Poll: Gaming is "...juvenile, silly, and intellectually lazy" says Jonathan Blow.

[Hero in a half shell]

Hold on everyone, while reading another article about Blow's new game I came across this quote from the man himself:

"Most games are not trying to be about anything serious, they're just entertainment games," he said. "I'm not trying to bash that in any way, that's just not what I'm doing. If a game tries to be like a movie, it tries to be like an action movie, not Fried Green Tomatoes, but both of those are movies."

I think Blow actually gets what we are saying, it's the author of this article that has deified him, in a "Life of Brian" kind of way. He's not the messiah, he's an indie developer!

 

[TheGreatAndPowerfulZOG]

It just frustrates me that they completely disregard all other games as art because they are primarily designed to be fun, or to turn a profit, that doesn't stop them also having meaningful themes that can be explored, or deeper messages about philosophical subjects.

I agree. If someone believes that Braid is the only truly artistic video game, they have a very narrow-minded approach to artfulness.

Especially since Braid wasn't very artistic to begin with.

Oh Journey, will anything ever beat you?

Oh my god, Jon Blow never said anything like that. He's been a huge supporter of indie games and has given a lot of praise to games that you probably wouldn't consider "artistic", such as Super Meat Boy. He thinks modern, AAA games have become intellectually lazy, and can you really disagree? The writing, voice acting, and other production values keep increasing, but gameplay is in a pretty sad state. And even the writing is still pretty bad compared to film. There are exceptions obviously, lots of them. But come on. Have you played Call of Duty single player? Or Uncharted? Even supposedly nerdy, technical games like RPGs have been seriously dumbed down over the years. See Mass Effect. Strategy is probably the only genre left that regularly requires higher thought functions from the player.

 

[Erttheking]

You know, Notch and Gabe don't go running around shouting about how awesome they are, mainly because they aren't insecure little prima donnas. This video has never been more fitting.

 

[RaikuFA]

It just frustrates me that they completely disregard all other games as art because they are primarily designed to be fun, or to turn a profit, that doesn't stop them also having meaningful themes that can be explored, or deeper messages about philosophical subjects.

I agree. If someone believes that Braid is the only truly artistic video game, they have a very narrow-minded approach to artfulness.

Especially since Braid wasn't very artistic to begin with.

Oh Journey, will anything ever beat you?

Lone Survivor might.

Seriously, Jasper Byrne is a better game maker than Blow.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

pre·ten·tious /pri'tenCHis/
Adjective:
Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.

Braid had all the trappings one might associate with being artsy but it was all totally empty and meaningless. The story was superficially 'artsy' but it was totally vapid. The art was a little different but a lot of it wasn't particularly good.

ALL YOU DID WAS MAKE A FUCKING PLATFORMER. Congratulations on making a good one but you are no more an artist than anyone else who accomplished the same.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

It just frustrates me that they completely disregard all other games as art because they are primarily designed to be fun, or to turn a profit, that doesn't stop them also having meaningful themes that can be explored, or deeper messages about philosophical subjects.

I agree. If someone believes that Braid is the only truly artistic video game, they have a very narrow-minded approach to artfulness.

Especially since Braid wasn't very artistic to begin with.

Oh Journey, will anything ever beat you?

Lone Survivor might.

Seriously, Jasper Byrne is a better game maker than Blow.

Tell me of this Lone Survivor.

I'm curious.

 

[GoaThief]

You know, Notch

I dislike him much more than Blow, at least Blow has made a fully functional game and put his resources back into making something new. Notch can't even be bothered to invest in customer support, four months wait just to hear back is completely unacceptable... especially when you cannot access the game you paid good money for. Actually, I think Notch is far more pretentious to boot what with all the intellectually dishonest pandering to various groups such as pirates.

I'm much more interested in The Witness and Miegakure (sounds crazy, off to Google) than Scrolls, so I guess there is some merit to these artsy-types approach to games.

 

[RaikuFA]

It just frustrates me that they completely disregard all other games as art because they are primarily designed to be fun, or to turn a profit, that doesn't stop them also having meaningful themes that can be explored, or deeper messages about philosophical subjects.

I agree. If someone believes that Braid is the only truly artistic video game, they have a very narrow-minded approach to artfulness.

Especially since Braid wasn't very artistic to begin with.

Oh Journey, will anything ever beat you?

