Pretentious Games

[Mike Richards]

I've been seeing this pop up more and more lately and it's starting to bother me. A quick googling gives me this definition:
Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.

I feel like the label of pretentious is starting to loose what little meaning it originally had. It's the most common criticism I hear thrown at 'art' games, many of which I happen to like, but usually no one tries to say what it is that makes them pretentious. Just say it three times like you're summoning Beetlejuice and the conversation is over.

For instance, I don't think Dear Esther is pretentious because it doesn't assume anything important. It's quite literally just a messed up dude on an island trying to deal with his pain, and anything else you bring to that is your own fault. It's certainly ambiguous since it knows you are going to be adding to it yourself, but I never once felt like it was counting on that to tell it's story or to give it's story emotional weight.

So is it just the ambiguity that attracts this? That certainly seems to be the connecting thread between every game I've seen face the label.

Why did this become the new boogyman for games that try to say anything more then "Kill everyone"? Is it fair to call any work pretentious without any first hand knowledge of what the creator really intended? Are there any games that do actually deserve it?

 

[allinwonder]

Crysis 2's single player campaign plot is pretentious. It tries to be edgy and cool, but ends up leaving a really bad taste in the mouth. I'd rather have a generic military theme in Crysis 1.

 

[him over there]

It's mostly because of the art game label, implying that the kinds of experimental weird artistic games are art and fun shoot the bad guys games are not despite them not being mutually exclusive to art. Also the so called art games rather than constantly being unique and amazing like they seem to be aspiring to are just as stagnant and reliant on tropes as the aforementioned fun games, just in a different way.

I've said it a few times before but it's the difference between going " I have an idea that hasn't been done before but I'm willing to experiment with it a little" and "I want to make an experimental art game, so what kinds of things are artistic and experimental?"

Not exactly pretentious, but it's still sort of giving off a stink of "No guys this isn't random bullshit, you just don't get it."

 

[AJax_21]

Crysis 2's single player campaign plot is pretentious. It tries to be edgy and cool, but ends up leaving a really bad taste in the mouth. I'd rather have a generic military theme in Crysis 1.

I appreciate the effort on Crytek's part to have an "actual" story instead of "You good American fight evil Koreans and aliens" but the whole suit not shutting the fuck up, downloading and rebooting constantly, morons screaming at your ear, taking control away from the player to show a crappy cinematic or a QTE, the complete murder of any sense of player agency was simply not worth it.

I preferred Crysis 1 generic-fest as opposed to the mess we ended up with in Crysis 2. Still a good game though.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Maybe it is fair to call some games pretentious and even say that Dear Esther is a pretentious game.

In a game like Quake you interact with the environment and enemies in a number of ways. It's often quite fast and it expects you use a number of skills. It does not pretend to be anything other than what it is which is a fast shooting at things game, it is quite honest.

But on the other hand you have Dear Esther which promises to be an experimental first person adventure game for the more intelligent gamer. In a way this is a pretence since instead of the gameplay being intelligent or experimental it is extremely conventional and simple. What you have instead is a slow game with decent production values applied to content that is unusual for mainstream games but isn't really that new or experimental when you look outside games.

 

[Haunted Serenity]

I don't mind when games say but don't deliver somethings as long as they bring at least one thing to the table we haven't seen before or do one thing that can set them apart from others. Within limits of course. I don't want with driveable vechicles and there aren't any. More like new gameplay options and they add just on thing new.

 

[Kahunaburger]

I think that it's silly to slap a "pretentious" label on all games that are aggressively indie, because some of them are actually as good as their developers think they are.

On the other hand, I think it's okay to call some games pretentious, because they do in fact "affect reater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed." Games or things in games I think the "pretentious" label can be accurately applied to includes, but is not limited to:

Dear Esther.
The Path.
The "lol ur character died for the 23rd tiem is ur mind blown yet?!1?" moments in CoD.
The books in Braid.
Dragon Age 2's "mature" stories, particularly the ones that deal with mages vs. templars.
The Mass Effect 3 ending.

...so in other words, I don't think a game needs to be indie or be an art game to be pretentious - in fact, some of the most pretentious games are very mainstream indeed.

 

[Mike Richards]

So it's just a question of quality then? Pretentious is what deep games are when they fail, versus when they succeed in exploring the things they set out too? That seems pretty subjective, too bad most people talk about it like a fact. Guess that's opinions on the internet for you.

