Theory

[icycalm]

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20188502,00.html

It's the same old yadda yadda, but at least it's by Stephen King and therefore well written.

[Bradford]

Is it Art? by John Lanchester. London Review of Books, Jan. 1, 2009 (sent from the future?).

This is a good example of an article whose title fails to relate to the substance of the article, but that's not why I'm posting it. He's obviously wrong about a number of things, but he made enough observations that were interesting to me that I thought it might be worthwhile for others here to read.

[Vert1]

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20188502,00.html

It's the same old yadda yadda, but at least it's by Stephen King and therefore well written.

I am surprised Resident Evil 4 is even mentioned. I specifically remember that the game got off scotch-free on it's violence when it was released. Nobody cared--it was on Gamecube.

[icycalm]

From the article linked by Bradford:

Older media have largely abandoned the idea that difficulty is a virtue; if I had to name one high-cultural notion that had died in my adult lifetime, it would be the idea that difficulty is artistically desirable. It’s a bit of an irony that difficulty thrives in the newest medium of all – and it’s not by accident, either. One of the most common complaints regular gamers make in reviewing new offerings is that they are too easy. (It would be nice if a little bit of that leaked over into the book world.)

Man who doesn't understand not only videogames, but also art and high culture.

That’s not atypical. Most games, as Poole argues, are work-like.

Man who doesn't read this forum.

So, on the one hand, we have those games which manage to achieve a pure state of play – too few, but they do exist.

A "pure state of play", lol.

...

There's decent ideas in there, but they've already been repeated ad nauseam, and he doesn't go anywhere new with them. The first two paragraphs, for example. All very true and very intriguing, but he makes no attempt to draw the full conclusions from them.

[JoshF]

Britney Spears isn't challenging either. Just a pure state of listen.