First, to clarify the title. This is about why we shouldn't pay attention to anything Mr. Blow SAYS, it has nothing to do with his games.
For those of you who don't know him, he is the creator of the game Braid, and is currently developing his second game Witness. Braid is supposed to be fun and intelligent, and Witness looks like it will be good game, if the bad kind of silly (read: pretentious bullshit). However, Mr. Blow also makes some very controversial statements about the current state of games. Here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116783-Braid-Creator-on-Games-as-Sh-ty-Action-Movies
On to the meat of the subject. Today I saw an issue of the Atlantic magazine in my local bookstore. Now, I have always wanted to read the Atlantic because it looked like they had interesting articles, but never had until today. Today, there was an article about video games, or, to be more specific, about how Jonathan Blow is god and video games would be a horrible pile of shitty trash without him.
First, I would like to state that after reading this article and several others in the Atlantic magazine, that I will no longer be reading the Atlantic magazine. It is a silly pile of dirty rags.
This topic specifically is to talk about why we don't have to pay attention to what Mr. Blow says. See, in the article a brief but enlightening rundown of Mr. Blow's childhood and young adulthood was given, and it became quite clear. The man is severely emotionally damaged.
He was raised in an abusive and repressive household, was very intelligent, and made no friends in school. A loner and an outcast who retreated further into his own head to get away from things etc we have all heard this one before (and many of us have lived it). He was immediately attracted to computers, with their simple and easy to understand logic and lack of humanity.
Over the course of the article it became more and more clear that he barely understood human interaction at all. Now, I want to make it perfectly clear, this is not in itself a problem. Where it becomes a problem is that well... He thinks his opinion is more valid than any other opinion. But frankly, the man is clearly broken.
When he says "video games aren't art yet" he believes this because he can't relate to or understand common narratives. If you look at Braid, or at how Witness is shaping up... Well, frankly the way he designed their narratives is silly. Brilliant, perhaps, if you like that sort of thing, but silly.
What it all comes down to is that he can't understand a very LARGE aspect of human existence that plays an enormous role in narrative driven art.
So yea, whenever he calls one of your favorite past times juvenile or stupid, you may safely ignore him.
For those of you who don't know him, he is the creator of the game Braid, and is currently developing his second game Witness. Braid is supposed to be fun and intelligent, and Witness looks like it will be good game, if the bad kind of silly (read: pretentious bullshit). However, Mr. Blow also makes some very controversial statements about the current state of games. Here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116783-Braid-Creator-on-Games-as-Sh-ty-Action-Movies
On to the meat of the subject. Today I saw an issue of the Atlantic magazine in my local bookstore. Now, I have always wanted to read the Atlantic because it looked like they had interesting articles, but never had until today. Today, there was an article about video games, or, to be more specific, about how Jonathan Blow is god and video games would be a horrible pile of shitty trash without him.
First, I would like to state that after reading this article and several others in the Atlantic magazine, that I will no longer be reading the Atlantic magazine. It is a silly pile of dirty rags.
This topic specifically is to talk about why we don't have to pay attention to what Mr. Blow says. See, in the article a brief but enlightening rundown of Mr. Blow's childhood and young adulthood was given, and it became quite clear. The man is severely emotionally damaged.
He was raised in an abusive and repressive household, was very intelligent, and made no friends in school. A loner and an outcast who retreated further into his own head to get away from things etc we have all heard this one before (and many of us have lived it). He was immediately attracted to computers, with their simple and easy to understand logic and lack of humanity.
Over the course of the article it became more and more clear that he barely understood human interaction at all. Now, I want to make it perfectly clear, this is not in itself a problem. Where it becomes a problem is that well... He thinks his opinion is more valid than any other opinion. But frankly, the man is clearly broken.
When he says "video games aren't art yet" he believes this because he can't relate to or understand common narratives. If you look at Braid, or at how Witness is shaping up... Well, frankly the way he designed their narratives is silly. Brilliant, perhaps, if you like that sort of thing, but silly.
What it all comes down to is that he can't understand a very LARGE aspect of human existence that plays an enormous role in narrative driven art.
So yea, whenever he calls one of your favorite past times juvenile or stupid, you may safely ignore him.
