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Playing with Toys While People Are Dying
- casion 10y agoI read the article, and I still feel like I need a tl;dr. Seems very disjointed with no thesis. What is the point here?
- yarou 10y agoHe's mad because he realizes that his life has no worth. Edit: You can tell he wants attention due to his caption containing: 'A popular industry personality on Twitter'. The way his entire screed on Medium reads is quite like a rant a woman would have.
- yarou 10y agoHe was used by a monkey in a business suit, and now he has buyer's remorse. Caveat emptor motherfucker! Thanks for the downvotes friends.
- moonshinefe 10y agoYeah, I don't get it either. It reads like someone who smoked a bunch of pot and is spouting off various, insanely vaguely related points but with no clear thesis whatsoever.
- VLM 10y agoaka social media. I think thats the style they're intentionally aiming for. Come here instead of facebook. Interestingly you can make a good comparison between "competitive like collectors" on social media and gaming.
- matxip 10y agoHe is having an existential crisis about finding self worth while working in an entertainment industry. He then blames everyone else for not having the exact same values as him.
- closed 10y agoI agree, it sounds like the author is arguing that the direction games take needs to change, in order to promote a positive cultural shift. He sounds like he's thought a lot about what he's writing about, but it seemed like he sometimes spent several paragraphs speaking from the opposite perspective of his own, in a way that was a bit jarring.
- Pent 10y agoThe point is alluded to in the article. He is writing to elicit emotion in order to subtly market his two brand new games.
- synicalx 10y agoI swear to god this article is harder read than Nietzsche
- grabcocque 10y agoComposing music while people are dying Writing novels while people are dying Making movies while people are dying Growing plants while people are dying Going on road trips to Mexico while people are dying Making tea and donuts while people are dying ... What?
- yarou 10y agoDo you remember when Medium was tanking? I do, in fact it's happening right now.
- golergka 10y agoReading Hacker News while people are dying. Close this page, you heartless bastard. Go save African children* NOW! * Or whatever the current trendy humanitarian tragedy is, I can't keep track.
- emsy 10y agoPondering nihilism while people are dying.
- jasode 10y ago>What? Fyi for readers who might get the wrong impression about the article based on grabcocque's criticism: The author is actually explaining why he continues to play with video games even though people are dying. It's a long essay (4500 words) and it takes Paul Kilduff-Taylor a while to build up to his justifications of pursuing the activities he finds meaningful even though people are suffering in the world.
- ominous 10y agoMaking more people while people are dying, for that matter. Cursing future generations with death by giving birth to your children. You monster.
- gspetr 10y agoThat's the biggest problem I have with life itself. I never asked for this. And yes, my vision is augmented.
- tehwalrus 10y agoComputer games, and the stock market, initially look pointless. Games are, as the article puts it, frivolous toys, and the second-by-second stock market is a zero sum game casino. (Buying stocks is emphatically not investing in a company, except tangentially. It is principally a speculation on the price of an asset, and no money actually goes to the company when you buy stock through a broker). In fact, they both do have some economic outputs, although their value is quite hard to measure: Games are entertainment. They provide escapism and fun when we are bored or sad. This improves our wellbeing. The stock market's output is difficult to see, but it is there: they compute the value of stock. Why we need to know the value of stock to such fine resolution in time, I do not know. But we're spending all those quants' brains finding it.
- yarou 10y agoWhat a great comparison! You are truly the greatest intellectual of our time, unparalleled in your analysis of how gaming is morally equivalent to the stock market.
- tehwalrus 10y agoThat wasn't what I said at all. I simply said they both look pointless when you try to measure their mechanical inputs and outputs. I actually think the stock market is much less valuable than computer games, economically speaking.
- tomhoward 10y ago> I actually think the stock market is much less valuable than computer games The existence of the stock market is what makes it appealing to own stock at all. If it didn't exist, it would be much much harder for companies to raise capital, and therefore much harder for them to create/sell products that people want, and much harder for them to employ people. So, it's pretty valuable.
- sctb 10y agoWe've banned this account for continuing to violate the guidelines after we've asked you several times to stop.
- chha 10y agoNothing new. During WW2 (and probably other wars) gambling houses, racetracks, pubs, hotels and many other similarly frivolous services had lots of traffic and customers. People simply needed to escape from reality every now and then and enjoy themselves. Sure, we can do more to help the world. But if we're unable to live ourselves we can't do sh*t.
