Criticism: Games and Modern Escapism

oXYnary

The artist behind this "band" is making a excellent critique that even our dicussions reflect. As game artist, it is something we should pay more attention to day to day.

This artist statements about Digital conglomeration, to how the world had become so static we rely on more and more engaging escapisms for our day to day inane "lives" by creating a "virtual band". (Obviously hes a multi-tasker, so you have to look beyond the use of Poser characters). Really, take a step back from yourselves and you will see what he is stating rings true at some point for every single one of us here.

http://magnatune.com/artists/music/Elect...20Time-http.m3u
(go to the second song- Electronic Paradise (its funny)

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Unrecognized, low wage human creative labor will toil behind the scenes to bring you "stars" who are nothing more than 3d models and speech synthesizers. This was predicted by science fiction author Norman Spinrad in the classic book, "Little Heroes." ..... Nowadays, most of the examples we have are in the videogame industry,

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http://magnatune.com/artists/thebots#

Homepage
http://www.thebots.net/

(Yes I know its not a new opinion/idea, but he is using the genre to crique itself. Something I wish to eventually do.)

JO420

Its the problem with our era, we live in a scary era in history everywhere we look there is so much information thrown at us at times it can be overwhelming.

Tv is a big example of this,i rarely watch it anymore because its depressing, turn it on and you hear about terrorist,bird flu,the axis of evil, how unpretty you are and why you have to buy this product to make you prettier, the news telling you about all the ways you can die,who hates you,who we should hate,violence,poverty,global warming.

its overwhelming

to make matters worse all the ways of entertaining ourselves are getting scarce and more expensive,we are working harder,making less and spending less time with our families,all of this so we have the money to buy things we really dont need to to make ourselves into an image most people cant realisticly attain. more of our world is becoming nosier and the quiet spots in this earth are disappearing.


then come the games, for 12.95 or so a month or whatever the price is its a relativly cheap form of entertainment which lasts for hours all the way to years, people want to escape this sad and scary world we live in, people want to escape, people want to be an elf ranger, or a space marine, a pro football player and what will eventually happen in many years is that games will provide a closer and closer taste of the actual experience.

i remember a ps2 commercial which was showing a guy hook up a ps10 to his head and going into the world,the first obstacle is the visual experience after that its the sense of hearing,touch smell etc.

games provide people experiences they are hard pressed in life to do or dont have the money or time.

now a days there is so little to inspire people that at times you get a feeling of despair and cheap forms of escaping reality will become even more popular.

people need something to believe in or inspire them to break this habit of escapisim.


one last example ill leave you with is the hugely large popularity of lord of the Rings, my take on it is that a good reason for its popularity is that it made you forget about our world and go into another, one of beauty and wonder and although there was evil in it, it was quite evident what the evil was and what the good was and why it must be defeated, our world is much more complicated.


Live in your world,play in ours.

KeyserSoze

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now a days there is so little to inspire people that at times you get a feeling of despair and cheap forms of escaping reality will become even more popular.

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Despair can be a source of inspire.

I personally have never really been interested in most forms of "escapism." I've never like comics or any sort of super-hero-based stories, anything supernatural, fantasy, sci fi, epics, etc. But that doesn't mean that I dislike those things by default; For example, I like a number of sci fi movies (Brazil, 12 Monkeys, etc.), mainly because I see those as more than just sci fi movies.

demoncage

I know I'm taking this a little out of context, but mere survival is a form of escapism. You're just postponing the inevitable drop of the hammer that will render your existence essentially non-existent because you will no longer have the consciousness to recognise that you existed. you will be nothing and it really doesn't matter if that happens today or in fifty years because there is no reflection after death. my opinion of course.

Besides, I think that this whole idea that always circulates basically saying that the world is getting worse is probably a neurotic tendency that has always existed in man. The whole fall from paradise idea basically. People have always been miserable and although scientifically speaking, we may be heading towards some man-made dooms day, experientially things are much better than they used to be. maybe not though, maybe we're just equally as miserable as our predecessors. People have always found ways to entertain themselves, I think its necessary for sanity's sake.

oXYnary

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Besides, I think that this whole idea that always circulates basically saying that the world is getting worse is probably a neurotic tendency that has always existed in man.

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If you take our technological and social issues. That arguement really seems rather outdated. For hundreds of thousands of years, mans escapism was song and dance. Then came reading.. But in less than a century we have gained radio, TV, and now internet. Involving more and more senses.

So when viewed in this way, saying its simple all happened before is false.

jzero

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Besides, I think that this whole idea that always circulates basically saying that the world is getting worse is probably a neurotic tendency that has always existed in man. The whole fall from paradise idea basically.

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Demoncage, I think you're onto something there. The Fall from Eden was due to Knowledge, and its fruit, after all. The more you know, the worse off you feel. It's not that life in the world really is worse, it's actually probably a lot better overall (I didn't have build a fire using animal dung today, did you?). If you remember that bad news is more reported but less prevalent (more good stuff goes on, but it's boring), then you might be able to deal.

You can choose to ignore all the information swirling around us, and go do something like.... play games.

/jzero

sledgy

http://www.9news.com/tech/default.asp?URL=http://www.gannettonline.com/e/games/2181952.html