

Jonathan Blow's talk on responsibility in game design - TomasSedovic
http://edtech.rice.edu/cms/?option=com_iwebcast&task=webcast&action=details&event=2349
Jonathan Blow (the author of the Braid game) gave this talk on September 27 2010. It's about addictive elements in games such as FarmVille and how that may not be so swell, all things considered.<p>The talk is about 1 hour 45 mins long; download only, no streaming.<p>Direct links:<p>MP4 download: http://edtech.rice.edu/cms/?option=com_iwebcast&#38;action=view&#38;format=mp4&#38;title=CS+Colloquium%3A+Video+Games+and+the+Human+Condition&#38;uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwmdp.rice.edu%2FComputerScience%2FCSBlow-27Sep10%2FCSBlow-27Sep10.mp4<p>MP3 download: http://edtech.rice.edu/cms/?option=com_iwebcast&#38;action=view&#38;format=mp3&#38;title=CS+Colloquium%3A+Video+Games+and+the+Human+Condition&#38;uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwmdp.rice.edu%2FComputerScience%2FCSBlow-27Sep10%2FCSBlow-27Sep10.mp3<p>PPT slides: http://number-none.com/blow/slides/games_and_the_human_condition.ppt
======
TomasSedovic
Jonathan Blow (the author of the Braid game) gave this talk on September 27
2010. It's about addictive elements in games such as FarmVille and how that
may not be so swell, all things considered.

The talk is about 1 hour 45 mins long; download only, no streaming.

Direct links:

MP4 download:
[http://edtech.rice.edu/cms/?option=com_iwebcast&action=v...](http://edtech.rice.edu/cms/?option=com_iwebcast&action=view&format=mp4&title=CS+Colloquium%3A+Video+Games+and+the+Human+Condition&uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwmdp.rice.edu%2FComputerScience%2FCSBlow-27Sep10%2FCSBlow-27Sep10.mp4)

MP3 download:
[http://edtech.rice.edu/cms/?option=com_iwebcast&action=v...](http://edtech.rice.edu/cms/?option=com_iwebcast&action=view&format=mp3&title=CS+Colloquium%3A+Video+Games+and+the+Human+Condition&uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwmdp.rice.edu%2FComputerScience%2FCSBlow-27Sep10%2FCSBlow-27Sep10.mp3)

PPT slides: [http://number-
none.com/blow/slides/games_and_the_human_condi...](http://number-
none.com/blow/slides/games_and_the_human_condition.ppt)

~~~
primigenus
I can actually stream it here:
[http://edtech.rice.edu/cms/?option=com_iwebcast&action=v...](http://edtech.rice.edu/cms/?option=com_iwebcast&action=view&format=win&title=CS+Colloquium:+Video+Games+and+the+Human+Condition&uri=mms://wmdp.rice.edu/ComputerScience/CSBlow-27Sep10/CSBlow-27Sep10.wmv)
\- using Windows Media Player plugin (ugh!)

------
jtilles
To see the talk's abstract:
[http://edtech.rice.edu/cms/?option=com_iwebcast&action=d...](http://edtech.rice.edu/cms/?option=com_iwebcast&action=details&event=2349)

I was a Rice student at this event, and I wanted to add a little to the
description, because it deserves to be made to look more appealing. Yes, it's
over 100 minutes, but I thought it was incredible; it was a gift to anyone
open-minded enough to accept it, probably because the scope of the talk
ultimately went far beyond video games. It's not that Jonathan didn't have
insightful and explorational thoughts on game design, but near the end of the
talk he showed how he was actually approaching deep questions on the
relationship between art and entertainment- irrespective of the medium. I (as
more of an ex-gamer than anything- years ago my parents made me sell my Super
Nintendo when I starting acting like a junkie) still enjoyed the 90% of the
talk that lead into the pretty damn awesome philosophical ending, but I for
all I know an experienced gamer will call Jonathan Blow out as a pretentious
n00b. Anyway, if any of you have read Infinite Jest, remember the
conversations between Marathe and Steeply when you're listening to this talk.
Are many gamers slaves who believe they are free? [everything that follows is
from Infinite Jest]

Marathe had settled back on his bottom in the chair. 'Your U.S.A. word for
fanatic, "fanatic," do they teach you it comes from the Latin for "temple"? It
is meaning, literally, "worshipper at the temple."

'Oh Jesus now here we go again,' Steeply said.

'As, if you will give the permission, does this love you speak of, M. Tine's
grand love. It means only the attachment. Tine is attached, fanatically. Our
attachments are our temple, what we worship, no? What we give ourselves to,
what we invest with faith.'

Steeply made motions of weary familiarity. 'Herrrrrre we go.'

Marathe ignored this. 'Are we not all of us fanatics? I say only what you of
the U.S.A. only pretend you do not know. Attachments are of great seri
ousness. Choose your attachments carefully. Choose your temple of fanaticism
with great care. What you wish to sing of as tragic love is an attachment not
carefully chosen. Die for one person? This is a craziness. Persons change,
leave, die, become ill. They leave, lie, go mad, have sick ness, betray you,
die. Your nation outlives you. A cause outlives you.'...

...[Steeply's speaking] 'What if sometimes there is no choice about what to
love? What if the temple comes to Mohammed? What if you just love? without
deciding? You just do: you see her and in that instant are lost to sober
account-keeping and cannot choose but to love?'

Marathe's sniff held disdain. 'Then in such a case your temple is self and
sentiment. Then in such an instance you are a fanatic of desire, a slave to
your individual subjective narrow self's sentiments; a citizen of nothing. You
become a citizen of nothing. You are by yourself and alone, kneeling to
yourself.'

A silence ensued this.

Marathe shifted in his chair. 'In a case such as this you become the slave who
believes he is free. The most pathetic of bondage. Not tragic. No songs. You
believe you would die twice for another but in truth would die only for your
alone self, its sentiment.'

