tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post4417838750688002189..comments2024-02-26T00:27:47.712-08:00Comments on Cross-Up: Thor: The Dark World: Bring the Hammer DownVoltechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01038586008627390463noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post-64154462315538399092013-11-22T21:23:45.739-08:002013-11-22T21:23:45.739-08:00Hmmm, that's a pretty good quote. Shame the m...Hmmm, that's a pretty good quote. Shame the most I'll remember of it a week on is "do not harm". But that still works fairly well on its own, if you ask me.<br /><br /><br />You bring up a good point with the whole "gaming journalism has a lot of finger-pointing" bit. I hate to admit it, but that's probably a pretty true scenario, and truer than I care to look into for the sake of my sanity. (Assuming that the "finger-pointing" even happens to begin with; sometimes I can't shake the feeling the average game critic doesn't go NEARLY as deep as they should when it comes to deciding if a game is good or bad -- see damn near every review of FF13 for proof.) Finger-pointing is a real problem...buuuuuuuuuuuuut I think I can understand why it's done so much.<br /><br /><br />If not for the finger-pointing, or the slamming of others, or any sniping done across the internet, what could anyone really do to enact a change?<br /><br /><br />People have been calling out CoD for years now, but the games have only been getting more sales, more attention, and more influence as the years go by. People complain, but what comes of it when all's said and done? Not much. That feeling of powerlessness isn't something anyone enjoys, so while game journalists -- gamers in general, arguably -- may recognize their "place" in the industry, that doesn't mean they have to like it. They have to do what they can to make things better. And if you ask me, that's not a bad desire to have.<br /><br /><br />But it's as you said. How they go about it is a problem. It's one thing to sit people down and explain calmly and clearly why he/she thinks something is/isn't good. It's something else entirely to outright tell people that they're wrong or stupid for thinking the way they do. <br /><br /><br />But that's all I feel like saying about that. Much like huge portions of the industry, garme jurnalizm makes me sad and tired.Voltech44noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post-41677720995269410712013-11-22T11:23:18.661-08:002013-11-22T11:23:18.661-08:00Edit: Now I'd like to share a pertinent quotat...Edit: Now I'd like to share a pertinent quotation of John Leonard's about criticism.<br /><br />Usually I do better with phrasing. This comment isn't my best work.Sean Weeksnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post-77390651767030000492013-11-21T23:13:38.568-08:002013-11-21T23:13:38.568-08:00Edit: Now I'd like to never talk about gaming ...Edit: Now I'd like to never talk about gaming criticism again.<br /><br />The inadvertent sentiments of the original sentence are too horrifying to contemplate.Sean Weeksnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post-90282668786675115842013-11-21T22:57:21.244-08:002013-11-21T22:57:21.244-08:00I shall absolutely put value in the enjoyment they...I shall absolutely put value in the enjoyment they've gotten from it. At the same time, these sorts of comments from Alexander seem to be given divine right by the current zeitgeist when no one's comments deserve it.<br /><br />(I wasn't kidding about that "brain damage" comment. If you follow the conversation she has under the tweet, she names it as such.) <br /><br />You have to admit that it's a little silly that she's saying critical acclaim amounts to something in TLoU's case, but not Bioshock Infinite's. Enthusiastic cherry picking, I'd wager. Cherry picking that's encouraged because it feels so *right* to those who share it.<br /><br />In any case, I think the big problem with games journalism is that it's mixing up journalism and criticism into one big blender, turning it into prescriptive critique when, well, that form of critique never meaningfully existed in the first place. Criticism is performative, meaning it's the reader side of the reader-text relationship expressing itself (something I think you do very well). Gaming journalism just has a lot of people pointing fingers and accusing each other of "holding the medium back." This sort of motivating force pushes those people to insult a work's appreciators or to bootstrap themselves into a position of authority over creators. The first is intellectual dishonesty (such as Leigh's exhibiting in her tweets) and the second is despotic. <br /><br />Frankly, no one in film or literature had this obsession with pushing [their version of] the medium forward to the same extent the self-proclaimed gaming intelligentsia have taken it. I'm worried that discourse about games is sliding into prescriptivism as a go-to stance. <br /><br />Now I'd like to share a pertinent quote about criticism from John Leonard that I liked a lot: <br /><br /> First, as in Hippocrates, do no harm. Second, never stoop to score a point or bite an ankle. Third, always understand that in this symbiosis, you are the parasite. Fourth, look with an open heart and mind at every different kind of book with every change of emotional weather because we are reading for our lives and that could be love gone out the window or a horseman on the roof. Fifth, use theory only as a periscope or a trampoline, never a panopticon, a crib sheet or a license to kill.<br /><br /> Now I'd never like to talk about gaming criticism again. <br /><br /> Probably won't happen, though.Sean Weeksnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post-35694147645909185762013-11-21T22:24:49.089-08:002013-11-21T22:24:49.089-08:00She's a witch! Burn her at the stake!
