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 If there's one thing that every brilliant person has had in common- from Confucius to Socrates, Albert Einstein to Neil deGrasse Tyson- is that they never let their minds rest for too long. They were always asking new questions to themselves, and to the others around them. I'm not going to pretend I'm anywhere near as smart as they were, but I, too, believe that hypothesizing different (and perhaps difficult) questions is important to maintaining a healthy mind. I've decided to do this here, for the people of Games to participate in, and I've decide to do it about a topic we all care about deeply: video games and gaming. I will not be asking any trick questions; there aren't actually any right or wrong answers you can give. I want each of you to be as honest as possible. Whether your answer is straightforward and logical, or deep and philosophical, or even just driven by raw emotion, it's still valid. Don't be discouraged if coming up with a good answer takes a while- it should! Think hard about your answer and why it came to you. I can't wait to see your responses!
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Oct 22, 2015 21:28
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 09:24 |
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You forgot to ask a question idiot.
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Oct 22, 2015 21:29
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 Exercise #1 It's common knowledge that the wide world of gaming has changed immensely in the last fifteen years. Let's say you were a big time gamer who was charged with a felony and sent to prison sometime in the year 2000. You've just been released and boy, you just can't wait to see the video games that have come out since you were put behind bars. Of all the changes since then, which would stand out to you the most? Would it be positive, negative or neutral?
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Oct 22, 2015 21:31
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Lumpy the Cook posted:Exercise #1 All of the video games that feature New York City are omitting the twin towers. What's up with that???
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Oct 22, 2015 22:28
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A prisoner would likely know about 9/11, but I'll accept that answer.
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Oct 22, 2015 23:12
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Sorry I assumed for the purposes of the exercise that the prisoner contracted anterograde amnesia around the time of incarceration.
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Oct 22, 2015 23:25
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Exercise #2: Do you believe all possible genres of video game have been invented? Why or why not?
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Sep 29, 2016 21:15
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Lumpy the Cook posted:
I would say honestly the sheer amount of awesome games and how ubiquitous multiplayer is
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Sep 29, 2016 21:25
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Lumpy the Cook posted:Of all the changes since then, which would stand out to you the most? Would it be positive, negative or neutral? Probably gaming being way more ubiquitous in daily life now. People are tapping away on their smart phones constantly. Videogames being so publicly visible across all age groups definitely was not a thing back then. Lumpy the Cook posted:Exercise #2: Depends on what you'd consider to be a new genre. If you count hybridization of multiple existing genres to be new, then definitely. People are coming up with all sorts of weird games that combine elements from many genres into one. If you mean something totally new, then at this point I'd say it probably rests on someone redefining how a game can be played. Some kind of platform that is designed for completely different games. VR is probably the most recent example of something where this could happen. Obviously VR can be integrated into tons of first person games that already exist, but I think it also holds the potential for completely new experiences.
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Sep 29, 2016 21:45
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 Exercise #3: People are often very excited about the prospect of their video games being adapted to other media- books, film, etc.- even though the vast majority of them end up being very not good. From Mario Bros. to Prince of Persia to Warcraft, movies based on games range from awful to mediocre, while books, although not as outright bad, still tend to suffer from a lot of the trappings of genre fiction (awkward pacing & characterization, over reliance on the reader's knowledge of the game(s) involved, and such) Can the stories and worlds of video games properly be adapted and realized in other mediums? Or does the reliance on the gameplay involved make it an impossible task?
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Sep 30, 2016 18:37
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Lumpy the Cook posted:Can the stories and worlds of video games properly be adapted and realized in other mediums? Or does the reliance on the gameplay involved make it an impossible task? I think that the stories and worlds of video games can very easily and effectively be adapted into other mediums; atmosphere and plot are easy to express in less interactive mediums. But, where I think most companies fail in their adaption is in attempting to capture the experience of playing a game, which is inherently interactive through gameplay. Therefore, It must be impossible to represent in mediums that don't involve interaction. However, the lack of good video game movies is probably more due to companies attempting to cash in on loyal fans of the series without much thought to making a good movie.
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Oct 1, 2016 02:12
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Lumpy the Cook posted:Can the stories and worlds of video games properly be adapted and realized in other mediums? Or does the reliance on the gameplay involved make it an impossible task? This isn;t a thought exercise because Mortal Kombat already exists, proving that good video game movies are possible.
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Oct 1, 2016 03:48
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 09:24 |
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Tiggum posted:This isn;t a thought exercise because Mortal Kombat already exists, proving that good video game movies are possible. Lumpy the Cook posted:Can the stories and worlds of video games properly be adapted and realized in other mediums? Or does the reliance on the gameplay involved make it an impossible task? "Properly adapted" isn't necessarily the best way to think about it -- even a translation happening within the same form of media is a new interpretation of the source text and is never truly 100% faithful. The creative process is a messy, chaotic thing even in the best of circumstances. That's something to be thankful for. Singling out that you're focusing on "stories and worlds" though, of course they can be interpreted. Narrative is the easiest to work with in practice -- we don't see many, sure, but that's an industry thing that leads into production, Hollywood politics etc. It's a relatively young medium, so many of the stories still borrow heavily from television and cinema, so they follow many of the same traditions. Not a huge leap there. As far as rendering the game world? The second Halo novel was so faithful to the stages in certain sections that I could mentally place myself in specific hallways. The first Doom novel* does the same thing among its many hilarious liberties, and the movie has a (albeit gimmicky) sequence designed specifically to mimic the actual gameplay. Speaking of, "reliance on gameplay" is a bit curious as I find it's actually the odd game whose story and setting rely on gameplay, or even involve it significantly enough that they're inseparable. More often than not it's the other way around -- they're a means to pad out play and exist largely to keep the experience fresh and the player on track, and tend to be pretty self-contained narratives that can safely exist without the gameplay. Let's Plays, for instance, converts gameplay into video. There are certainly games whose content wouldn't present the most overtly plausible source for interpretation in film or novel form, but not every story is a great match for every medium. Plenty of poems would make terrible movies (Soonest Mended, Beowulf), but a rare few turn out great (O Brother Where Art Thou?, Beowulf). But even when that gap seems impossible, well, that's where interpretation comes in. When assigned to do just this, one of my classmates (years back) proposed an ARG-style mobile game based on Hamlet that created flash mobs and used prompted public theater to progress the narrative. Crazy? Yeah. In the spirit of Hamlet? I'd say so. *I actually collect novelizations because it's fascinating to see these moments of utter clarity that shine through shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the most awful schlock you've ever laid eyes on. Wild Wild West, eXistenz, The Shadow, Skycaptain and the World of Tomorrow, Goldeneye... it's a sick affliction.
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Oct 2, 2016 04:10
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