Saturday, May 19, 2012

Short Update + Some indie dev not named Notch reckons games aren't adult enough

First off, I'm so sorry that none of us have updated this blog in a few months. To make a long story short, we've been having personal problems - some with each other, some in general, and after all that was said and done, we've found ourselves becoming uninspired. I don't know if they'll come back - in fact, DT Jesus had asked me to take her off the author list because her heart wasn't really in it anymore. But then I found this, and suddenly, I felt like writing again! Joy!

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-18-journey-creator-games-are-not-good-enough-for-adults

To put it simply, games these days don't have much if any intellectual stimulation, but rather, they're about getting headshots.

First off, anybody who thinks this generation is nothing but shooters is fucking ignorant. There are PLENTY of non shooters in this generation. Perhaps they're not as well advertised as the shooters, but even then, the only shooters that get advertised are Modirn Gayfuckstupid and Campfield. Hardly a "generation of nothing but shooters". Maybe this is more of an attack on idiots who probably don't even have a current generation system than towards Chen, but that's the vibe I got from the article - that, and how fucking pretentious he (like all indie developers) is, but more on that later.

Second off, while I liked Journey, it wasn't exactly the holy grail of gaming that anybody claimed it was. It was an emotional experience that touched your very soul, but honestly, I couldn't stand to play it a second time because all it had going for it was emotion. It wore off after the first time and all I felt like doing was exiting out of the game to play me some Split/Second because that game was at least a lot of fun (besides the fucken rubber band AI). Journey didn't really have much in the way of gameplay, which I was able to overlook the first time due to the sheer scope of the game and the emotions it conveyed, but cannot overlook the second time because it's worn off, and all you're doing is walking and maybe floating around every now and again. Look, I like simple, but it gets to a point where it bores me rather than keeping me entertained, and honestly, if there is no fun, then there has to be something else that's captivating, and if that something else falters, the entire game dies despite its technical capabilities or style. It's like listening to hipster black metal bands like Wolves In The Throne Room and Alcest - it's endearing the first time, but pretty meh the second time around, and just gets worse. At least, that's how it gets for me, anyway. But hey, if you want to go by the whole "video games are art" thing, then you pretty much have to accept my interpretation of it - isn't that what art elicits? A whole heap of different interpretations from a whole heap of different people? Sure, most art gets the same reaction, but more often than not, it comes from sheeple who don't really know what they're talking about.

Finally, with both of the above points taken into consideration, Chen thinks that games with fun and excitement are for those with ADD or are for children. Again, that's what I got out of it, maybe he meant something else (arthouse people tend to think that one thing has 7 billion meanings, which I think is a means of covering their asses when somebody calls them out on their bullshit... kinda like what I'm doing right now), but I'm willing to be that he thinks fun and excitement is childish and that all a game needs is emotion and intellectual stimulation. Basically, the more artsy, the better. Basically, shit that'll empower indie developers who don't know the first thing about designing a game (ie. Braid's designers). Honestly, I want to believe that Chen is raising some good points, but going by what he's developed, I can't, because I've always believed that a game has to be fun above all else, and Journey wasn't exactly fun for me.

The only indie games I like are Bastion, Shank, Deathspank, Recettear, Limbo, Journey and Sequence, but guess why that is? BECAUSE THEY'RE FUN! Holy shit, who cares about the technical aspects of a game or how artistic it is when it's not even fun?

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