Interesting Links for 08-02-2023

[andrewducker]

1. This pretty much sums up how I feel about computer games that prioritise narrative over, well, being a game

(tags:games narrative writing design video )

2. As kids become teens, mom's voice matters less to their brains

(tags:teenagers voice psychology children )

3. Nintendo Switch Surpasses PS4 and Game Boy to Become 3rd Best Selling Console of All Time

(tags:Nintendo consoles )

4. What Happened On The Day the Dinosaurs Died?

(tags:video dinosaurs apocalypse )

5. I think Atari might have overestimated the level of nostalgia people have for their consoles

(tags:games nostalgia history technology consoles money )

6. Noting a chain of evidence for the next time someone claims that JK Rowling isn't transphobic

(tags:LGBT transgender bigotry jkrowling )

7. Google advertises its AI - which manages to get facts wrong *in the advert*

(tags:ai OhForFucksSake google )

Comments

[qilora]

#7, we have to start asking our online-friends a shitload of questions before we call 1-800-bladerunner.

[andrewducker]

I'm fairly sure most of you are bots.

[channelpenguin]

:-). You got me. Kirsty-bot has been handling my complete online presence since 2010. (Geeks with poor social skills are easier to sim)

[f4f3]

Reaction time is a factor.

[andrewducker]

Tell me about your mother.

[qilora]

domo arigato, mr. roboto!

No 1.

[channelpenguin]

Since I don't play games, I can't really comment on that aspect. But as 1. A reader, putting in tedious move by move details of the "game mechanics" bored me to tears (I think they call it "hard magic systems". I mean what Brandon Sanderson does. God it's dull)
2. A movie watcher, having the thing be mostly action scenes with WAY too many fast moving things in oversharp detail and NO real story or character also bugs me.

Re: No 1.

[mellowtigger]

I was on the verge of writing about the active-vs-passive consumer in movies or video games, and why they should have different goals. The linked video does a much better job of it than I could, although it doesn't explicitly boil it down that succinctly.

And I totally agree about the too-much-stuff problem in action flicks. It was one of the Transformers movies where I literally couldn't even tell you what I was seeing on screen, because the battle scene was too much and too fast in my field of vision. I couldn't register anything.

Re: No 1.

[andrewducker]

Totally agreed.

For action movies I vastly prefer ones where the actors can actually fight, and it's shot stably, from a distance, so you can see what's going on.

Re: No 1.

[calimac]

Sometimes it's better not to see what's going on. Too many of the fight scenes in Buffy the Vampire Slayer fell into two categories: 1) the massive fight scenes, which were choreographed and staged to look more like a game of rugby than a fight; 2) the Buffy vs. A Lot of Bad Guys scenes, in which the bad guys were contractually obligated to attack her only one at a time, so that she could defeat them. Only if the plot required her to lose the fight could they all pile in at once.

[calimac]

1) I can't tell whether I'd agree with this, due to my complete unfamiliarity with any of the examples.

2) It's not the sound of Mom's voice, it's what she's saying. - Former Teenager

[ninetydegrees]

#1 This again? We hear the same old arguments every time a narrative game is a tiny bit successful... *sigh* Thankfully, some people in the industry don't listen and still continue to produce gems like The Vanishing of Ethan Carter or Edith Finch and there will still be players to appreciate the experience and gameplay they offer. Just like there are people who make completely different games and some players who love the experience and gameplay they offer. Also, the idea that each medium should stay in the confined limits of what they're supposed to be (according to whom btw?) and not influence each other is just silly. That's not how art works. That's not how humans work.

[andrewducker]

I don't think they were saying nobody should like them. They were saying they didn't like them, and explaining why, and I was linking to them because I feel the same way, and it was a pretty good explanation of why I feel that way.

[ninetydegrees]

Yep but they still phrased their "arguments" as this should be that and shouldn't be that and that mediums shouldn't borrow from each other and that's what I'm commenting on. The sentence "media don't do too well when they chase the strength of other mediums - and that's how video game movies got their laughable reputation to begin with" is just ridiculous. Video game movies are bad because they're bad movies (bad script, poor acting, poor directing, whatever makes movies bad), not because they try to be something they aren't. It's like saying the LoTR movies are bad because they're adapted from a book.

It's one thing to say I don't like them because I don't like it when... It's another thing to give lessons on what each medium should be because what other creators do don't fit your own made-up definition of what a game or a book or a movie should be, and then saying it's bad. I found the tone of the video very condescending.

[simont]

The title of #4 made me think of "American Pie" and then I was faintly disappointed that it was not in fact an American Pie filk about the K-T boundary.

"My, my, there's a rock in the sky, be a crater some day later and we'll never know why ..."

(Not quite sure I can get behind dinosaurs drinkin' whisky and rye, though.)

[bens_dad]

5. They appear to be sold out, so they didn't *over*estimate the market ...