You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
I've probably mentioned this before but one time my horribleterrible tenth grade English teacher mentioned that a student shared a birthday with some famous person and said "What are the chances of that?" and I immediately blurted out "1 in 365" and I swear she wanted to kill me by the look she gave me.
Why is "person with a TV for a head" such a common image? Why do we not question why something like that has become such a fixture in off-beat artwork? What does that particular image mean?
In my experience the TV-head people are usually postured in a way that suggest innocence, inquisitiveness, or naivete. So I don't think it's about TV brainwashing.
Also I'm continually caught off guard by how few people seem to have seen FLCL.
In my experience the TV-head people are usually postured in a way that suggest innocence, inquisitiveness, or naivete. So I don't think it's about TV brainwashing.
Also I'm continually caught off guard by how few people seem to have seen FLCL.
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
My favorite TV head is Prince Robot IV of the Robot Kingdom, fourth son of King Robot and Queen Robot from Saga, a shellshocked noble forced by his clan to hunt the interspecies protagonist couple, and who wants to start a family of his own but has trouble getting it up.
January rises gently and eventually bends over 180 degrees, while February is a rather simple upward slope. March is relatively level until the days proceeding my birthday when it starts rising swiftly, and reaching its peak on my birthday, then sloping gently downward through the rest of the month, and into April and May. May cuts off halfway through with a steep vertical drop, and the path onward is a mostly level horizontal path for the months of June and July, before sharply shooting upwards into August. August gently rises into September which has a gradually increasing grade, leading into October which is a much steeper climb. November is a gentle rise, and December is a level plain that sharply rises when it nears Christmas and sharply drops off near New Year’s Eve.
...I got bored and decided to describe how I visualize the months. Sue me.
“[I]t is extremely difficult — maybe impossible — to come up with a story and characters that, when placed within the context of most current video games, don’t feel inherently silly.” I agree with Burns, but I didn’t always. I used to think the solution to the problem of what I wanted from video games was “better writing,” which was good news, because I’m a writer! But “better writing” isn’t the solution. The problem is, in fact, way deeper. I’m not sure it’s a problem you solve so much as figure out elegant ways to avoid. The person who finally figures out how to make the game many gamers seem to believe they want — the action-heavy shooter with great characters and thoughtful scenarios — is basically going to be the Twelfth Imam of mass entertainment, and by that I mean we’ll all be waiting for this figure’s appearance, and his or her game, for a long, long time.
Not all shooter violence is violent per se. As the game critic Erik Kain notes, “killing people in video games is actually just solving moving puzzles.” Which is a true, smart, and helpful way to think about video-game violence. However, most puzzles don’t bleed or scream. Why do gamers want their puzzles to bleed and scream? And why on earth do they — do we — also want our bleeding, screaming puzzles to be embedded within a nuanced story?
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
Violence and a nuanced story aren't mutually exclusive. In fact, a lot of great stories are about violence.
The problem is that violence for fun, for the rush, tends to work against many stories you might want to tell. Doesn't make such things impossible, merely really hard. There is that one game that does stuff, but it's also hugely manipulative, and the narrative it delivers relies greatly on that heavy-handed manipulation.
More people have said that and been killed than there are thorium decay products.
^ I think you are right.
The reason I am very skeptical of the "games as art" thing, especially where storytelling is concerned, is that video games are expected to entertain and indulge, by virtue of being games. Every scene has to be written around a gameplay scenario. The player ultimately has to succeed, if a game narrative reaches an end, and it's hard to tell a thought-provoking story that centers on and is driven by a player overcoming the same type(s) of challenge repeatedly. But if the story goes too far beyond the gameplay, the gameplay feels superfluous, begging the question, "why is this even a game instead of a movie or something?" That is why I like to see video games as pure entertainment, maybe even something akin to pornography. But, I like when games are artful and expressive, without being long-winded and pretentious* like they want to be a movie. It's complicated.
* by "pretentious," I here mean things such as having an anti-gun message in a game that rewards the player, and the main character, for using guns.
More people have said that and been killed than there are thorium decay products.
Maybe I hardly know what I'm talking about anymore because I only play shmups and sometimes platformers and jrpgs, all of which seem like they're becoming essentially obsolete, or at best, "retro."
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
Games can be great art. We just need to find more varied game mechanics to marry to story concepts.
Like, a lot of the time, game as art is "watch cutscene." Which is the wrong way to go about things, because you're playing the game to get to the cutscene. Of note are trash like Heavy Rain or Indigo Prophecy or Beyond Two Souls, which are less actual games and more DVD featurette toys.
But if you can tell the story unobtrusively as the game is played (like Bastion or Thomas Was Alone) or the only way to tell the story is through the game itself (Little Inferno), then that's where the idea of "game as art" really shines.
But sometimes the disconnect between game and story is what you want (again the aforementioned manipulative game). It all depends.
My favorite TV head is Prince Robot IV of the Robot Kingdom, fourth son of King Robot and Queen Robot from Saga, a shellshocked noble forced by his clan to hunt the interspecies protagonist couple, and who wants to start a family of his own but has trouble getting it up.
I've always been partial to The One Electric from Rice Boy myself.
im gonna get my hair cut today and in an intriguing twist i will then buy a wig*
*so i can go as marc bolan to the college end of year party tonight. the theme is prehistoric but they put 'T-Rex' in the event name so im taking my chance
im gonna get my hair cut today and in an intriguing twist i will then buy a wig*
*so i can go as marc bolan to the college end of year party tonight. the theme is prehistoric but they put 'T-Rex' in the event name so im taking my chance
im gonna get my hair cut today and in an intriguing twist i will then buy a wig*
*so i can go as marc bolan to the college end of year party tonight. the theme is prehistoric but they put 'T-Rex' in the event name so im taking my chance
im gonna get my hair cut today and in an intriguing twist i will then buy a wig*
*so i can go as marc bolan to the college end of year party tonight. the theme is prehistoric but they put 'T-Rex' in the event name so im taking my chance
incredible
in other news my birthday veggie omelet was delicious #thankyoubasedmom
Comments
number 20
number 20
shit
Not the same date in a different year, I'm actually 2,000 years old.
Also I'm continually caught off guard by how few people seem to have seen FLCL.
Key:
1. Republic of Wales
2. Free City of Ulm & Surrounding Territories
3. Kingdom of Barrois
4. Principality of Lorraine
5. Free State of Galicia
6. Tsardom of Ryazan
7. Kingdom of Brittany
8. The Isle of Orkney ("Kingdom of Norway")
9. Sovereign & Most Catholic Archbishopric of Avignon
The reason I am very skeptical of the "games as art" thing, especially where storytelling is concerned, is that video games are expected to entertain and indulge, by virtue of being games. Every scene has to be written around a gameplay scenario. The player ultimately has to succeed, if a game narrative reaches an end, and it's hard to tell a thought-provoking story that centers on and is driven by a player overcoming the same type(s) of challenge repeatedly. But if the story goes too far beyond the gameplay, the gameplay feels superfluous, begging the question, "why is this even a game instead of a movie or something?" That is why I like to see video games as pure entertainment, maybe even something akin to pornography. But, I like when games are artful and expressive, without being long-winded and pretentious* like they want to be a movie. It's complicated.
* by "pretentious," I here mean things such as having an anti-gun message in a game that rewards the player, and the main character, for using guns.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
*so i can go as marc bolan to the college end of year party tonight. the theme is prehistoric but they put 'T-Rex' in the event name so im taking my chance
in other news my birthday veggie omelet was delicious #thankyoubasedmom
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
priorities