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Thyroid

Obligatory comical YouTube thread

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I don't know, if people appreciate it that's fine, I guess, but it does feel a bit like yet another example of culture disappearing down a pit of post-modern reference and self-reference.

Yeah, that's what bothers me about it too. It's just recycling a piece of culture without changing the way we experience it or changing it at all. It feels really pointless, even in a way than fanart or references. It's hardly even changing its context in regards to the viewer, it just takes away interactivity which makes it even more boring.

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Maybe people just want something to do in their spare time.

It's no more fulfilling than playing Gears of War or watching the Superbowl for a few hours.

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I agree. At least they produced something for people to enjoy. Watching the Superbowl or playing Gears of War doesn't do that. If people don't enjoy it, then fair enough, but it's better to create something worthless than to not even try.

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The thing that's so weird about it is that what they're producing is a facsimile that's only really significant for the amount of time and effort it took to assemble. It's reproducing rather than producing. Playing Gears of War and watching the Superbowl doesn't produce anything, but those are activities that don't have any pretensions of creativity or craft.

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It's not about pretensions of craft, it's about literally creating something. If someone created a life-sized AT-AT, I'd think it was damned cool, and I'd like to see it for myself. That's still reproducing something, but it's interesting.

The sad fact here is that it's not interesting, or of any real value to anyone. Hopefully next time they'll manage something better. And, as I said before, I still believe it's better to create something worthless than to not even try... Failure is part of the creative process, after all.

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Holy shit, get those lifesize sticks out of your asses. Jesus Christ. Someone made a cool thing that I enjoyed seeing for whatever reason, and you're pissing on it because of hang-ups about art. Maybe they're not trying to make art? Maybe it is just for the fuck of it, or 'can we make it?' or 'we're making a series of recreating game scenes in Minecraft'?

A quarter of million people saw this and most of them at least enjoyed what they saw or thought it was cool. But because it doesn't build towards the higher purpose of 'art', you call it a 'failure'. Here's a newsflash: most of the stuff anyone on earth creates has no cultural value or is even remotely art. Does that mean they shouldn't produce it, or even that it has no value, or worse yet, it's a 'failure'? That's ridiculous, and looking at the creative process through an extremely narrow scope.

I understand your frustration from the point of view that you hate the hypothetical situation where a lot of 'geeks' will think this is indeed art. But that's not the fault of the creators, and even then it's your own hang-up that you'll have to deal with.

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But without the stick in my ass I wouldn't have anything to say about anything.

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It's not about pretensions of craft, it's about literally creating something. If someone created a life-sized AT-AT, I'd think it was damned cool, and I'd like to see it for myself. That's still reproducing something, but it's interesting.

Yeah but like I sort of obliquely mentioned in my post, doing that would be taking a thing that one usually experiences on screen and taking it into a whole new context, where it can be experienced in real life. That is damn cool, if not entirely original.

This is more the equivalent of painstakingly animating a scene from Star Wars by hand while making it look exactly the same as it does in the movie so you can't tell the difference between it and the actual movie scene.

A quarter of million people saw this and most of them at least enjoyed what they saw or thought it was cool. But because it doesn't build towards the higher purpose of 'art', you call it a 'failure'. Here's a newsflash: most of the stuff anyone on earth creates has no cultural value or is even remotely art. Does that mean they shouldn't produce it, or even that it has no value, or worse yet, it's a 'failure'? That's ridiculous, and looking at the creative process through an extremely narrow scope.

I understand your frustration from the point of view that you hate the hypothetical situation where a lot of 'geeks' will think this is indeed art. But that's not the fault of the creators, and even then it's your own hang-up that you'll have to deal with.

It doesn't bother me whether or not it's art. In fact, I don't think anyone has even mentioned the term art besides you. What bothers me is that it offers nothing new in terms of experience. And what frustrates me is the fact that so much work went into that and they obviously have the skill to make something original and awesome, buuuut they didn't.

And 'geeks' can think whatever we/they want, why are you so mad? :blink:

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Well, I didn't like it when Kingz got frustrated with it and others started judging it for what it wasn't trying to be, but I only got angry when someone [indirectly] called it a failure. I'm sure the creators didn't think it was a failure and are pretty happy with the end result, which is exactly what they set out to create.

I mean, those really are some pretty high horses there.

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Well, I didn't like it when Kingz got frustrated with it and others started judging it for what it wasn't trying to be, but I only got angry when someone [indirectly] called it a failure. I'm sure the creators didn't think it was a failure and are pretty happy with the end result, which is exactly what they set out to create.

I mean, those really are some pretty high horses there.

I gotta say I found it pretty funny in a bewildering sort of way when you exploded at an argument that no one was making.

Anyway good for them for making a thing, I guess, even though it's difficult to see it as anything other than utterly pointless. More so than most things that people create, imo.

Ok I'll admit that last sentence is unnecessary provocation sorry

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*Grumble grumble been making it for three pages you mean grumble grumbloid*

Cool new avatar.

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This is more the equivalent of painstakingly animating a scene from Star Wars by hand while making it look exactly the same as it does in the movie so you can't tell the difference between it and the actual movie scene.

This made me think of 'Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote'. One of my favourite short stories. Now, what would be interesting would be someone doing 'John Smith, Creator of Minecraft' in video form.

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As far as I can tell, it's still being suggested that the people who made the video wasted their effort, which is an assumption that relies on the idea that the video was created at the expense of a more valuable endeavor. That assumption is baseless; there is nothing to show the creators didn't spend the time they didn't use to make the video doing something important, and I don't understand why anyone, without the information to know otherwise, would imply that isn't so.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the guys who made the video probably have day-jobs (perhaps, if they're as creatively talented as Sal 'n' Limones says they ought to be, they have jobs making some kinds of worthwhile cultural contributions) and the time they spent making the video was spare - secondary to that which they spend on their career. My point with the Gears of War and Superbowl examples was that every second of the day doesn't need to be consumed doing something useful. While the Minecraft video seemingly required an inordinate amount of discipline and time for a product of value equal to anything gained watching men chainsaw each other or score touchdowns, it is probably as significant to the people who made it as chainsaws and touchdowns are to a different, regular person.

"I'm off work, so I'll unwind for the evening with GoW multiplayer."

"I'm off work, so I'll unwind for the evening by making a silly, mindless Minecraft project with some friends."

(Also, that the project took the guys months (as it says in the video's description) implies that they probably weren't working on it every waking moment.)

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This is confusing. Rodi's passionate outburst did not seem out of place to me at all. Especially following Mr Kingz's equally passionate rant. Also, the question of art was raised in Kingz's post when he complained that the video added nothing to our culture.

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As a sidenote, it took me a day but I finally figured out what the hell Sal's avatar actually is. It's kinda tricky to parse, and funny.

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This is confusing. Rodi's passionate outburst did not seem out of place to me at all. Especially following Mr Kingz's equally passionate rant. Also, the question of art was raised in Kingz's post when he complained that the video added nothing to our culture.

I dunno, I didn't interpret it that way because personally I think something can be art and yet add nothing to culture. But that is a whole other :buyme: of :worm::worm: and let's just not go there.

As a sidenote, it took me a day but I finally figured out what the hell Sal's avatar actually is. It's kinda tricky to parse, and funny.

It's from my favorite tumblr ever! http://disneyfaceswap.tumblr.com/

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