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#1 in Videogames

Unread postby icycalm » 02 Feb 2014 12:57

http://www.reddit.com/r/truegaming/comm ... _in_gaming

CaptPic4rd wrote:He writes primarily about video games but his theory is very psychological. The way a person plays games, the games they enjoy, are all highly-related to their personality. One sentence he's talking about game design, the next he's striking out at personality defects. So you get a lot of ideas about psychology. He also writes a lot of pure philosophy inspired by Nietzsche, which is very empowering (in a way many people take issue with).

He's about the most divisive and controversial figure I've ever seen. He's literally my favorite person ever (perhaps besides myself), and yet of all the friends I've introduced him to... none of them have liked him. I read (and re-read) his writings every day. But if I were to begin posting my favorite passages on Facebook, I would start receiving shocked comments and losing friends immediately. But, as the great Mark Twain once said, "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to stop and reflect."
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Unread postby icycalm » 05 Aug 2014 13:33

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 2#p1041802

Marble wrote:You know, just last night I realized that the whole 'complexity' thing (and also 'depth versus complexity,' even though no one seems to be sure of what the distinction between the two is) is a really popular discussion on pretty much every gaming forum I know of.

Anyway, it got me thinking. Before Icycalm, was there anyone who even wrote any theories regarding video game complexity? I'd never heard terms like 'possibility space' and 'meaningful complexity' before Icy. He was also the first person I know of to state that video game complexity could be mathematically calculated. Even if you are of the opinion that Icy's ideas are stupid and your own theories about complexity are superior, it seems no one would even have their own theories if not for Icy's "errors and drivel." Regardless of who 'likes' him and who doesn't, it seems pretty hard to deny his impact.
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Unread postby icycalm » 19 Oct 2014 22:27

Via email:

J F wrote:A few weeks ago I started reading Nietzsche, entirely because of your writings: it had nothing to do with those massive walls of philosophy texts you have posted but rather the easier to read bits on videogames and the cruelties you inflict on others in online forums. "Where did he learn to think like this?" Well now that I know I'd like to apologize to you and Nietzsche for considering his writings pointless. I now understand what true greatness is: a bad-ass German with a very cool mustache. Everything I ever THOUGHT that was noble was indirectly caused by Nietzsche or someone that he had controlled.

I started with The Anti-Christ, I've read it twice over now and will probably be reading it again and again throughout my life. It's by far the easiest to get through; as a former Christian I could relate to it so much. I can barely comprehend the most basic sentences of the Genealogy of Morals and Zarathustra is all riddles. It's a very surface level understanding I'm sure. I've looked at discussions about his books, watched YouTube videos trying to explain them but by far the thing that makes it easiest is seeing how Alex Kierkegaard's frightening mind works.

I hope to someday reach even a quarter of the level of understanding you have.

I was never really taught good philosophy in school, and even when I went to look for it myself I didn't know where to go. Every "great thinker" I was told about seems like, at best, a footnote compared to Nietzsche.

His (and usually your writings) bleed logic, experience, and have not the smallest drop of mercy. There's no fears or insecurities in them. That's really how the world is run isn't it? Countless religions, philosophies, morals, ethics, works of art, and political systems all made as elaborate ways for the herd to not have to face their own weaknesses? Isn't that why "slave morality" is so popular? It's much easier.

Everything about the universe seems so much more organized now! I'm greedy for power now!

What really got to me in the Anti-Christ was a passage, almost at the end, on 'the poisonous doctrine, "equal rights for all," [that] has been propagated as a Christian principle: out of the secret nooks and crannies of bad instinct'. That's it! That's it so much. Nietzsche wasn't just talking about Christianity, who cares about a dying institute?! He was talking of so many poisons that I have in my mind, that almost all of us have, all those falsities. The peoples want equal rights, to be called equal, to be thought of as equal precisely because they know they are inferior. That is everything about "slave morality" that is the stupidity of the Jews. "If we are all equal, all passive, no one will hurt me." And what of men so brilliant, so shining that their very presence reminds the people of their own faults? Well that's why Alex Kierkegaard is banned from so many forums, why Nietzsche is never discussed in the open, why both of them must be painted as Nazis (and also why the Nazis must be painted as "evil"). That is why there must be so much "that is an opinion", "everything is relative", and other excuses: a protective darkness so we never have to look at ourselves. This is why you are so frightening, why you are indeed a monster and your very existence is a cruelty. You burn too bright, you scorch our eyes, and melt away our skin. I disagree with so much of what you say but it's all so bright and dazzling.

Your game criticism is extraordinary and (assuming the videogame industry does not destroy itself) will no doubt go down in history as the only thing worth reading.


Some mistakes I'd like to point out.

