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Jake

Idle Thumbs 86: Always Support the Danger Layer

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All I got out of The Passage is "this is really boring".

I understand why some people actually got something out of the game, but I just hated it. It did literally nothing for me except make me not want to play it.

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I'm not surprised to see some disagreement about The Passage here - I think it's almost impossible to make a game worthy of being included in a curated collection at the MoMA without it being at least somewhat controversial, either in terms of "does it belong" or "does it say anything useful." Like, Henroid, what you got out of it was way different than what a lot of people got out of it, and maybe the interpretation "everything in life is futile" isn't something The Passage was trying to convince you of but rather something you were already convinced of that you brought to the game and saw reified in the way the game worked. That's what often makes good art - people have widely differing interpretations but they also think they have good reasons for having those interpretations.

Gosh I just love what you said here and how you said it. 100% agreed.

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All I got out of The Passage is "this is really boring".

I understand why some people actually got something out of the game, but I just hated it. It did literally nothing for me except make me not want to play it.

Maybe the message here is that progress through life is, of its own accord, worthless, because nothing really happens just by moving time forwards. Life is nothing without experiences in life, and a game about life is nothing - it would have to be a game about anything else to attract your interest. If that's your idea of getting nothing out of a game then I wish I could get nothing out of most games I play.

There is not much art in the world that will just straight up give you an interpretation without you having to put any work into it. The most beautiful painting is just a pretty picture unless you actually look at it, the most affecting film is just a bunch of stuff happening on a screen unless you let yourself get emotionally invested, and The Passage is just pressing the right arrow until the game ends unless you think about it enough to move past the "this is boring" stage. But that's not to say that's wrong to have an initial "this is boring" reaction and in fact I think that's one of the most justified and interesting reactions to the game. What I would criticize you for doing is stopping at that point and saying "if a video game is boring then there is nothing there." The real message you should take from it is "what does it mean that this video game is boring, and what does it say about me/gaming/life in general that I don't want to play a depiction of a human being's entire lifetime if that depiction is boring?"

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There was no message for me. I get that other people found something in the game. I didn't... It was boring. A thing has to be more than boring for me to care enough to bother looking for meaning in it*. I'm not going to put effort into discovering the meaning behind watching paint dry, or grass grow, or [insert other stupid cliche].

*Even then, I can't usually find anything. The book club 'cast has just proven to me how little I actually get out of any form of art. I did The Sense of an Ending and... it was a book about a dude. It had no effect on me. Boy did I try to make it have one, because I've wanted for so long to be able to have those kinds of reactions. I think I'm dead inside. But... but I did try. I'm trying again, now, with Cloud Atlas, although it's a really slow read because I can't stand the old-timey style of writing (even when it makes sense in context, as it does here). Trying and... failing again. It's just a book about a dude. Well, multiple dudes, I guess? I haven't gotten to the multiple dudes, yet.

But The Passage doesn't even get that out of me. I have no desire to even try. It's just a stupid thing that exists and doesn't inspire me to even think about it. Even as we have this discussion, I'm not really thinking about The Passage. I'm only thinking about other works of art that haven't had any effect on me.

I'm probably an asshole or something so I'm sorry. I just... can't. )':

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You're not an asshole. It's just that you're the kind of person that doesn't get much out of art. That doesn't make you a bad person, although it does suggest that maybe when you criticize a game like The Passage, you should preface your criticism with a disclaimer like "I do not mean to imply that this game is flawed because it doesn't say anything interesting, because frankly I find almost no works of art interesting, and thus if there is any flaw it is within me." A lot of times when people say "I didn't get anything out of this game" they mean to imply that the game itself is pointless, but in your case you probably didn't mean to imply that, because you find almost everything pointless but presumably you don't have issues with other people finding meaning in these sorts of things. I found The Passage to be quite moving, and other people have too, but since it's very simple and short and small, one common criticism is that it just doesn't say anything. Someone might interpret your comment as agreeing with that criticism, whereas really you don't think ANYTHING says anything.

We could have a whole discussion about whether it's better to be able to find meaning in stuff or whether going through life saying "yeah that's just a book about a dude" "yeah that's just a boring video game" "yeah that's just a book about multiple dudes" is fine, but whatever. Insofar as we're talking about games being chosen by the MoMA for being good in some way, though, you don't have much to add, because you probably don't see anything in most of what the MoMA has already.

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I loved the discussion about the creative process, and how helpful and inspiring it is to listen others talk about theirs. I find it amazingly refreshing to hear others' struggles with the creative process, and welcome any more links to things people find inspiring.

  1. I found the Stephen King book "On Writing" (which is, amazingly, about writing) incredibly helpful. He goes to great lengths to demystify the writing process. One of my favorite quotes:
    Don't wait for the muse. As I've said, he's a hardheaded guy who's not susceptible to a lot of creative fluttering. This isn't the Ouija board or the spirit-world we're talking about here, but just another job like laying pipe or driving long-haul trucks. Your job is to make sure the muse knows where you're going to be every day from nine 'til noon. or seven 'til three. If he does know, I assure you that sooner or later he'll start showing up.
    There's a lot more in there that's wonderful.
  2. Also, in the link below, writers talking about their writing process. Maya Angelou says hilarious stuff, and there's a great link to Vonnegut's process in there, too. http://www.brainpick...utines-writers/
  3. New Year's resolution time! List of books to make you a better reader and writer.
  4. Elizabeth Gilbert's
    on the importance of just showing up for creative work. Just keep coming; that is honorable all by itself.

