|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:"Games" are such a wide category that it may not be valid to apply the same analytical standard to all of them. There is more variation in design and content between, say, Dwarf Fortress and Deus Ex, or Fallen London and Doom, or World of Warcraft and Tetris, than there is between any two books or films you might name. The Bible, Finnegans Wake, the latest edition of Gray's Anatomy, and a generic swords-and-sorcery fantasy novel aimed at teenagers: would you really judge all four the same way? Video games at least share the common goal of being "fun to play" even if they appeal to drastically different senses of "fun," but it's not like they're trying to teach you anything new about human nature. Books can be written for any purpose under the sun, whether it's exploring the depths of the human experience or the limits of fantasy, whereas video games have a way more limited scope. From a criticism point-of-view it's best to just ignore the tacked-on storytelling and focus on what makes a video game a video game, namely being a set of rules with emergent properties. They're all just glorified versions of Chess or any of the other simple games humanity's been playing since the dawn of civilization.
|
#
¿
May 17, 2016 15:01
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 22, 2024 11:28 |
|
|
Who What Now posted:Why not? What is it that makes games completely incapable of teaching people something new about human? "Completely incapable" is pretty strong, even a rock can teach you about the human condition if you're in a receptive mood. I dunno, there's probably something to be said about the nature of the medium and how it basically glorifies the self (so the player feels stronger or smarter or braver than they really are) rather than encouraging self-reflection. Some games (e.g. chess) don't glorify the player but they're also far removed from everyday human experience, and the black-and-white world of chess doesn't really lend itself to exploring any profound themes. But do we actually need to get all philosophical about it, or is it enough just to point out that even very good video games are mostly just concerned with giving a superficially enjoyable experience to the player, rather than grappling with any kind of difficult or emotional subject matter?
|
|
#
¿
May 17, 2016 15:35
|
|