Theory

[icycalm]

Something I meant to point out but forgot:

It's heartening to see this level of discussion about games. They're the oldest and still one of the most important forms of expression, and yet just as they're entering a particularly interesting patch, the level of conversation about them is the sort of stuff you'd find at a boat show.

http://forum.insomnia.ac/viewtopic.php?p=6328#6328

I do not believe that games are entering a "particularly interesting patch": with few exceptions games are retrogressing almost across the board, with few exceptions the level of discussion and analysis is plummeting from year to year, and with few exceptions all the excitement is generated by looking back, by discovering new things in the past, rather than by looking forward to new ones.

In short, this is a time of decadence. Moreover the decadence is irreversible, and it's only going to get worse.

[icycalm]

Also, worth pointing out that games are not "a form of expression", they are -- WAIT FOR IT! -- games.

[raphael]

They're the oldest and still one of the most important forms of entertainment...

Fixed.

[warken]

There was a bit on NPR's On The Media addressing this decadence and what can be done to help solve it. http://www.onthemedia.org/episodes/2009 ... nts/129077 It's 10 minutes long.

Unfortunately it's the usual story. Innovation and the "indie spirit" will breathe new life into the industry, reversing its current slump. Developers' budgets are too high so there's no opportunity to take a risk with new, creative ideas. The industry has a lot to learn from the little guys, etc.

Toward the end, the interviewer asks something like: As video games become the largest form of entertainment how will the culture change? The response was hope in that it "breeds an interest in complexity" regarding games' worlds and systems. That's going to be tough considering the best examples he could come up with were Flow and Flower; dull games which he described as relaxing and zen-like. They talked about Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, but in a short over-the-phone interview with the creator he regurgitated the same ideas: indie games offer room for experimentation and big developer budgets are too high.

If this bit on the radio is any indication, it's safe to assume you're absolutely correct in that it keeps going downhill from here. :(

[EightEyes]

Also, worth pointing out that games are not "a form of expression", they are -- WAIT FOR IT! -- games.

Having read everything else on the site since I posted that introductory note, I feel a bit silly now. Of course games, as they've been (implicitly) defined here, aren't a form of expression. I take that back.

When I wrote that, I'd been thinking about modern games in relation to the original sort of games, having gone through a bit of a nature documentary obsession and also being in the habit of watching my dog play with other dogs in the park each morning. "Expression" is still probably not quite the right word, but games played by animals, and even the improvised games played by very young children, seem to be the most effective and direct way they have of forming bonds, learning behaviour, and establishing dominance/submission.

Some great games tap into this sort of play, but many seem not to. I'm unable to put my finger on the sweeping generalisation I was hoping to find when I started on that train of thought. If there's a useful connection here, between modern and primal games, I now think it's actually more to do with the learning process... but I haven't thought that all the way through, yet, either :)

Maybe it ties back into the "decadence" theme. The process we once used to learn skills fundamental to our survival, which we're hardwired to enjoy and seek out for that very reason, is now something we divert into learning skills fundamental to... winning rounds of Virtua Fighter?

[icycalm]

Videogames, in their very concept, are already decadence, and we're all what Nietzsche called décadents. When videogames themselves retrogress -- become simpler, friendlier, less demanding -- it's only a decadence of the decadence.

[icycalm]

VIDEOGEAM JOURNLOLIST SLUT HOBAG THINKS THAT SHE "HATES VIDEOGEAMS"!!1 NEWS AT 11!

http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=26402

I think I hate video-games.

The last six months of writing about games burnt me out, I think.

I just don't like the direction the industry is going.

What happened?

Why is exploration dying? Why are we giving up the accidental for narrow, claustrophobic direction?

Even our FPS games are becoming a chain of cinema-inspired set-pieces.

I want rooms and enemies. And I'd like it if those rooms were gigantic, and sometimes looked like the outside.

It's five pm and I've been in an office all day. I haven't thought about video-games since I wrote my last piece for Play, which was published on my site this January, and was about how I felt like love was fake. Someone give me something in games to be happy about, regarding games. Something that makes me as happy as that banner from Another (Out of This) World. But modern, please.

http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=26402


Here's my advice to you, dear Heather. Perhaps your getting burned out with the videogeam industry is a psychological metaphor for the industry getting burned out with itself, due to an increasing lack of abstraction which should clearly be blended with core emergent gameplay elements to form an artistic whole that gives meaning to an otherwise narrative-bereft postmodern medium mired in hardcore derivative games lacking innovation and accessibility? You should look into that.

Moreover, here are some pointers that may help you with some of your specific concerns:

The last six months of writing about games burnt me out, I think.

I wonder why that could be... Why don't you try writing an article about that?

I just don't like the direction the industry is going.

And which direction might that be, pray tell? Because this is really astonishing news, that despite all signs to the contrary, the "industry" is in fact headed towards A SINGLE direction! Moreover, what would be even MORE interesting would be to figure out what the hell that would have to do with anyone getting burned out on games.

Why is exploration dying? Why are we giving up the accidental for narrow, claustrophobic direction?

LOLWHAT

You lost me there, I am bit slow with the psychological metaphors, you see.

Even our FPS games are becoming a chain of cinema-inspired set-pieces.

Yes, I can see how that could be seen as a bad thing by someone who was too dense to realize that this is what WE HAD BEEN RABIDLY ASKING FOR AND WORKING TOWARDS ALL ALONG.

