A lot of people here say that the glut of video games is because "the society values art highly, while it undervalues regular jobs". I disagree. The main cause for video games overproduction IMO is that, the "real" jobs (fixing potholes etc.), are unpleasant and demanding in all kinds of ways (having a boss, having a fixed schedule, having work to external expectations, dealing with unpleasant physical conditions), while making a game at home is basically a very nice and insular activity - no boss, no deadlines, complete creative freedom. It's basically the best job there is in a sense - that's why people are taking shots at it. If it comes with extra societal appreciation, it's just a nice added bonus on top.
There are too many video games
161–170 of 173 posts
Re: There are too many video games
#162Much of the problem being identified here is not a matter of waste, but rather a question of taste. I read a very good biography of Kafka by Reiner Stach that described how dominant literary culture was in Prague at the time. Writing seemed closer to contemporary athletics. Bankers, businesspeople, and upwardly mobile people often encouraged their kids to be writers first, and practical secondarily. The endpoint for…
Spot on. Writing, music, painting, poetry, now video games.
I think the entire idea is false anyway. There is surely a waiting list for a government job with a pension filling pot holes right now.
The author of this article probably just lives in a bubble of developers, writers, musicians, painters...
Re: There are too many video games
#163i want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less and i'm not kidding
Fairtrade games?
Re: There are too many video games
#164This is such an annoyingly simplistic take and such poison. Some of the things this guy says are outright nasty: like should you want to make your game to have only 10 people play it. Absolutely, yes. And if that detracts you, then maybe you don’t actually want to be making them. Games, like film, like music and like all the other storytelling mediums are a form of literature. It is completely normal and has always b…
> Games, like film, like music and like all the other storytelling mediums are a form of literature. It is completely normal and has always been like this when it came to distribution - everybody wants to tell stories, but only a select few do it so well that they get to do it for a living.
This is metaphor stretched too far. How is Quake 3 Arena or Hearthstone a form of literature?
Re: There are too many video games
#165Let's say for the sake of argument that there is too much art out there, that we need less people writing novels and more people fixing potholes and whatnot - fine. How does the author propose deciding _who_ gets to make art? Even if you have an oracle who can assign some sort of quality number to an art project before it's made...how are people supposed to get better at it? It's going to take thousands of cruddy Uni…
This completely misses the point of art. Art is just an outward expression of thought and feeling, desires, fears, hopes, pain, pleasure. The problem is not that there is too much art or too many games, the problem is there is not enough TRULY artistic art or games. Most games now are created for profit and not because someone is trying to create the world they love. Likewise a lot of “art” created now is made to be sold and not for its own sake. This does not mean something cannot be art but intended to be sold but if it’s design revolves exclusively around whether it will sell the most copies then it is not truly an expression of the inner self but rather an expression that more external possessions would be nice to have.
Re: There are too many video games
#166I kind of agree that it's a problem, but I'm more concerned about average quality.
Re: There are too many video games
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Meanwhile 100000 russian troops is being placed around ukraine border, 20% of russian households does not have indoor plumbing and some of people I know still does not believe in pandemic. Im not sure where Im going with this but somehow I feel that that You should not mistake Your inner optimism with what is really going out there.
Remember Afghanistan vUSSR, Chechnya, and Ukraine v1.0? I'm Australian. I see Russian aggression in the Ukraine in a historical context that includes a lot of proxy wars very far away from me. Sure, it probably sucks to be Ukrainian right now, but they're ~44 million out of ~7.8 billion. Maybe one day it will be our turn to be invaded, and that will be very bad for us, but I hope my inner pessimism won't be confused…
>> wars very far away from me
Its not that far, world is really small. For me its even worse because I live only few hundred kilometers from Ukraine border (its only half a day drive by tank if I calculate correctly).
And wars sometimes have tendency to extend their reach beyond what You would expect. If I remeber correctly Tobruk was defended by 14000 Aussies (and I think that was way before any kind of attack on Australia took place).
Re: There are too many video games
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the company hires you for a job and they’re happy with your work, you’re not overpaid. Companies are desperate for engineers that the price has inflated, the value of engineers has gone up because no one wants to make useless apps or websites without being paid.
or: they got so much in VC funding that they don't know what to do with the money anymore money incorrectly spread teachers starving, making an indecent low amount of money; as a result
That’s not how anything in tech works.
No disrespect to teachers, but if they’re starving then maybe they should find a job that’ll pay their worth.
Re: There are too many video games
#169This is such an annoyingly simplistic take and such poison. Some of the things this guy says are outright nasty: like should you want to make your game to have only 10 people play it. Absolutely, yes. And if that detracts you, then maybe you don’t actually want to be making them. Games, like film, like music and like all the other storytelling mediums are a form of literature. It is completely normal and has always b…
> Games, like film, like music and like all the other storytelling mediums are a form of literature. It is completely normal and has always been like this when it came to distribution - everybody wants to tell stories, but only a select few do it so well that they get to do it for a living. This is metaphor stretched too far. How is Quake 3 Arena or Hearthstone a form of literature?
It is. It’s not high literature or even recognized as such by critics, but 1. It means something to someone out there and 2. There are plenty of references and repurposed components in that that do come from the recognized serious literature. Everything is a remix, everything is being continuously repollinated and crossed over. Some works are more derivative than others.
Re: There are too many video games
#170This is such an annoyingly simplistic take and such poison. Some of the things this guy says are outright nasty: like should you want to make your game to have only 10 people play it. Absolutely, yes. And if that detracts you, then maybe you don’t actually want to be making them. Games, like film, like music and like all the other storytelling mediums are a form of literature. It is completely normal and has always b…
I see more poison in your attitude than his.
Expand please - how is my attitude poisoning here?