The Gamer's Quarter

[Ketch]

It seems to me that many of us (well at least me) are kind of looking for games which are spiritualy uplifting. / Ie. 'artistic'. I've come to realise that this is pretty much out of place, and if this is what you are after then we've probably come to the wrong place. There is very little to be found in games. Which isn't to say that they can't be just that such content is in the minority of a games content.

[simplicio]

Well yes, which is why we fret so.

We have a vision for the future, you see.

[Toto]

Channeling what I assume dhex would say itt.
Videogames are an opulent way of passing the time with minimal boredom, like wanking. Sometimes I get emotionally attached (in one way or another) to porn stars, and hell sometimes porn is art, but at the end of the day it is there to keep you occupied, wanking is.
Videogames are like this to me.

[Harveyjames]

[Nana Komatsu]

I've found that we sometimes outgrow our hobbies and yet because we feel attachment to them we try to find things that are not there.

Also, I haven't played a video game in two weeks and I feel great.

Also, the last real spiritual experience I had was a Flaming Lips concert so I don't think I'm qualified to talk about this sort of thing.
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resetbutton.net: videogames for unattractive people

[Harveyjames]

I can do a really great impression of Wayne Coyne. If I ever get to do a cartoon show I'm going to have Wayne Coyne be a recurring character, rolling around in his plastic ball talking in his bizarre voice.

[kirkjerk]

There are many legitimate reasons for liking video games, some more intellectually hefty than others.

Certainly this kind of "uplift" is a worth goal, and Gaming might be able to give Art opportunities in using the second person voice that it didn't have before. (i.e. most other genres get into trouble when they start telling the viewer/reader what they're feeling, what they're thinking; games are almost always fundamentally second person, "you can do this" "you can do that", even if a particular game relies on a first or third person perspective)

Certainly there are stumbling blocks: there's a conflict with "authorial intent" that has been crucial to art as we know it for so long, and then there are demands of gameplay mechanic, game conventions, and just plain fun that sometimes aren't in harmony with uplift intent.

I'm not even sure if it's the most promising avenue for games. Personally, I'm in it for what I call "novel interactions", show me a new world to play with, a microcosm, one that I can engage in ways not possible in the real one, and ways that I might not have thought of before.
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=/ \(<D)_/
==/\/ >_ kirkjerk.com

[kirkjerk]

[Harveyjames]

[dhex]

i like to shoot shit, but i live in the communist capital of america and can't do so for real without spending thousands of dollars a year.

ultimately (and without derailing things with a discussion as to what "spiritually uplifiting" actually means in the popular lexicon beyond "absorption / peak experience") i don't understand why people want games to be all things - teacher, lover, mother, friend, etc - rather than just being what they are: a broad category of interactive media that includes tetris and half life 2 and all points in between.

now, this is probably a matter of taste more than anything else. i don't really see the revolutionary potential of the wii, as most of my fellow staff members do, and i can't really bring myself to care if other people play games or not. i have a very limited focus, which no doubt truly hinders my ability to see these implications, though i do enjoy reading about them. (i truly enjoy reading about the games people play - and their experiences - that i'd never want to play myself, like the dwarf fortress thread, or the bulk of tgq's issues. the shiren thread is another example.)
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[Harveyjames]

Join the army.

[dhex]

dude, did you get dumped lately or something? you seem cranky.
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[Harveyjames]

I'm sorry ;_;

I will feel better soon I'm sure.