J F wrote:"Where did he learn to think like this?" Well now that I know I'd like to apologize to you and Nietzsche


I did not "learn to think like this" by reading Nietzsche, or any other author or books in general. By 10 or 12 years old my dad was already telling my mom that "your son will become a demagogue". Even as a small boy people were already remarking that I am incredibly exact in my conversations. Every teacher I ever had was swearing up and down that I was one of the brightest pupils they've ever taught.

90% of what you see me write comes from biology: my superior physical abilities and brain power. Only around 10% is cultural. Granted, without this culture there would be no texts at all -- I would be an ape in the jungle grunting with everyone else (though still grunting in an extremely superior manner, etc. of course). But it's a huge mistake to see in culture the main factor. How many people have read Nietzsche, after all? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? How many of them think like me? Zero. Not even Baudrillard could do it.

"A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out." - Georg C. Lichtenberg

J F wrote:Every "great thinker" I was told about seems like, at best, a footnote compared to Nietzsche.


And every car ever made seems like, at best, a footnote compared to a 2014 Ferrari F12berlinetta. But only because the comparison is unfair, because without all the other cars (and even the carriages and horses before them), the Berlinetta wouldn't have even existed.

Planetary Annihilation is definitely a better game than Sid Meier's Civilization. But the amount of enjoyment I am getting from PA today is roughly equivalent to what I got out of Civilization in 1991. That's not to say I would get the same amount of enjoyment out of Civ IF I PLAYED IT TODAY. But that's only because I've already played both Civ and PA.

In short, great works (and great men) are more or less EQUAL if you regard them FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF ETERNITY. If you can't seem to sufficiently appreciate Heraclitus, or Larochefoucauld or Baudrillard, that's more your fault than theirs. That's why it took you so long to start reading Nietzsche, for example, while I was hooked from the first page. Your brain is coarser, your understanding is coarser, and hence your appreciation of the great texts and their authors will also be coarser. Of course you are doing a better job than most, but I still feel the need to point out that you could be doing a lot better.

J F wrote:His (and usually your writings) bleed logic, experience, and have not the smallest drop of mercy.


Hint: the points where you think that my writings are not logical, are the points where you fail to understand my logic (of which there are an infinite number to correspond to the infinity of lifeforms -- the idea that there is only one logic is illogical). Here's some more Lichtenberg for you:

"If an angel were ever to tell us anything of his philosophy I believe many propositions would sound like 2 times 2 equals 13."

J F wrote:(assuming the videogame industry does not destroy itself)


The idea that the videogame industry could be destroyed by anything other than a killer comet that wipes out the entire species is laughable. There have never been any videogame industry "crashes" and there never will be until humanity ceases to exist. Whoever talks about videogame industry "crashes" is a poser pseudo-hardcore who spends all day online, neglecting both to play and enjoy games, and all the other affairs of his life. Industry doomspeak is an instant red flag: the person who engages in it knows nothing about videogames, and is sick from spending too much time online to boot.

Apart from all that, I enjoyed your message, thank you.
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Unread postby icycalm » 19 Oct 2014 23:06

I forgot the "stupidity of the Jews" comment.

J F wrote:That is everything about "slave morality" that is the stupidity of the Jews.


Jews, as a race, are some of the smartest white people, hence some of the smartest people ever. There are studies about that, and tons of evidence all around us. Besides which, they are not even Christians. Just because the founder of the religion was a Jew, doesn't mean that Jews are Christians. So they were smart enough to reject this religion, which was obviously worse for them than their own. Democracy, after all, was created in Greece, but what does that mean? That you'll start talking about "the stupidity of the Greeks" now? Similarly, so many decadent movements begin in the United States today, but does that mean that the US is not the greatest nation on earth? All those decadent movements begin in the US, PRECISELY BECAUSE the United States is the greatest nation on earth. You have yet to learn how reaction works, so keep rereading that Genealogy (as well as my own) and maybe one day you'll get there ;)
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Unread postby icycalm » 19 Jun 2015 00:48

http://boards.4chan.org/v/thread/299059195#p299063325

Anonymous wrote:I've been banned from his site twice.

He's a grammer-stalinist and is incredibly judgmental (although he is usually pretty accurate with his judgements) but absolutely brilliant. I completely believe that in a few decades some of his theories are going to get huge: like biographies being written about him huge. There's no backtracking, opinion changing, or trend-seeking in his writing. He's had the same concepts for over a decade and continues to build on them which is why his stuff has so much depth. A normal journalist only explores something when it is trendy and than never discusses it again, jumping to the next trend.