- NumberCruncher 10y agoSome people consider human consciousness as a singularity in the human evolution which shouldn't have evolved at all. Human consciousness, as a powerfull problem solving tool, helped us to climb to the top of the food chain and to conquer the whole planet. We can sustain human life under water, in the arctic, even in space. The most of us in the developed world have no existential problems any more, don't starve or freeze to death, don't get eaten by wolves. But human consciousness has a big drawback. It can not be turned off, even if all of the problems needing a solution are gone. So why not work on [put a big burning issue here] to feel occupied and having a meaningful life? There come video games and other drugs helping us turning our consciousness off, at least for a couple of hours.
- leoedin 10y agoThere's a school of thought[1] that suggests that video games are a contributing factor in the steady fall of crime in the West. Crime is overwhelmingly perpetrated by young men, who also happen to be the main consumers of video games. [1]: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/04/19/as-video-game-sales-climb-year-over-year-violent-crime-continues-to-fall/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/04/19/as-video-gam...
- dukeluke 10y agoIt could also be because of lower lead levels, a less competitive culture, greater empathy due to mass media, or a side effect of mens' generally lower testosterone levels. We don't really have a clue what really is causing the drop.
- mathgeek 10y agoNone of those things are mutually exclusive. It's likely a combination of some or all.
- bilbo0s 10y agoDon't forget the weed. In the 90's, the crime was even given the label "The Crack Wars". It was anywhere from 2 to 5 times higher than it is today depending on where you lived. Fast forward to today and the drug of choice is different. It's marijuana, which I don't believe is an "upper". Whereas crack was an "upper". So a lot of factors go into it. Trayvon Martin, for instance, most likely lived in a cleaner environment with respect to lead... was definitely high on pot... but was trolling for snacks and probably on his way home to finish playing some video game. There are a LOT of Trayvon Martins out there. So all those factors, and more, have lead to a lower VIOLENT crime rate overall.
- DougN7 10y agoI'm curious how/why we have a less competitive culture. With globalization and automation it seems like at least the job market is more competitive.
- itg 10y agoOn the other hand, thanks in part to gaming, the proliferation of gpu's has helped out in reducing the cost and putting r&d money into making them better, so now we have inexpensive ways to use them for machine learning models.
- tim333 10y agoPeople have been dying since people existed and keep doing so. (See The Onion for details http://www.theonion.com/article/world-death-rate-holding-steady-at-100-percent-1670 http://www.theonion.com/article/world-death-rate-holding-ste...) The best hope to fix it is to move to computer simulation so games developers may be our saviours.
- DaveSapien 10y agoGames can, and mostly do, have shamanic value the same as any art (music, film, literature, etc). Even the "dumb" ones. They help people connect and bond and relieve stress. They tell meaningful stories and connect with archetypes guiding people through tough times. They help people find moments of focus (zen?) and release...and much more.
- Kenji 10y agoThe relentless and smug moralising in this article makes me feel nauseous. This kind of simplistic worldview is highly toxic. Art inspires. Without any doubt, computer games have inspired a large number of people to get into programming or even mathematics, and this in turn could lead to significant technological progress that may not have happened otherwise. Etc.
- kozak 10y agoI think the same argument applies to movies and any kind of fiction in general.
- wolfgke 10y agoThere would be no necessity to save poor African children, if they were never born.
- jessaustin 10y agoWow! I'm sure you could provide some tedious explanation for why this isn't heartless, antihumane, and a bit racist, but please don't bother...
- golergka 10y agoBeing a responsible parent and only bringing the child into this world if you can provide for it - it's inhumane now? Wow. The more you learn.
- jedimastert 10y agoThe same reason "A Modest Proposal" isn't?
- jessaustin 10y agoOP and the rest of her eugenicist crew make clear in follow-up comments that no satire was intended. I don't see how you read anything here as satire either.
