The Video-Game Programmer Saving Our 21st-Century Souls
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Re: The Video-Game Programmer Saving Our 21st-Century Souls
#2Link goes to the second page. Here is the first: http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-brightest-2008/futu...
Re: The Video-Game Programmer Saving Our 21st-Century Souls
#3"what if some influential genius had recognized the threat and stood up and yelled Stop?"
I guess influential is defined by impact, so no influential genius could do so. But the warnings were there, and are here. And have been here. It's been a long time coming, but Nietzsche wrote a century ago, "The massive influx of impressions is so great; surprising, barbaric, and violent things press so overpoweringly--'balled up into hideous clumps'--in the youthful soul; that it can save itself only by taking recourse in premeditated stupidity."
I've long liked that term, 'premeditated stupidity'. It certainly seems to fill the bill for most games. And why not, if one looks for refuge in their games? A moment of solace, of control (however illusory), where everything can once again make sense.
Did some digging and found what has been, for me, an influential essay on this topic. In "Harper's" April, 2002, Thomas de Zengotita writes, "To get relief, you have to stumble into the Greyhound bus station in Albany, or some old side0street barbershop that time forgot, into someplace not yet subjected to the renovating ministrations of the International Red Brick and Iron Filigree Restoration Corporation. And 'stumble' is the key concept here. Accidental places are the only real places left."
Sounds a bit like the meadow, except it becomes The Meadow, itself succumbing (at least in the minds of others) to the simple category fetishism that seems insurmountable.
"It would be irrelevant to object by asking, 'Well, how else are we supposed to do it?' There isn't any other way to do it. That's the point. This isn't a consultant's memo. This is a serious diagnosis of a serious condition. Would we rather not know about it because it happens to be incurable? This goes much deeper than subject matter, or political bias, the usual fodder. It determines the way we frame everything. Like all that is most profound in human custom, this agreement is almost physical, an attunement, more music than semantics. It instills and expresses, moment by moment, the attitude we bring to living in this world of surfaces."
Re: The Video-Game Programmer Saving Our 21st-Century Souls
#4[deleted]
Re: The Video-Game Programmer Saving Our 21st-Century Souls
#5Do a thought experiment: imagine somebody who knows a lot about some legitimate form of art. Say, classical music, or painting. Would he be impressed with great works of art in other legitimate art forms, given enough time to appreciate them? Would he be impressed with a pixel wife and a quick lesson about how we all die? My guess is no, and the reason is that this is not art, but pretentious hippie crap, about to join mountains of other pretentious hippie crap in the toilet of history.
Re: The Video-Game Programmer Saving Our 21st-Century Souls
#6There might not be a "Citizen Kane", but to say that the video game medium so far lacks the artistic qualities of other mediums is both shortsighted and showing that it comes from an "older" generation (and I'm close to 30 myself, so there are probably posters that see me as an old geezer).
I am more than willing to ascribe artistic qualities to some of the games that defined my childhood - I think that the comedic values in some of the early adventure games are not at all lesser than those of movies or other genres, and why is being awe-inspiring good if it's a movie or other "art-approved" media and bad if it's a Final Fantasy videogame? (even if it's lacking in some other aspect). Are some of the better RPGs worse artistically than a book in an equivalent genre?.
The article is, of course, arguing only one side to make it more interesting :) and make people reply like I am :P
Re: The Video-Game Programmer Saving Our 21st-Century Souls
#7[deleted]
Re: The Video-Game Programmer Saving Our 21st-Century Souls
#8Do a thought experiment: imagine somebody who knows a lot about some legitimate form of art. Say, classical music, or painting. Would he be impressed with great works of art in other legitimate art forms, given enough time to appreciate them? Would he be impressed with a pixel wife and a quick lesson about how we all die? My guess is no, and the reason is that this is not art, but pretentious hippie crap, about to jo…
Do a thought experiment: imagine somebody who knows an insignificant amount. Say, asdflkj. Would he be willing to trivialize matters without offering any reasonable arguments? My guess is yes, and the reason is that I know he's already digested a multipage article and decided that he can imagine someone rejecting something by labeling it.
Re: The Video-Game Programmer Saving Our 21st-Century Souls
#9Do a thought experiment: imagine somebody who knows a lot about some legitimate form of art. Say, classical music, or painting. Would he be impressed with great works of art in other legitimate art forms, given enough time to appreciate them? Would he be impressed with a pixel wife and a quick lesson about how we all die? My guess is no, and the reason is that this is not art, but pretentious hippie crap, about to jo…
Do a thought experiment: imagine somebody who knows an insignificant amount. Say, asdflkj. Would he be willing to trivialize matters without offering any reasonable arguments? My guess is yes, and the reason is that I know he's already digested a multipage article and decided that he can imagine someone rejecting something by labeling it.
Neither of us offered any "reasonable arguments". I didn't because you can't prove that a piece of alleged art is trite. You can only see it if you know what great art feels like to your senses. I can't teach you to develop a feeling for art in a post.
But at least my appeal to authority trumps your aimless snark.