I sort of felt guilty after getting banned.
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Unread postby icycalm » 24 Apr 2017 02:12

Anonymous wrote:he's a complete asshole and often dismisses arguments by taking poor terminology at face value and making a strawman out of it, but you can feel his love for vidya pouring out of everything he writes and the general view on gaming is very good


https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/374 ... #374775258
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Unread postby icycalm » 30 Apr 2017 13:49

nullset2 wrote:I wish I were icycalm, if only to be able to read texts as complex as he does and make it look so easy, I'm easily at least 10 years behind him in that regard. I do believe his commentary on arcade culture is pretty goddamn spot-on and whenever I'm tired of video game journos, I read something posted on his site to refresh.


http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread. ... st34036861
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Unread postby icycalm » 29 May 2017 12:40

https://archived.moe/his/thread/2870286/#2875095

Anonymous wrote:>>2870286
>Redpill me on modern art /his/
>This looks like something an amateur could do
Unironically this:

http://culture.vg/features/art-theory/o ... games.html

If you don't care for videogames, just substitute whatever medium you enjoy in for the examples. Eventually it talks about historical arts, and how "modern" art arose.

This essay is the best I've ever read on the subject. It's like Nietzsche came back from the grave.
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Unread postby icycalm » 03 Jul 2017 00:29

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/382 ... #382585673

Anonymous wrote:>>382584560
Google it. It will be the first result.

Like I said modds do not want you to know this guy exists. If I linked the website which contains it there is a good chance this thread gets deleted. The guy is saving video games, like he's incredible. I'd recommend reading everything he writes.

Also some advice, do not talk to the guy directly. He is a monster. People have literally created entire websites raging against him because of how badly he kicked their ass.

You should look up the argument he had with jason rohrer too. It's like watching a a man getting eaten alive by a lion.
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Unread postby icycalm » 15 Jul 2017 13:49

https://www.reddit.com/r/GamerGhazi/com ... o/cpgx05g/

hackiavelli wrote:Now wait a second. It's entirely possible he was using "females", "chick", "trollop", "tramp", "strumpet", "dumb bitch", "slut", and "hobags" with the utmost respect. He said he was "half kidding" about the "molestation", "gang rapes", and "five-dollar blowjobs on street corners" after all.
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Unread postby icycalm » 13 Aug 2017 01:39

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/386 ... #386966567

Anonymous wrote:One icycalm has said, which I have no choice but to agree with. He is one of the very few people even qualified to make such a list. For 2 reasons

-He actually plays almost every genre. I don't, most people I know don't. So that disqualifies us from judging the whole selection of games. If all you play are 3 different genres than you can't really critisize and rank games outside of those genres. I could tell you the best platformers, my friend could tell you the best FPS, but neither of us could tell you the best games across all genres.

-He has played games from most eras across most consoles. If you didn't play PC games in the 80s or didn't play ps1 games than you can't judge those games against the rest of the available games. Furthermore if you didn't play these when it came out it's very hard to weigh their historical significance.

The point of a critic is to tell you things you do not know, not to affirm what you already believe as virtually all critics other than icy do. Icy's list of games is the only multi-genre list I can think of where I ever actually went off, played the stuff mentioned and had a good time with nearly every entry. Contrast this stuff with thing's like /v/'s list where they just mention every game every made or IGN's stuff where they just echoe the general census.
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Unread postby icycalm » 16 Sep 2017 12:36

https://archived.moe/lit/thread/10025601/#10027954

Anonymous wrote:He's the entire reason /v/ and /vr/ take arcade games seriously. I remember when there was still debates back and forth about whether arcade games where "cheap quarter munchers" or games of skill and On Arcade Culture got dropped routinely and usually ended the discussion in the thread instantly.

Now to give you an idea of how massive this is. Can you name ANY person in the history of game criticism that had an affect like this. Where they write something about not a particular game but a section of the gaming world and their opinions stick around for years to come. Are there even any other writers in video game critics with a first and last name anyone remembers?
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Unread postby icycalm » 24 Nov 2017 22:31

https://twitter.com/PaladinTaylor/statu ... 1087902720

@paladintaylor wrote:icycalm combined fascism and gaming before it was cool, gotta respect that...actually midway through typing this i realized people on 4chan, years ago would actually defend him with "well, he realized the problems that gamergate was trying to solve before anyone else did"
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Unread postby icycalm » 05 Jan 2018 16:34

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/402 ... #402179404

Anonymous wrote:Not an e-celeb. He's the oldest and most respected game critic out there. Basically the Roger Ebert of games if Roger Ebert's taste was actually as good as he is famous.


