[Throwaways] New comment on Oh Glorious Pixels!.

Bradford has left a new comment on your post "Oh Glorious Pixels!":

There are a couple problems with this video review. The main one you point out is something even I find myself doing sometimes. There are those in video gaming that are so desperate to have video games viewed as a legitimate art or at least something beyond a teenage boy time waster that when a game comes along showing an inkling of original thought or tells a good story they go a little overboard. So a game designer thought what if we make a game where John Gault type character creates an underwater utopia only it's all gone horribly wrong. Throw in decisions that affect more than whether the player lives or dies, and you've created a game that will get these people bustling. Make the game play well both technically and within the genre of the game and you will often get what you have in the video.

Which leads to the second problem of this video and that is the footage. The problem with ambitious or unique games is that they often don't sell well. (See Psychonauts or Shadow of the Colossus) So when a game like this comes out there is often a big push by these people to get that game out there, thinking if this sells well maybe a few less formulaic games will get made and the publishers will take a chance on original ideas. Considering the money and years that go into making a game, it's become an industry that thrives on sequels even more than the movie industry, and leaves little room for independent projects. But how do you try to persuade the gamers who are happy with their WWII shooters and MAddens? Well, apparently you make a video like you see above showing all the cool ways you can blow stuff and people up. They also were probably very cautious not to give away any of the story considering the only part of the story they show is what you can see in the demo. So what you have is a review trying to sell the game as literature-esque combined with video trying to sell the game to the masses.

Anyway, is this game literature-esque? No, and it is a tad ridiculous to try to put games in that category. Could they ever become high-minded? Not with the market and culture of gaming the way it is. Though a game like Shadow of the Colossus does give me hope. To me it is probably the greatest video game ever made because (Perhaps I should be ashamed to admit this) it was able to create a moment in its story where I got a bit misty eyed twice. I will defend that it is valid form of story telling. And now I'm finished with what is giving me flashbacks to me high school English persuasive speech: "Comic Books Aren't For Kids Anymore."



Posted by Bradford to Throwaways at 8/20/2007 1:29 AM