A Week In Comments

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the Steam

Every Gamer was stirring, their eyes all a gleam;

The PCs were all primed by the desk with care,

In hopes that ‘Ol Gabe Newell would soon be there;

The fanboys and trolls were all milling about,

‘DRM!’ and things they would proclaim and shout;

And the girlfriends did laugh ‘what utter bullcrap’,

Went to settled down for a long winter’s nap,

When on the desktop did my tracker loud wail,

I sprang to the chair to see the grand new sale

Away I sent windows, I moused in a flash,

Tore open my wallet and drew out my cash;

The sales on the games, new prices did they now show,

Under my budget, I thought, they must be below ;

When, what to my eyes did happen in a flash,

The screen went blank, did my computer just crash?

With nasty old drivers, so plodding and slow,

I knew just now, NVIDIA must I go;

But faster than a blink an image had came,

A movie had started, proclaiming my name!

“Now good sir, please do stay awhile and listen,

On your wish list, the new games, they do glisten!”

“Scroll to the top and see”, it said with a ‘lol’~!

“MYGOODNESS!”I exclaimed, I had got them all!

I leapt from my desk jumping high from the floor,

Dancing around my office, laughing and more!

For in just a small while, there would soon be proof,

“I must focus now!” I stated still aloof;

As I stared at the screen, a face did appear,

Gabe Newell! Just the man did I want to hear;

A bundle of games he crammed into my list,

So happy I was, his face I could have kissed!

His eyes – how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up in bow,

And even his glasses did sparkle and glow,

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

He presents me a copy of Left 4 Dead.

But the image did fade, from my desk I rose,

Paper stuck to my face, a pen in my nose;

I opened my list and to much of my shame,

Nothing new had been given, not a single game;

It seemed as if it had all been but a dream ,

I guess I had spent too much time here on Steam;

Hitting F5, I’ll say with merry delight,

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”

[forums.steampowered.com]

Have a good one, all.

….. what makes a game more artsy than the next?

Why is Flower considered art when Black Ops isn’t? What makes Flower so special?

Why does some guy who knows little about games get to determine whether or not they should be considered art?

There is so much I can write on the subject. How art affects people and the links on how games do similar. I’ll leave it with some simple points.

Games are the art of collaborating concepts, ideas, characters, designs, movement, interaction and story into a living, controllable medium. It takes concept artists, programmers, writers and designers to collaborate their works into a singular product. There is so much that we do not see, like the concept drawings that are the initial concept to the 3d rendition of a 2d drawing to give it life.

Not all art is good. Furthermore, it is subjective. Bad art can be considered bad (say a buggy, uninspired game) and bad art can be considered good (like contemporary art (please don’t hurt me) and a buggy but inspired game). The same goes for good games.

Games have inspired, documented and defined a generation of culture.

Art is marketed in almost all forms. There is your pure, art for the sake of art, art. Such as people painting for a living but not seeing a huge return. There is art for the sake of money. The same is applicable to games.

Forcing Flower onto someone, regardless of it’s look and feel, and claiming it is art is silly. Why can’t Halo, Rapelay, Guitar Hero, Space Invaders, Pokemon, Mario or Valkyria Chronicles be art?