- ageofwant 10y agoChildren’s welfare will improve as there are fewer of them to care for. Considering the future world we are creating for future generations, procreation today is like renting rooms in a burning building—renting them to our children no less. Choosing to refrain from producing another person demonstrates a profound love for all life. http://vhemt.org/biobreed.htm#babies http://vhemt.org/biobreed.htm#babies
- madradavid 10y agoI was one of those `Poor African Children` at some point so when I read your comment I didn't exactly know how to respond. I took a short walk and tried to calm down. So after calming down all I can think of saying to you is `Screw you`.
- partycoder 10y agoIf the people with the highest impact on the environment (people from developed countries that are more likely to play video games) get distracted from eating, going out using motorized vehicles, procreating, etc... it is not necessarily bad. Our lifestyle is not sustainable and we haven't figured out a solution yet. Maybe electronic entertainment helps mitigating the sustainability problem.
- Paul_S 10y agoThis article is all over the place. I'll ignore the games are "frivolous" angle as they obviously are and that's not a bad thing - you can say that about any sort of entertainment. With my gamer hat on I want to comment on the eye-catching section with all the negative reviews of modern non-games. The author is being passive aggressive about it but I think it's safe to assume he's upset that people who buy games expect to receive games for the money they pay. This is good advice for any product: deliver on what the product promises. If you sell a car with comfortable seats but no engine maybe what you should've made was a novelty sofa instead. The fault is with your product not with the "stupid consumer" who doesn't appreciate the super comfy seats. I'm sorry I'm making this obvious point but somehow the author managed to miss it.
- jedimastert 10y agoI'm pretty sure the author is being ironic
- closed 10y agoIt sounds like a lot of the top level comments are missing the point,and think this article is simply about how video games are not useful. I didn't get that at all (the first few paragraphs are confusing imo, though), and the paragraph below seems to highlight his relationship with games. > Working in games has given me so much, and I know that’s true of many others as well. I can’t wait to help finish and release Tokyo 42 with the brilliant duo at SMAC Games: it’s such a vibrant thing that I can see it causing a big stir. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into Frozen Synapse 2 and assisting Ian in fulfilling his vision for it, then moving on to a new creative collaboration we’ve started to discuss. Games allow me to use all of my slightly weird collection of half-abilities at once: I don’t think anything else would do that. They’re a way that I can work on things which really exist, which don’t just evaporate into the air.
- majewsky 10y agoHow does this assess the utility of video games?
- closed 10y agoThe article or that specific quote from the article? The article seems to be directed toward people developing video games, from a developer of video games. That video games have utility in a general sense seems to be a given in the article. (although he may feel some have more utility than others.)
- sergiotapia 10y agoI'm gonna quote my favorite TV show: > Ah, no, no, no. But, Dennis, look. "Plutonium smuggled into Syria." > That's gonna change my life drastically. > That's gonna change everyone's lives! > No one can go to Syria anymore for vacation! --- Life's too short and my monkeysphere is too small to worry about people have way around the world.
- Udik 10y agoAnd yet, from this quick humorous exchange, you've absorbed the notion that Syria is an evil country where bad people might be accumulating material for weapons of mass destruction.
- sergiotapia 10y agoNot at all, how exactly did I put that across to you.
- Udik 10y agoOf course I don't know anything about you, you might actually be from Syria, or be an expert in Syria and the Middle East, or have anyway a good knowledge of the country and its situation and people. I only wanted to point out that the fragment of dialogue you reported, with its casual piece of negative information regarding a foreign country, is in fact a good example of how political propaganda works, be it intentional or (most likely, in this case) not. Repeat that enough in enough different forms, and millions of people will be perfectly sure that Syria is a threat to world peace. The dialogue appears to be from 2007, just four years later the USA started getting involved and taking sides in the Syrian civil war.
- smoyer 10y agoMost of our entertainment in the western world world could also be classified as frivolous ... how are video games any different than movies, books or even art? Those who spend an excessive amount of time doing any of those things may have a problem but human creativity shouldn't need arbitrary constraints. I would argue that the military-industrial complex is far more detrimental to society both in wasted engineering talent and in directly contributing to suffering.
- ousta 10y agocan we pleas downvote this garbage. people didn't need videogames not to care about others. if not video games greatly contributed , as a form of art, to help people live better lives
- DrScump 10y agoThere are games that do good, like Fold-It[0] and Mozak. That is, they are manual research aids packaged as games; playing them fills a genuine need. [0] http://fold.it/portal/ http://fold.it/portal/