It's funny that I really have become the oldest at this point, simply because everyone else has dropped out lol. They sure did love games a lot!

https://warosu.org/lit/thread/S10487145#p10487200

Anonymous wrote:Don't let the title fool you, [the Genealogy] explores more about art than you've probably considered about it in your life altogether.
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Unread postby icycalm » 11 Feb 2018 05:53

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/406 ... #406325049

Anonymous wrote:Übermensch tier:
icycalm

Faggot tier:
everyone else


https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/406 ... #406325120

Anonymous wrote:>nu-/v/ parades around pseudo-intellectual soytubers not realizing icycalm had already btfo'd all their ideas decades before they even existed
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Unread postby icycalm » 15 Feb 2018 20:18

https://warosu.org/lit/thread/S10698724#p10701345

Anonymous wrote:He talks about so much — the importance of plot in games, in adventure games, on RPGs, on the "art games" category, the genealogy of genres, the nature of sequels, the problems of games journalism and criticism, the abuse of games (and art) for political / ulterior motives (basically, any form of criticism which has the goal not of improving the art itself), immersion, the role of hardware, the genealogy of cutscenes, the problems with the internet, metagaming, virtual reality, more strictly philosophical problems regarding criticism such as pluralism and the notion of independence, balance in game design, on how to properly analyze games, etc. And much more than this, three times as more at least. If you don't read his work on video games, you are absolutely, 100% out of date on your understanding of video games as an art form, even if you are a big player of many game genres and have been for decades.
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Unread postby icycalm » 17 Feb 2018 23:15

https://warosu.org/lit/thread/S10698724#p10710883

Anonymous wrote:I know no "historical relevant writers" you would use as an alternative; no other names anyone even remembers. So he has no competition in game theory. It's absurd if you think about what that implies: 'game theory' is icycalm.
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Unread postby icycalm » 25 Feb 2018 15:33

https://warosu.org/lit/thread/S10751598#p10752405

Anonymous wrote:>Once the boomers die out and gen xs and ys become the majority in academy, videogames will suddenly be art like cinema was before it.
Sure. That's why you have me now, and people like me, beginning to crop up, thanks to Icy. Individuals like Icy will have pioneered it.


I would like someone to point out to me some of those other pioneers.
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Unread postby icycalm » 07 Mar 2018 00:45

https://boards.fireden.net/vg/thread/20 ... #207385919

Anonymous wrote:>>207385559
>comparing our lord and savior icycalm to either of those clowns
Icycalm has at least been to Japanese arcades. He was at the location test for Arcana Heart. HBR just practices combos on an emulator all day with his cheaterbox. Novril begs for donations for a tutorial series. Icy just frauds the money from old ladies. He's on a completely different level of GODHOOD compared to those two.


lol

My old-lady-defrauding days are over, I am afraid. Those were the days!
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Unread postby icycalm » 03 Apr 2018 06:53

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/411964463/

Anonymous wrote:In the midst of all this hypocritical finger-pointing and political delirium over frivolous recreational pastimes like videogames, doesn't Icycalm seem like more and more a breath of fresh air? Almost no one addressed games criticism as sharply and passionately as he did a decade ago, but now, he seems like he comes from another planet — or rather, like he is one of the only people left who properly belongs to this one.

We get seemingly closer and closer to the total politicization of the arts, and further and further away from being able to appreciate their full beauty, all thanks to people not reading the right critics and informants and opting for their own petty hysteria instead.
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Unread postby icycalm » 08 Aug 2018 14:00

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/426938021/

Anonymous wrote:Admit it, he was right from the beginning, he was railing on that shit and the indie fraud years before it took off like it did.
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Unread postby icycalm » 20 Sep 2018 17:13

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/432 ... #432086848

Anonymous wrote:>tfw idiots think gaming is in decline

https://culture.vg/

If you look at this front page and don't get hype af to play some games, just admit you don't give a shit about video games anymore and move on with your life.
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Unread postby icycalm » 25 Oct 2018 21:46

https://warosu.org/lit/thread/S11973085#p11981254

Anonymous wrote:years ago i read icycalm and thought he was a lunatic; now i read him and i think he might be a genius. what changed?


https://warosu.org/lit/thread/S11973085#p11981270

Anonymous wrote:nothing. he was a genius then and he's a genius now. that arcade culture essay is solid gold and his Essays page is one of the greatest things on the internet. when it comes to vidya he's the world's greatest critic, he really is. he's no saint, that's for sure. but when it comes to videogame stuff he knows what he's talking about.


He changed.

Lichtenberg wrote:A sure sign of a good book is that the older we grow the more we like it. A youth of 18 who wanted and above all could say what he felt would say of Tacitus something like the following: Tacitus is a difficult writer who knows how to depict character: and sometimes gives excellent descriptions, but he affects obscurity and often introduces into the narration of events remarks that are not very illuminating; you have to know a lot of Latin to understand him. At 25 perhaps, assuming he has in the interim done more than read, he will say: Tacitus is not the obscure writer I once took him for, but I have discovered that Latin is not the only thing you need to know to understand him—you have to bring a great deal with you yourself. And at 40, when he has come to know the world, he may perhaps say: Tacitus is one of the greatest writers who ever lived.
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