I want rooms and enemies. And I'd like it if those rooms were gigantic, and sometimes looked like the outside.

I feel your pain. There is indeed a serious lack of games with rooms and enemies these days. Not to speak of gigantic rooms that sometimes "look like the outside".

Someone give me somethng to be happy about

Get on a plane to Tenerife, Canary Islands, and when you get here give me a call (672230053). I'll give you something to be happy about.

[icycalm]

By the way, it should go without saying (which is why I am saying it) that just because some stoopid hobag is incapable of finding great games (not to speak of knowing how to enjoy them properly when she does find them -- or, to be more realistic, when they are pointed out to her), does not mean that they don't exist. And not only do they exist, but a few of them (and they must necessarily be few) are even better than ever. Just because the general aspect is one of decadence does not mean that EVERYTHING and EVERYONE is decaying. Every current has its counter-current, every movement its counter-movement. This is what Baudrillard's "reversibility" is about. This is what Nietzsche meant when he pointed out that it is precisely in times of corruption that the greatest individuals appear. A single great game suffices to redeem tens of thousands of crappy ones, as a single great essay suffices to redeem thousands of stupid, pointless, worthless ones, as a single great website suffices to redeem even the entire internet, and so on and so forth.

[icycalm]

One more thing. The reason I posted this hobag's nonsense in this thread was not because her disgust with the industry has anything to do with what I call "retrogression and decadence" -- quite the opposite in fact. SHE and HER DISGUST are a SYMPTOM of this retrogression and this decadence: this is the connection. Whatever games have burned her out are in all probability THE HEALTHY ONES (e.g. the cinematic FPSes she has a problem with). Whatever games end up "curing" her of her disgust are in all probability the RETROGRESSIVE ONES (e.g. SFIV, which she praises to heaven every chance she gets). Et cetera, et cetera.

Bottom line is that to be unable to enjoy yourself, to have lost the capacity to find and take pleasure in what you like, is already a sure sign of decadence -- notwithstanding the fact that, even in times of overflowing health, whatever game a little girl could take pleasure in could never truly satisfy a man.

[A.Wrench]

Heh, this reminds me of artfag game studio Tale of Tales' New Years Resolutions. For the record, these guys made Endless Forest (an MMOG where you do nothing) and the critically-acclaimed travesty The Path.

This year, I’m going to care less about games. And as a result, I will probably enjoy them more.

I give up.
I give up on my hopes for videogames to become a valid cultural medium.
I’ve been fighting very hard. I’ve been putting my money where my mouth is. For several years already. Almost a decade.

But the games industry is merrily traveling in the opposite direction. Videogames are not changing anymore. They seem to have lost that capacity. Sure, the technology still evolves, so everything gets more shiny. But this is not leading to any sort of evolution, let alone the required revolution. The desire is simply not there.

Because videogames are happy just as they are. The videogame culture is extremely pleased with itself. A few years ago, people were still complaining about “sequelitis”. No everybody merrily plays Hip Shootgame #13 and Cool Jumpgame #26, with no objections. On the contrary! Everybody gets very solemn and deep when yet another war simulator hits the shelves. Only to forget it within the first week of release.

Gamers, publishers, journalists are all very happy! Who am I to spoil their fun? If they feel comfortable in a juvenile ghetto that is irrelevant to culture, good for them. I’m out of here.

If only he was really quitting.

And let’s do something else, when we want to be serious. Let’s focus on interactive entertainment that is not games (let’s call them “notgames” for now :) ). With a technology that is so versatile and powerful, why should we limit our productions and enjoyment to the single format of games, a format that has been around for centuries and doesn’t even need computers to exist?

[icycalm]

http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopi ... 180#705180

I am pretty sure icy calls Heather a "VIDEOGEAM JOURNLOLIST SLUT HOBAG" and then offers to fuck her.

Hey, maybe he's going to show her some real games, to make her happy. Some new ports of awesome Cave shooters got released this month (to the point where I'm considering getting an NTSC-J Xbox360 and yet another arcade stick) afterall. If I was in her position I'd feel rather privileged, it's well worth the aeroplane ticket! ;)

No, I meant that I'd fuck her. Best fuck of her young life. She'd never want to leave this place.

[icycalm]

http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopi ... 365#705365

slamming her face into the headboard, calling her a worthless hobag.

his bald head glistening with sweat, tensing with exertion. large veins standing crossing his scalp like lines of demarcation drawn arbitrarily across conquered lands.

you have no place in videogames journalism, you stupid slut. you hold no worthy thought, you soul dead whore.

No, she does indeed have a place in videogame journlolism. As I've already explained at length, she is precisely the kind of person who DOES have a place in videogame journlolism nowadays.

That she holds "no worthy thought" is something that is not even necessary for me to claim. Time will simply wash away everything she scribbles, just as it will do, and is in fact already doing, to the scribblings of every single other game journlolist -- not a single sentence of theirs will survive.

This, however, in no way implies that she is a "soul dead whore". She is just a confused little girl playing a game (analysis and criticism) that is simply out of her league. There are other games in which she would do just fine if she condescended to play them -- and no, I am not referring to sex in this case (women, after all, are never really good at sex -- it is the man who always does everything). I mean smiling, singing, dancing, cooking, raising a family, standing by a man and supporting his endeavors. That is what she should be doing -- and doing it well. Analysis and criticism are not for her, they are for the big boys: those who really care about this sort of thing, and are capable of doing something about it.