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Very interesting. A lot of people who suggest games as a replacement for video seem to be missing this point. Games require active interaction. Not everyone alw

by kijin 15y ago

Very interesting. A lot of people who suggest games as a replacement for video seem to be missing this point. Games require active interaction. Not everyone always wants to entertain themselves in a way that requires active interaction. Sometimes we just want to sit back, relax, and let the storyteller tell their story. Watching Bruce Willis blow shit up on a screen is a completely different kind of entertainment than blowing shit up on a screen myself. Passive consumerism? Oh yes. But homo sapiens loves it.

marshray 15y ago
So, give me a way to have my cake and eat it too. Give me a medium that adjusts the interactivity demands of the entertainment according to the recline of my chair or the open width of my eyelids. Metaphorically speaking (or not).
- politician 15y ago
  When playing games like Dues Ex or Half Life, I've often wanted the ability to scale the difficulty on the fly from hardcore to easy to passive without penalty. I'm guilty of watching "Let's Play" editions of games on YouTube for that reason.
  - marshray 15y ago
    Come to think of it, I have a friend with some tech based around the ability to communicate and stream video of and within various games. Maybe this is the kind of thing that would allow you to transition easily from playing watching your friends play (before you drift off to sleep).
icebraining 15y ago
I find that oversimplified. Personally, I game to relax and I watch movies to be mentally (and emotionally) challenged. The problem with games is that they, by their very nature, have problems for the storyteller: First, they take away his control from (at least) one of the characters, since it has to be given to the player. This means that either certain stories can't be told as they should, since you can't force the player to have the same motivations as the character, especially if they're supposed to be revealed only later. Second, plenty of great movies would make shitty games. Dialog driven movies (12 Angry Men), for example. You'd need to put the player on rails and limit his movements to a minimum - and to do that, why make a game at all? Third, game play can distract from the story. There's a reason why people tend to make more mistakes when they're recalling a situation where they were participants instead of passive viewers.

by kijin 15y ago

marshray 15y ago

So, give me a way to have my cake and eat it too. Give me a medium that adjusts the interactivity demands of the entertainment according to the recline of my chair or the open width of my eyelids. Metaphorically speaking (or not).

politician 15y ago
When playing games like Dues Ex or Half Life, I've often wanted the ability to scale the difficulty on the fly from hardcore to easy to passive without penalty. I'm guilty of watching "Let's Play" editions of games on YouTube for that reason.
- marshray 15y ago
  Come to think of it, I have a friend with some tech based around the ability to communicate and stream video of and within various games. Maybe this is the kind of thing that would allow you to transition easily from playing watching your friends play (before you drift off to sleep).

icebraining 15y ago

I find that oversimplified. Personally, I game to relax and I watch movies to be mentally (and emotionally) challenged. The problem with games is that they, by their very nature, have problems for the storyteller: First, they take away his control from (at least) one of the characters, since it has to be given to the player. This means that either certain stories can't be told as they should, since you can't force the player to have the same motivations as the character, especially if they're supposed to be revealed only later. Second, plenty of great movies would make shitty games. Dialog driven movies (12 Angry Men), for example. You'd need to put the player on rails and limit his movements to a minimum - and to do that, why make a game at all? Third, game play can distract from the story. There's a reason why people tend to make more mistakes when they're recalling a situation where they were participants instead of passive viewers.