But on the other hand you have Dear Esther which promises to be an experimental first person adventure game for the more intelligent gamer. In a way this is a pretence since instead of the gameplay being intelligent or experimental it is extremely conventional and simple. What you have instead is a slow game with decent production values applied to content that is unusual for mainstream games but isn't really that new or experimental when you look outside games.

But unusual for mainstream games does mean it's experimental for the medium. Simple and experimental aren't really antithetical, as it's hard to deny it was certainly an atypical experience. Whether or not it was a successful one is something else entirely.

My problem with this whole thing is that it seems like it really depends on knowing where the developer was coming from, which you can't always tell just by playing. You'd need to know how important and meaningful they really thought it was, both as an idea and how it turned out as a finished project, otherwise it's just speculation.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

I find that it's the fans that are pretentious, not the games themselves. Somehow I find it annoying, but not as annoying as fans on Youtube writing long exaggerated stories for music videos. More than half the time the musician has nothing to do with the video and often explains what the song is about plainly through the lyrics or via interview, but that doesn't stop them from assuming.

 

[Freechoice]

For instance, I don't think Dear Esther is pretentious because it doesn't assume anything important. It's quite literally just a messed up dude on an island trying to deal with his pain, and anything else you bring to that is your own fault.

Pretty sure it's a chick, dude.

And yes, it is pretentious. It assumes I want to hear the 2 dollar words about nothing that guy is saying. You know what has a good narrator that says things worth listening to?

MOTHERFUCKING BASTION

 

[CruisingForBiddies]

I'm going to be a jerk and chuck a definiton in here:
Pretentious: Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.

I don't really see how media like these are pretentious? They either have messages that people don't agree with,remember when people said Wall-E was indoctrinating children with an environmental message? Or that they try something different or new, like in Dear Esther.
To go and slap a label on these and dismiss them is silly.

I find that it's the fans that are pretentious, not the games themselves.

This is where games build a reputation for being pretentious, it's hardly like the creator of a game is going to say that their product is the best of its kind. Its fans that spread this sense of superiority.

 

[DioWallachia]

For instance, I don't think Dear Esther is pretentious because it doesn't assume anything important. It's quite literally just a messed up dude on an island trying to deal with his pain, and anything else you bring to that is your own fault.

Pretty sure it's a chick, dude.

And yes, it is pretentious. It assumes I want to hear the 2 dollar words about nothing that guy is saying. You know what has a good narrator that says things worth listening to?

MOTHERFUCKING BASTION

Or the narrator of The Stanley Parable

 

[Aprilgold]

Pretentious was never a word to describe a artistic game compared to a artistic movie. Difference between a game is that even with bad ones you can enjoy it on a subtle level, with pretentious games you might be a bit sooner to stop playing but you'll come back and enjoy your mild fun. A pretentious movie isn't as enjoyable as a good movie or a decent one due to it obviously seems like its talking down to you. The worse type of pretentious, of course, is a pretentious person, because its just like the last two but are right there in front of your face and gloating.

I also think that a object can not be pretentious due to it not having a personality, its a fucking object. My table is not a push over because it lets me put stuff on it and my monitor isn't shelfish by being brighter then my desk light. The people who usually make something seem pretentious are usually fans of said thing, their making it out to be pretentious in your eyes, but it isn't their intent nor the games.

What I think why everyone says art games are pretentious is the same reason corporations call their customers entitled. Because it makes them look smarter then their competition, so the people who are liking or not liking something look in the wrong. I just wish that fans of shit wouldn't be so quick to dislike something or defend a company. Sure I'll defend Valve in many instances but drop my flags once they raise a good point against them which they haven't yet.

 

[PureIrony]

The Path.

I don't agree completely. Parts of the Path are definitely pretentious-the soundtrack constantly switching up instruments or vague, somewhat hostile sounds would be affecting if it was ever indicative of something that was actually happening(ditto those drawings that constantly appear on the screen), and the control scheme seems deliberately obtuse, especially in the Grandmother's house-but overall, I think the whole idea with the path was that it was trying to be art in all the worng ways.

