

The Video-Game Programmer Saving Our 21st-Century Souls - pmarin
http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-brightest-2008/future-of-video-game-design-1208-2

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boredguy8
"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."

------
GFischer
There 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

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dminor
Link goes to the second page. Here is the first:
[http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-
brightest-2008/futu...](http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-
brightest-2008/future-of-video-game-design-1208)

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asdflkj
Do 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.

~~~
crystalis
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.

~~~
asdflkj
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.