No, j...She's a witch! Burn her at the stake!<br /><br /><br />No, just kidding. I've never really understood why Infinite suddenly became a worse (even terrible) game just because TLoU came out, but that seems to be the general consensus...for whatever reason. Infinite wasn't a perfect game, but it was an incredibly solid game that did a lot of things right -- more things than most games these days. More things than TLoU, if you ask me.<br /><br /><br />But I guess that's just how it is with unpopular opinions. I took a lot of crap from my friends for not liking TLoU, and while I disagree strongly -- STRONGLY -- with them about the quality of the game, I'll gladly recognize their enjoyment of it. Say what you will about TLoU, but people can and have gotten a lot out of it, and that has to stand for something. Same goes for Infinite. We don't have to harass one another over brass tacks.<br /><br /><br />Oh wait, of course we do. It's the internet.Voltech44noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post-79543505632317403322013-11-21T22:18:14.070-08:002013-11-21T22:18:14.070-08:00I was going to see Gravity with my brother at one ...I was going to see Gravity with my brother at one point, but our plans fell through for one reason or another. (Probably because he got really into Assassin's Creed 4, and couldn't be bothered with anything else.) I suspect that it's a good movie, but I doubt it's the revelation people might think it is. No such movie exists. Ideas like that are what lead people to the conclusion that high-rated works are flawless and impossible to criticize -- and I don't think I need to tell you how and why that's been proven wrong in the past and present.<br /><br /><br />Anyway, to be frank the only reason I get in so deep with the Marvel movies is because those are the only movies I consistently watch. I don't think I've missed any of them since Iron Man 2, so it's safe to say I'm fairly invested in this so-called cinematic universe. Still, if they're going to make a cinematic universe, that's all the more reason TO analyze them, yes?<br /><br /><br />Then again, that would mean I'd have to go back and watch some of the older movies. And I'm worried if I watch the original Thor again, I might not be so kind to it as I was before. Guess we'll have to wait and see.Voltech44noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post-33902861259961639482013-11-21T05:15:48.679-08:002013-11-21T05:15:48.679-08:00As a side note:
We liked Bioshock : Infinite. App...As a side note:<br /><br />We liked Bioshock : Infinite. Apparently we're brain dead now, according to critic Leigh Alexander.<br /><br />Never mind that the same metric she's using to damn us forms her supposed salvation in the Last of Us. <br /><br />Disagreement's well and good, but she doesn't seem to afford any room to her opponents. <br /><br />Just like sharing the pain. <br /><br />https://twitter.com/leighalexander/status/346602389698142208Sean Weeksnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post-73808800633003043772013-11-20T23:19:24.893-08:002013-11-20T23:19:24.893-08:00Hammer glittering
Rainbow bridge-
Screw it. Maybe...Hammer glittering<br />Rainbow bridge-<br /><br />Screw it. Maybe next time.<br /><br />Gah! You're motivating me to think about Marvel movies more than I ever thought I should. I've been to many of them, but aside from Avengers (curse this lack of italics and my distaste for quotes!), I've never tried to sit down and analyze them. I dissect movies continuously, yet ones of the Marvel variety tend to slip through my cranium like a whisper. I think I'm in denial. In my viewings as a humble tourist, I sensed more beneath the surface of these majestic beasts of the cinematic savannah.<br /><br />To foreshadow a comparison that's already incipient: we need to go deeper. <br /><br />I'm going to engage in some needless soul searching and deliver my conclusions a little later in a needlessly protracted reply to this comment. Until then, I'm going to ask whether or not you've seen Gravity and what your conclusions were therein. I'm personally underwhelmed -- and I hope that valuation won't tip your hand -- but I'd appreciate your insight.Sean Weeksnoreply@blogger.com