Art/wank games

[Wrestlevania]

Starting to get fed up with people citing every "reductionist" indie game being released at the moment as some work of miraculous genius. So much so, in fact, I was compelled to vent in considered, written form:

Just burn the sodding rope

Not my finest hour.

[toblix]

You know, you should be more positive.

[Nappi]

Could you name some other examples of these artistic wanking games you are pissed about?

The way I see You Have to Burn the Rope is as some sort of pun that borrowed most of its funny from a certain part in Portal (and failed), and not as something that was created to be especially 'artistic'. And I haven't actually even seen anyone mention the game before.

[DanJW]

I hadn't heard of it either. Your post made me google it in fact.

It's just a slightly lame joke. Who cares? It will be forgotten in 2 days. Not even worth hating on.

[Nappi]

(I like this new side of Idle Thumbs that encourages positivity, btw.)

[n0wak]

I like art and I like wanking, but I don't know what that has to do with "Burn The Rope". I haven't seen this furor that you mention. I see a lot of positivity towards it, for being novel, quick, fun, with a nice "song telling you the gameplay" quirk (in other words, an essential ADD web game); but I'm not seeing it called a work of art. CITATION NEEDED.

[syntheticgerbil]

I liked the song played during the boss in You Have to Burn the Rope, but other than that, it's just the same joke as Quest for the Crown. I didn't really see it as much of an attempt at an artistic statement. Not like Passage from that other thread.

[Wrestlevania]

Given hindsight it was a cruel and unfair piece of analysis. So I've taken it down.

Apologies all.

[n0wak]

Given hindsight it was a cruel and unfair piece of analysis. So I've taken it down.

Apologies all.

Awww. I thought it was fine! I just disagreed. Anyway, since I added you to my RSS feeder that entry will exist and continue to exist in my RSS archives. There is no delete on the internet!

[Noyb]

I didn't see your original post, but he doesn't seem that pretentious from this interview. I'm tending to think all the overanalysis is just an extension of the joke, since the game itself is supposed to be short and straightforward.

As for the game itself, it was a short, cute joke. The ending song was pretty funny, although the lyrics got really repetitive.

[lobotomy42]

Hahahahaha

Oh man. I never saw your original post, but you inspired me to go play this game.

It's hilarious! I'm sorry, this was probably the opposite of your original intent, but I am completely in love with this game and its song and will probably go show it to all my friends now.

[miffy495]

I quite liked it. Not in a art/wank way, more in a "hey, this was kind of clever" sort of way. I chuckled, and the sight of a speed run video on YouTube made me giggle even more.

That said, I don't think deleting your post really accomplishes much. It was well written and made a couple of good points. Even if your view has since softened, that doesn't mean you should remove that you said it. Just put up a new post saying your revised feelings. I sort of like Doom 3 now, and am willing to say it was a good, but not excellent game. Even so, I'm not going to deny having been completely full of vitriol at its mention when it first came out. I've never understood the desire to delete something we once said that we don't completely agree with even a week later. Revising your opinion just makes you human, and admitting it makes me respect the writer more.

[Wrestlevania]

I'm already in the midst of mentally drafting a more rounded and considered piece on game mechanics at the moment. However, I wasn't happy with leaving the original post up there to fester until I had a chance to write the new one. So that's why I cut it.

Not very professional, I know, but then this isn't my stock-in-trade anyway--just idle musings. I'm home alone for the week from Sunday night, so I'm hoping to get some decent writing done over the next few days. Starting with the revision.

Thanks for the support though, I appreciate that.

[Nachimir]

There is some point to the bile. Passage, for instance, had quite a strong effect on me, but as game, it's not "good" or fun in the way we'd normally judge one. Even if you ignore that games are "meant to be fun", it just doesn't have any of the mechanics and feedback a game design normally would.

There's been such a colossal vacuum in terms of a cultural fringe for games that I think a lot of gamers and developers are more inclined to become fans of anything different.

[toblix]

I got the impression someone had started on a flash platformer and suddenly realised 99% of all flash platforms suck, and then made the wise decision to just turn it into sort of an elaborate joke.