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You're not an asshole. It's just that you're the kind of person that doesn't get much out of art. That doesn't make you a bad person, although it does suggest that maybe when you criticize a game like The Passage, you should preface your criticism with a disclaimer like "I do not mean to imply that this game is flawed because it doesn't say anything interesting, because frankly I find almost no works of art interesting, and thus if there is any flaw it is within me." A lot of times when people say "I didn't get anything out of this game" they mean to imply that the game itself is pointless, but in your case you probably didn't mean to imply that, because you find almost everything pointless but presumably you don't have issues with other people finding meaning in these sorts of things. I found The Passage to be quite moving, and other people have too, but since it's very simple and short and small, one common criticism is that it just doesn't say anything. Someone might interpret your comment as agreeing with that criticism, whereas really you don't think ANYTHING says anything.

We could have a whole discussion about whether it's better to be able to find meaning in stuff or whether going through life saying "yeah that's just a book about a dude" "yeah that's just a boring video game" "yeah that's just a book about multiple dudes" is fine, but whatever. Insofar as we're talking about games being chosen by the MoMA for being good in some way, though, you don't have much to add, because you probably don't see anything in most of what the MoMA has already.

Well I do see plenty of things in things, especially after hearing other people's things. I didn't mean to say I don't see things at all. Just that it's much harder for me than it seems to be for, well, everyone else. I just generally have trouble seeing things without first discussing things. But I have, uh, discussed The Passage with people before and it, specifically, is completely and utterly meaningless even in its lack of things. I'm not ambivalent toward it, like, say, The Sense of an Ending; I actively dislike it. I tried to emphasize that, but I guess I failed. I know and understand what people see in The Passage. I still hate it.

Moreover, MoMA itself may not interest me, but video games are core to my entire existence. I gots plenty of opinions. I see and appreciate why most of the rest of the list was chosen. The Passage, in particular, stands out as the rotten fruit. Hell, I can even sort of see why they picked Canabalt. While it's nothing spectacular - and I wouldn't choose it - it is sorta formative, in terms of a specific genre of games. It wasn't the first autorunning, infinitely-long-level, single-button game, but it was a relatively big one. There are a LOT of these kinds of games on mobile platforms.

But all that said, I realize that it's stupid to say that just because I think it's a meaningless thing, that makes it so. Clearly some people, for whatever reason, care about it. So... more power to you, I suppose!

ALSO: things things things things things things things things things things things things things things things things things things things things things things things things

also: qwop should've been on the list, hee-hee

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Heh. I'm not really that surprised. It was as big as it could've been considering the kind of game it is. Also, given the "scene" in which it was released, there are naturally a lot of capable smalltime game developers ready and willing to have fun with the idea. There were a lot of strong reactions at the time - both positive and negative!

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I loved the discussion about the creative process, and how helpful and inspiring it is to listen others talk about theirs. I find it amazingly refreshing to hear others' struggles with the creative process, and welcome any more links to things people find inspiring.

  1. I found the Stephen King book "On Writing" (which is, amazingly, about writing) incredibly helpful. He goes to great lengths to demystify the writing process. One of my favorite quotes: There's a lot more in there that's wonderful.
  2. Also, in the link below, writers talking about their writing process. Maya Angelou says hilarious stuff, and there's a great link to Vonnegut's process in there, too. http://www.brainpick...utines-writers/
  3. New Year's resolution time! List of books to make you a better reader and writer.
  4. Elizabeth Gilbert's
    on the importance of just showing up for creative work. Just keep coming; that is honorable all by itself.

On Writing is an excellent book, even if like me you haven't written anything longer than about 1000 words since it was assigned work. Insightful and funny.

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I thought it would be appropriate to cleanse the palette of all this meaningful discussion about The Passage with a clarification I need to make about the Aflac duck.

When the Aflac commercials started coming out, my grandfather was completely amazed that he was seeing a duck talking (he was born in 1919). I tried to explain compositing but that was a little beyond his world ("They put film in computers?" "Animation? You mean they draw in computers?"). So we settled on "they just do it with computer animation".

A couple of years later I got a job in the video game industry. "Cinematic Artist" is kind of hard to explain even to people who work in video games but I tried to explain it to my grandparents anyway: "Someone comes up with a design, then they write a script, then someone else makes a drawing, then someone else tries to make a sculpture that's made up of geometry, kind of like a graph, then someone else puts a skeleton in the sculpture to make it move, then...animaiton library...proprietary software...gameplay authoring...Sam and Max...downloadable content...episodic gaming..." They nodded politely and I got a few "oh, that's nice!". There was a pause and my grandfather seemed to be processing some of this and then his face lit up and he said "Like the Aflac duck?"

Yes, grandpa, like the Aflac duck.

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A little late perhaps, but thanks to Sean for a terrific and touching story about playing Monkey Island. I was in a christmas mood and making a puzzle while listening to the podcast, so the tale was a perfect companion.

With puzzle I mean an actual, 1000 piece puzzle of the St. Peter in Rome, with Photoshopped flowers in the foreground and a murderously even blue sky on top.

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Here is a photo of my buddy's tiny daughter (the one with the headphones that aren't plugged in) and the two neighbor kids who came over to play video games.

bahamasSoMI.jpg

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Adorable!

Monkey Island with the MacBook trackpad doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. Time to reinstall the game yet again, even though I have a 3/4 finished copy of the game on my phone, where it's sat idle all year.

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