Lone Survivor might.

Seriously, Jasper Byrne is a better game maker than Blow.

Tell me of this Lone Survivor.

I'm curious.

Its a 2D survival horror game for the PC.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

It just frustrates me that they completely disregard all other games as art because they are primarily designed to be fun, or to turn a profit, that doesn't stop them also having meaningful themes that can be explored, or deeper messages about philosophical subjects.

I agree. If someone believes that Braid is the only truly artistic video game, they have a very narrow-minded approach to artfulness.

Especially since Braid wasn't very artistic to begin with.

Oh Journey, will anything ever beat you?

Lone Survivor might.

Seriously, Jasper Byrne is a better game maker than Blow.

Tell me of this Lone Survivor.

I'm curious.

Its a 2D survival horror game for the PC.

Hmm, interesting.

Might worth a look.

Thanks for that.

 

[zombieshark6666]

Have you watched his interview with the Bomb Crew (or was it Gamespot?). That guy is so fucking annoying, I wanted to murder him after 2 min.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

I wonder how long its going to take these "art" folks to realise that the purpose of a game is to entertain us.

Is gaming just an entertainment medium? Or can it be an artistic medium as well? Where is the line between art and entertainment?

Yes gaming is just an entertainment medium. The problem is all of these so called art games that have come up so far fail horribly. You look at them and either go ah that cute or god dam this sucks but either way five minutes later they will both be in the garbage can.

I agree that "arty games" usually don't turn out well, but they're not all bad. And there are many games that aren't considered "arty" that I would still consider art. Games like Red Dead Redemption, Bioshock, Portal, heck, even Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (campaign mode) all had artfully-constructed narratives and art styles, even if they weren't blatantly "art games."

Just my opinion, but saying that gaming is just an entertainment medium and nothing more is comparably close-minded to folks like Blow who insist that all games should live up to his standards of gaming as art.

 

[Gigano]

You blow, Jonathan.

Between the Messiah complex, the infuriating and incongruous statements on money, and the idea that "gaming" is something that can just be taken as a whole, that piece really isn't good publicity for him. Ironic, its almost worshipful tone and content considered.

 

[krazykidd]

How about the guy actually makes a good game before getting the right be such a pretentious ****?

Second.

Braid was a'right, nothing special.

Talk about an inflated sense of self worth.

That's not fair . When braid came out everyone was hailing it . It was better than alright . At least give him that much .

OT : He's not wrong . But you know when people feel attacked ( gamers ) we say things tht aren't true ( like he's 100% wrong ). Let's try to view his opinion objectively. Plus who care , really is this going to stop any of you from gaming?

Capcha: hissy fit . I'll just leave this here .

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

Taylor Clark seems to be the big douchebag here. The words in the thread title are his own not Blows.

I can`t say much about Blow from this article. He comes of as the wierd indie artguy who managed to shake gay Clarks little understanding of gaming in general. According to Taylor Clark Blow is the Jesus of gaming, which is fine by me, his opinion. Braids demo was nice but i didn`t felt the need to buy it, this hasn`t changed.

In the end it`s just another article of some shithead who has the need of stating his opinion as fact (at least Blow has a new fanboy)...next.

 

[DioWallachia]

He is right in that games are juvenile, silly, and intellectually lazy. Gaming is a medium of entertainment and those juvenile and intellectually lazy games do a fuck of a lot more to entertain men then hes shitty ass art games like Braid. I wonder how long its going to take these "art" folks to realise that the purpose of a game is to entertain us.


So do we want a game that is boring as fuck or do we want a game that is entertaining but intellectually lazy? I can tell you I will take the game that does it job over the boring as fuck art game any day of the week.


As for what I think of Jonathan Blow. Well I would have to say that even an idiot like him can get one thing right once in awhile.

Would you feel offended if i use this opportunity to shamelessly promote a game i like that its both FUN AND INTELLECTUALLY MADE OF AWESOME to prove that Blow-man is trying to not only trying to take down mainstream games but also other indie games by saying that indie only makes arty games and anything else is just as dumb as the mainstream ones?

 

[Screamarie]

I don't understand how a man can be so direspectful to the medium that made him rich. If it weren't for gaming he probably never would have gotten those zeros in his back account.

Just makes me glad I never bought Braid and though I know it's not going to happen I pray he never makes a dime as a game designer again.