fields, and web "research" began to permeate eve- rything from conference presentations, to new books, to becoming the focus of doctoral dissertations. Not all of that particular body of research was ineffec- tive, but there definitely were more conclusions and results that were presented as novel but were already known from existing research on basic human fac- tors or perception. At our current crossroads, we need to continue to under- stand the basics and fundamentals of research while using those skills to look ahead. Game designers and the games industry at large can be extremely critical; thus, researching the right questions becomes imperative as opposed to rehash- ing existing psychological constructs for research, and calling it a game. We must maintain the rigor and skill sets of good research (applied or basic research), viii