Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Portal as a required college text

brainygamer.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–46 of 46 posts

Re: Portal as a required college text

#41

Post by Groxx »

gommm wrote: post #25
Groxx wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It still boggles me that that's Ebert's position. I've played plenty of games which were significantly better narratives than the vast majority of movies I've seen, much less that's out there. A good game can be far more immersive and emotionally powerful than a book or movie, unless you've set yourself up to not notice it.

I'd agree if you said some book or movies... But I can't find any game (or movies) that is as immersive as a great book...

I didn't make it clear, but I didn't intend to compare the-best to the-best and say that games win. It's too new of an art form, really, just a couple decades vs around 100 years of movies (thousands if you include plays) vs thousands for books. But more immersive than, say, most of the books you had to read in school? Most definitely. More than a fair number of "good" books? I'd say so, though yes that'd significantly reduce the pool. Better than the best book? No. Though I've never found movies particularly immersive, so I do side with games there.

And, ultimately, at its most pared down, a game can be essentially identical to either a movie or a book, because there's an easy reduction to either (no feedback = movie, no feedback + no visual aside from text = book). That Ebert claims that something which can be either cannot be art like either must be hinging around the feedback, which is what many people get hooked on. He's basically saying that art can not react to you, or it ceases being art. To which I say "ignorant bullshit".

Re: Portal as a required college text

#42

Post by pierre_M »

moultano wrote: post #27

Passage would be a much better option: http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/ It's very short (5 minutes,) free, and you don't have to worry about anyone in the class not having enough skill to complete it. It's also communicates in a way that only a game can. The rules of the game themselves are most of what gives it its expressive power, not the narrative or the visuals.

It's also boring, ugly, and at a level of sophistication roughly equivalent to a depressed fourteen-year-old kid's poetry

Waaah, life sucks And you're going to die Isn't it horrible And meaningless?

Portal at least has some craft to it.

Re: Portal as a required college text

#44

Post by Robin_Message »

jrockway wrote: post #43

Hey, the world from Stallman's The Right to Read is finally here. Embrace a DRM'd video game that only runs on non-Free platforms, or fail out of University.

I'm not sure. You can borrow a lab machine, or a friend's machine. Surely it is no worse than a dead tree book - you either have to buy it or find somewhere to borrow it from. Embrace DRM or fail seems like a false dichotomy.

I do agree that this is a worrying trend, and Stallman make a valid point in The Right to Read, but I think the point he is making is that once you have DRM, you can stop people borrowing stuff. That is bad, but we haven't got there yet.

Re: Portal as a required college text

#45

Post by jrockway »

Robin_Message wrote: post #44
jrockway wrote: post #43

Hey, the world from Stallman's The Right to Read is finally here. Embrace a DRM'd video game that only runs on non-Free platforms, or fail out of University.

I'm not sure. You can borrow a lab machine, or a friend's machine. Surely it is no worse than a dead tree book - you either have to buy it or find somewhere to borrow it from. Embrace DRM or fail seems like a false dichotomy. I do agree that this is a worrying trend, and Stallman make a valid point in The Right to Read , but I think the point he is making is that once you have DRM, you can stop people borrowing stuff…

How do you loan someone an XBox Live download or Steam game?

Re: Portal as a required college text

#46

Post by Qu4Z »

Eliezer wrote: post #26

Don't get me wrong, Portal is an awesome game. But he considered Planescape: Torment too, and went with just Portal? Where's Fate/Stay Night or Tsukihime? I can't respect this college.

I do enjoy all of the above mentioned games/VNs, but I think Portal is ideal because of its length. I am doubtful students would have the leisure to finish any of the other games. Also, much as I love them, calling F/sn and Tsukihime "games" is a bit of a stretch. "Multimedia text" is probably more accurate. :-)
Post reply on HN