Killzone: Mercenary shoots onto Vita on September 10
Trion Worlds hit with more layoffs, Defiance team impacted
Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault defending Vita next week
Game & Wario was originally going to be pre-installed on Wii U
The Last of Us digital download lets you start playing sooner
Weekend Confirmed 150 - Ni No Kuni, Skulls of the Shogun, Proteus
by Jeff Mattas, Feb 01, 2013 11:00am PSTWeekend Confirmed is back, and this week, Garnett Lee, Jeff Cannata, "Indie" Jeff Mattas and Nikole Zivalich convene to talk about some new releases. Garnett kicks things off with some talk about his experience with Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, which is followed by some discussion about the recently-released indies, Skulls of the Shogun and Proteus. Naturally, the crew brings it all home with a batch of Finishing Moves, and the final post-show NFL TailGate of the season.
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 150: 2/1/2013
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Weekend Confirmed comes in four segments to make it easy to listen to in segments or all at once. Here's the timing for this week's episode:
Show Breakdown:
Round 1 - 00:00:38 - 00:13:39
Whatcha' Been Playin Part 1 - 00:14:55 - 01:00:04
Whatcha Been Playin Part 2 01:01:32 - 01:30:46
Listener Feedback/Front Page News - 01:31:46 - 02:06:00
TailGate 02:06:47 – 02:16:14
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Original music in the show by Del Rio. Get his latest Album, Club Tipsy on iTunes. Check out more, including the Super Mega Worm mix and other mash-ups on his ReverbNation page or Facebook page, and follow him on twitter @delriomusic.
Comments
- Why the assumption that in order for something to be "art" it has to be all deep and profound?
- Why the assumption that something has to touch you on an emotional level in order for it's creator to have expressed him/herself?
- Why does a game narrative have to sucker punch you emotionally in order to qualify as artistic narrative?
- Why the broad assumption that something that makes you laugh can't also make you think?
- Do games have to do these things in order to live up to their so-called potential? Why?
This is a large part of why the Walking Dead discussion got to be so cloying. This type of clamoring for some sort of legitimacy is completely missing the point. It's especially baffling coming from Garnett, a guy who clearly loves his electronic dance music... a genre that is often broadly labeled as shallow.
The art world, for it's part, had this amazing thing known as the 20th century, which saw many artists and groups of artists deconstructing and challenging many of the notions of art that are now being held up as the supposed virtues of art-house indie video games.
Creating this false distinction between DmC and Proteus is like saying that Dark Side of the Moon can't be art because rock and roll doesn't qualify.
Could the mainstream audience stand to tolerate a broader range of game experiences? Sure, but holding up this one particular ideal of what an artistic game ought to be is inherently broader, it's a narrower range of experience, one that leaves little room for game creators to say anything that isn't in line with some black haired teenage slam poetry notion of what it means to be deep.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 19 replies.
To your Rock music example, the increased commercialization of Rock music in the '70s and especially the '80s created an over-produced sound that nearly destroyed the industry. The drive for the dollar meant too many companies pressured artists for music that fit a particular mold, not music that the artist necessarily wanted to make (though I'm sure the money was a powerful motivator).
My fear is I'm seeing the same thing occurring now in the video game industry. And much like Punk and other music forms erupted in the '70s and '80s in response to over-produced, too similar music, Indie Developers today are popping up in response to over-produced, too similar games.
Don't misread this as saying I don't like the Eagles. I owned every LP they released but would argue that Desperado, their second album, was their best and the later albums might have been better if they were a little rougher. Likewise, I love Halo 4 and enjoyed Uncharted 2. But I don't want every game to be like them. Give me slower paced games like Kentucky Route Zero in addition to the adrenaline filled AAA titles.
It's not an either/or equation for me but a desire for diversity. The DMCs and Dead Space 3s of the world do not need cheerleaders. They will likely sell well enough on their own and are not going to fall under the radar of regular gamers. But a game like Proteus, or especially a game like Kentucky Route Zero (yes, I'm pushing it) will fall under the radar of many people unless they are championed. Why The Walking Dead is pushed, I think, is because it has helped raise awareness that there are other games out there that many people have been missing.
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