The Path seemed like it was trying to be art in the vein of a painting,i.e. trying to present a complex picture and have the viewer sort out the meaning behind what's happening in it. Its still pretty pretentious; no matter what Tale of Tales was trying to accomplish, its not as smart or as thematic as it thinks it is. But I do think its worth taking into account what the developer was trying to do, and giving them credit for trying to make their games art in a way that usually isn't done.

Dragon Age 2's "mature" stories, particularly the ones that deal with mages vs. templars.

Please elaborate.

I get someone not liking some of the more mature stories. They tried way too hard to present a grey-on-grey choice, and the entire story just kind of collapsed at the end due to that pressure, but I honestly don't see how they could be labeled pretentious.

 

[Olas]

I guess Braid sorta comes to mind.
It was actually a good game though, just wasn't as original as it seemed to believe.

 

[ajemas]

The books in Braid.

Gonna have to disagree with you on that one. The books in Braid were a very novel way of introducing the new game mechanics and advancing the story. The things mentioned in the books were used as elements in the gameplay. For example, Tim mentions how whenever he wore his ring on his hand people's perceptions of him changed drastically, so he tended to put it away. In that particular level, the ring changes the perception of time for everything around it until it is removed by the player. I could go on and list some more examples, but I think that they compliment the game very nicely.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Bastion was pretentious as fuck. But

For instance, I don't think Dear Esther is pretentious because it doesn't assume anything important. It's quite literally just a messed up dude on an island trying to deal with his pain, and anything else you bring to that is your own fault.

Pretty sure it's a chick, dude.

And yes, it is pretentious. It assumes I want to hear the 2 dollar words about nothing that guy is saying. You know what has a good narrator that says things worth listening to?

MOTHERFUCKING BASTION

Bastion was pretentious as fuck. There's nothing more pretentious than a narrator who thinks he's saying important but doesn't have anything to say in the first place, and not only that, puts on a fake attitude taken from every american western film to try and impress on the audience how unpretentious and gritty the game is, compared with all those games that, like, aren't.

 

[Freechoice]

Bastion was pretentious as fuck. But

For instance, I don't think Dear Esther is pretentious because it doesn't assume anything important. It's quite literally just a messed up dude on an island trying to deal with his pain, and anything else you bring to that is your own fault.

Pretty sure it's a chick, dude.

And yes, it is pretentious. It assumes I want to hear the 2 dollar words about nothing that guy is saying. You know what has a good narrator that says things worth listening to?

MOTHERFUCKING BASTION

Bastion was pretentious as fuck. There's nothing more pretentious than a narrator who thinks he's saying important but doesn't have anything to say in the first place, and not only that, puts on a fake attitude taken from every american western film to try and impress on the audience how unpretentious and gritty the game is, compared with all those games that, like, aren't.

I see you trollin', brah. Logan Cunningham could read Twilight and make it sound good. He's that fuckin' good.

 

[Dogstile]

For instance, I don't think Dear Esther is pretentious because it doesn't assume anything important. It's quite literally just a messed up dude on an island trying to deal with his pain, and anything else you bring to that is your own fault.

Pretty sure it's a chick, dude.

And yes, it is pretentious. It assumes I want to hear the 2 dollar words about nothing that guy is saying. You know what has a good narrator that says things worth listening to?

MOTHERFUCKING BASTION

This. I'm pretty sure he sings in the soundtrack too. Sexy as all hell.

I don't like most arty games purely because they seem to be a case of "look what I made! Look how different it is!" and that makes me want to punch people in the face because I don't care, make it fun.

Its like that game where you have a sniper and there is a person tied up. What you're meant to do is press escape and not shoot him, but there is no control list to look up, I wouldn't have even found out about it if someone in the comments hadn't told me. What's the point in that exactly? Who isn't going to shoot the person if there isn't an actual repercussion other than "you shouldn't have done that, now he's dead, forever".

Made even more pretentious by the "hey look, i've found out that I can make it so he stays dead every time you load it" feature. That feature is never fun.

Even if I know I wasn't supposed to shoot him, I still would have, nothing happens otherwise. The point of a game is for something to actually happen. Looking at some bloke occasionally fidget is not fun, nor does it make me think. It just annoys me.

 

[zehydra]

There's really no need to call it pretentious, since the pretentious label is something you're drawing out of the game. Unless the game is going out of its way explicitly to say that it's "too good for you(or somebody)" then it's not really pretentious.

Dear Esther isn't pretentious, it just has an identity confusion. (it's not a game)