All Work and No Play (2021)

Tangentially, I feel that the technical pursuit of hyper realism and novelty in various media over methods that require active participation of your imagination and intellect are a part of why many of us feel so disappointed and underwhelmed today.

I look at today’s sci-fi blockbuster or television show where unbelievable sums of money and effort were spent on highly detailed, elaborate CGI sequences and, more often than not, I’m not very moved and forget about it almost instantly. However, I watch an old Star Trek episode that has hilariously bad effects thrown together as cheaply as possible and I can _feel_ parts of my curiosity, imagination, and so on shift into motion. In order to make that embarrassing sound stage with a guy in a rubber suit work, I actually have to participate in it, provided the crew was skilled enough to provide a fertile playing field and a compelling scenario. It’s no different for games.

Being shoved through bigger, louder, and more audacious carnival rides where you just kinda walk from point A to point B becomes disappointing after a while. The disparity between the scope and ambition of the presentation and your actual engagement greatly amplifies any sensations of being underwhelmed and disappointed.

What a weird article. Feels like two or three little articles under a trenchcoat.

Just this evening I finally got my old gaming PC out of the closet and back up and running. My 15 year old son helped me troubleshoot driver issues and bios errors and we got it functioning. Loaded up the old steam library and I spent about 20 minutes creating a playlist for him. Braid, Subnautica, half life 1 & 2, portal, vvvvvv, rimworld, myst, and a few more not in steam, dungeon crawl stone soup, Spelunky. These were just what I already had. All chosen for their gaminess and not their realism. Maybe half life 2 is one that was trying for realism (at the time).

Just like I require some actual book reading and not just graphic novels. I wonder if the games you played will be a sign of 'culture' at some point.

"Their a good family but they only play halo and battlefield"

well that read got more and more bizarre the farther I got in. Started with a simple allusion to "hype" culture, advertised Schrier's new (at the time) book about the devs trying to live up to that hype, and then somewhere we took a left turn into corporatism and how entertainment is just a "work simulator". Then by the ending 10% we go to the typical preaching to the audience about better work conditions.

It ends up feeling like 3 different stories stitched together instead of one solid thesis. I don't know what to make of it. Things only got worse in the 3 years, so all it seemed t provide was nice platitudes to hope for.

"utopian work simulator" well said. These games give the illusion of accomplishment and progress.