For a very long time I was never a fan of ‘arty’ games. Games that try and present meta commentary about themselves and the medium as a whole. In fact, until recently, I would consider my disdain for them to be almost hostile.
That is not to say I had a real ideological opposition to the concept. No… my grievances with them were petty and personal. You see back in my youth I had very limited access to money, a sentiment I am sure many of us share. One day, young and so very impressionable me stumbled into a fortune. TWENTY Dollars! TWENTY $DIGITAL$ Dollars! This discrepancy is important. In these formative years of mine I had just recently been entrusted with a Debit Card. I had grown older, wiser, more responsible. Soon I would become an adult. Achieving autonomy and independence as a person. But not yet, I was but a child and I had a lot to learn about the world. About fiscal responsibility.
So of course, I immediately spent my life’s savings on a videogame. You would all have done the same. But no… not just any game! I had seen ads. I had read the glowing reviews. With these TWENTY dollars I had bought… something grand. Something profound. That which would flip my perspective on what videogames meant. What they could become. I was promised something beyond a childish gaming experience. I had purchased… ART!
I had spent all the money I possessed on ‘Braid’.
To say I was… disappointed, is an understatement. Not to disparage the game but young naive idealistic me expected so much more. Braid was advertised as perfect. The greatest thing I would ever play, and it was certainly different. The game was short, the puzzles weren’t especially difficult or novel, and the twist at the end? Meaningless droll. So what if it flips the perspective on what the game was about if I did not engage with that original perspective in the first place? I had spent TWENTY dollars on a game that barely held my attention for a day. A game so pretentiously full of itself that it includes one puzzle that expects you to sit and wait idle for TWENTY minutes as a platform slowly meanders across the screen before finally allowing you to grab a collectible.
Jonathan Blow? More like Jonathan Blows!
And so young (did I mention young?) impressionable me had learnt an invaluable lesson that day. Games were not only not art, but they SHOULD NEVER STRIVE TO BECOME ART. The concept of art was a pretentious blight upon the medium. Compromising the experience instead of enhancing it. Games should be gameplay focused and nothing more. It would be nice to have a good narrative and atmosphere alongside the dopamine high of overcoming challenging (but fair) obstacles but that should just be an extra detail. This pretentious meta introspective nonsense was a fad that surely not even the author believed in.
It has taken a long time for me to grow out of this perspective. I have played many games since then and have grown older and much more appreciative of games that try to explore the medium in different ways. TWENTY dollars meant so much more to me then than it does now. A paltry sum and yet the ultimate cost to me was much more severe. Even now I still am adverse to try ‘arty’ games and given the choice between playing some meta commentary puzzle introspective adventure or like the next game trying to emulate the tight tailored gameplay design philosophies of say Zelda or Dark Souls I would have to be tricked into choosing to play the former over the later.
Huh? I was supposed to be talking about Tunic? Oh… strange. What a weird unrelated tangent I went on. Well, I recommend this game to people who enjoy the tight tailored gameplay experiences in the vein of Zelda and Dark Souls. This game does not hide these inspirations and is very successful in both emulating these philosophies as well as branching out into its own identity. It is quite the tricky game. It has allowed me to forgive Jonathan Blow.
That is not to say I had a real ideological opposition to the concept. No… my grievances with them were petty and personal. You see back in my youth I had very limited access to money, a sentiment I am sure many of us share. One day, young and so very impressionable me stumbled into a fortune. TWENTY Dollars! TWENTY $DIGITAL$ Dollars! This discrepancy is important. In these formative years of mine I had just recently been entrusted with a Debit Card. I had grown older, wiser, more responsible. Soon I would become an adult. Achieving autonomy and independence as a person. But not yet, I was but a child and I had a lot to learn about the world. About fiscal responsibility.
So of course, I immediately spent my life’s savings on a videogame. You would all have done the same. But no… not just any game! I had seen ads. I had read the glowing reviews. With these TWENTY dollars I had bought… something grand. Something profound. That which would flip my perspective on what videogames meant. What they could become. I was promised something beyond a childish gaming experience. I had purchased… ART!
I had spent all the money I possessed on ‘Braid’.
To say I was… disappointed, is an understatement. Not to disparage the game but young naive idealistic me expected so much more. Braid was advertised as perfect. The greatest thing I would ever play, and it was certainly different. The game was short, the puzzles weren’t especially difficult or novel, and the twist at the end? Meaningless droll. So what if it flips the perspective on what the game was about if I did not engage with that original perspective in the first place? I had spent TWENTY dollars on a game that barely held my attention for a day. A game so pretentiously full of itself that it includes one puzzle that expects you to sit and wait idle for TWENTY minutes as a platform slowly meanders across the screen before finally allowing you to grab a collectible.
Jonathan Blow? More like Jonathan Blows!
And so young (did I mention young?) impressionable me had learnt an invaluable lesson that day. Games were not only not art, but they SHOULD NEVER STRIVE TO BECOME ART. The concept of art was a pretentious blight upon the medium. Compromising the experience instead of enhancing it. Games should be gameplay focused and nothing more. It would be nice to have a good narrative and atmosphere alongside the dopamine high of overcoming challenging (but fair) obstacles but that should just be an extra detail. This pretentious meta introspective nonsense was a fad that surely not even the author believed in.
It has taken a long time for me to grow out of this perspective. I have played many games since then and have grown older and much more appreciative of games that try to explore the medium in different ways. TWENTY dollars meant so much more to me then than it does now. A paltry sum and yet the ultimate cost to me was much more severe. Even now I still am adverse to try ‘arty’ games and given the choice between playing some meta commentary puzzle introspective adventure or like the next game trying to emulate the tight tailored gameplay design philosophies of say Zelda or Dark Souls I would have to be tricked into choosing to play the former over the later.
Huh? I was supposed to be talking about Tunic? Oh… strange. What a weird unrelated tangent I went on. Well, I recommend this game to people who enjoy the tight tailored gameplay experiences in the vein of Zelda and Dark Souls. This game does not hide these inspirations and is very successful in both emulating these philosophies as well as branching out into its own identity. It is quite the tricky game. It has allowed me to forgive Jonathan Blow.