The Path Dev: Braid Is Not a Game

[Signa]

I wonder what he would say about Katamari Damacy. Hardly a game by his definition, yet it's one of the most crazy and inventive games in the last decade.

 

[oliveira8]

Wow...this guy is worse than Mr. Blow...

These indie game developers have bigger egos than some millionaire companies out there...

 

[KDR_11k]

Wow, Samyn is channeling WOPR there...

Samyn: Would you like to play a game of Chess?

User: No, I want to play Global Thermonuclear War.

Samyn: That is not a game because everybody loses!

They hurt you because they love you.
PC games are like...a dominatrix.
Console games are a pillow.

A really good pillow will not hurt you at all. It is also fairly cheap.
However, it does not love you.

A really good dominatrix is designed to hurt you. It is also very expensive (I am assuming.)
Therefore, it loves you whole bunches.

In this equation, love is equivalent to "goodness."
Therefore, PC games are better than console games, fact.

But the Weighted Companion Cube loves you and would never hurt you.

 

[ShadowKirby]

After skipping every comments that called him a douche (cause honestly, if you have to use personal attacks, you argument is pretty weak) I have to say that I kinda see what he is aiming for but I still have to disagree. Don't get me wrong, I liked The Path, the message I think it is trying to pass is very similar to what Bioshock tried to do, albeit a lot more subtly, but that's for another topic.

" Quizzes are considered games, but exams aren't, though formally, they're pretty similar: you answer hard questions, but you do one for fun and the other because you have to.

Braid is, on some level, like an exam. "What makes Braid a game?" Samyn asks. "Its rules, goals and challenges? No. Because the same format can apply to something that is not a game (an exam, e.g.). On some level, Braid is serious. Like an exam."

The important point is what I put in bold. You do an exam because you have to, you play Braid because you want to. It all goes back to Johan Huizinga definition of play:

Play is a voluntary activity or occupation executed within certain fixed limits of time and place, according to rules freely accepted but absolutely binding, having it's aim in itself and accompanied by a feeling of tension, joy, and the consciousness that it is "different" from "ordinary life"

Playing Braid being a voluntary activity, and following the other conditions of play according to this definition, Braid, like The Path, is a game.

 

[Cpt Big Mac]

This guy needs to get his thoughts in order. Also, if you dont like games, dont make them, because then gamers like us suffer.

 

[Gladion]

The only way to win is not to play at all.

 

[Ilosia]

As regards this "particularly don't like games" bit, this is what he said in full:

I don?t particularly like games. That?s true. I won?t go out of my way to play a game of chess or hide and seek. And I?m not exactly thrilled when my daughter wants me to join her game of Legos or Playmobil.

He said it, but I think he might have done so a bit playfully, at least I hear that. My bad for making that unclear, but I think you can read it more than one way.

The comment really should be seen as him saying that you cannot feel achievement unless it feels like you have beaten something tangible, an game AI is just a piece of code, but a person thinks, feels, hungers, they have functions other than simply existing for the sake of the game.

He also seems to be raising the question of what constitutes a game, a question very similar to what constitutes art, and I answer both in the same way. Everything.

Edit:

This guy needs to get his thoughts in order. Also, if you dont like games, dont make them, because then gamers like us suffer.

I don't remember hearing about his game provoking physical or mental torture of people

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

Many philosophers agree that play is any action done with an absence of purpose, and a game is an act of play with rules and guidelines. Therefore, any computer program made for the purpose of play has to be a game, because rules and guidelines are the only way computer programs work.

 

[Johnmw]

Wow pretentious? Lighten up buddy, you work in the gaming industry dont take yourself so seriously.

Agreed. He really doesnt seem to understand that

 

[samsonguy920]

Reading to what this guy was saying, all I could hear in my head was, "Sounds like those people who think paint blown on a canvas by a jet turbine is art." He says he doesn't play games, and yet he plays chess, and has fun with it. Seriously, how many games that have been released for either PC or console relate in a significant degree to chess? And he rants about losing like it's a disease. Losing isn't the endall buddy, it's the point where you pick yourself up and learn from your mistakes, not sit and cry and never tackle the game again. If that was the rule the Red Sox would never have made it to the top.

I think what he said was that there needed to be a point in losing and that someone has to win as well.

Probably. The guy hurt my brain with his schizogaming disorder rant.

 

[LazerLuger]

A game is any semi-structured activity done mainly for entertainment. Braid is a game. Tale of Tales is a game. Michael is just hopping aboard the pretentious express.

 

[Andy_Panthro]

Looks like he was trolling for publicity, and got it.

 

[level250geek]

He has a lot of great points about what constitutes a game, but he could have made them without sounding like a pretentious art-fart more interested in hearing himself talk.

 

[BattleAxeInc]

With games, he says "nobody really wins.

Um, no.

I win.

You just suck at games.

 

[Therumancer]

You can make a game out of nearly anything, one psychological trick (which rarely works but it can) is to try and make a "game" out of anything dull or repetitive in your own mind.

I guess I sort of understand where the guy is coming from, but it seems like he's just shooting off is mouth trying to be profound. I never got into the whole "Braid" hype so I can't comment about it specifically, but there is a whole genere of puzzle games out there. It would be interesting to see what he thought of the super-games of yesterday like "The 7th Guest" which were giant collections of intentionally obtuse puzzles. While there was an auto-solve feature the game very much punished you at the end for using it via the ending.

At any rate, yeah games are supposed to be challenging, and it gives you a good feeling if you succeed even if nobody is around to watch. I guess it really takes a gamer to understand that, and since he isn't one (by his own admission) it's not surprising he might think that way.

As far as the Lover/Dominatrix comparisons, I feel that the best games for any platform effectively give you both. You basically get a kinky lover who cares about YOU and not just your money.

>>>----Therumancer--->

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

With games, he says "nobody really wins.

Um, no.

I win.

You just suck at games.

That was just fucking poetic. Well done.

(I'm not being sarcastic)

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

I don't know about Braid, but The Path fucking sucked. It wasn't really what I'd call a game--more like the electronic equivalent of an uncommonly pretentious Down's Syndrome patient.

I'm just saying.