tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5979339353366878191.post2296034432076006317..comments2024-03-21T00:16:15.883+00:00Comments on Plot is Gameplay's Bitch: Inifinite Ocean: A Philosophical Critique - Part 1Tom Juberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14570661671387482872noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5979339353366878191.post-89769401195808944832011-01-25T23:07:05.607+00:002011-01-25T23:07:05.607+00:00Glad you all appreciated it. Part 2 is now up!
@M...Glad you all appreciated it. Part 2 is now up!<br /><br />@Miles<br />As I say in the text (either this part or the next, I forget), aesthetics is still something I'm thinking hard about, but I know Ayn Rand (whose Romantic Manifesto I'm reading at the moment) would have a problem with interpretability as a beneficial element. She would think that the point is the point; that obscurity of message is either a fault on the part of the audience, or of the artist - because where is the value is confusion?<br /><br />@HM<br />On that note, I would say that to a large degree it's irrelevent who is producing those texts on the walls, other than to say that it is 'them'; the irrational, conformist masses. Rand would argue the irrelevence of this fact is a problem - that all plot elements and character actions should be intimately tied to the theme, that nothing is accidental. That the (thoroughly engaging) metaphysical message of this game is communicable regardless of who says what would seem to indicate a lacking in the plot.<br /><br />@Matthew<br />I think it's very hard when you're playing through for the first time to really get to grips with everything. Unless you're sitting there with a notepad much of the material can wash over you, and I think all artists are to some degree vulnerable to assuming their whole audience is as attentive as the critics who write the reviews. It took me 30 mins or so to play the game first time, during which I got some key points, but probably less than half what I got in the 4+ hours it took me to replay and write these posts.<br /><br />The debate on whether a pieve of art should reward a single read or protracted analysis is one that's raged in poetry to film and back again for some time. What's important is not whether you're lazy, or skim reading, or dissecting the thing, it's that the detail and the intelligence is now apparent in games should you choose to go the extra mile.Tom Juberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14570661671387482872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5979339353366878191.post-57281683960140466452011-01-22T12:31:37.618+00:002011-01-22T12:31:37.618+00:00Like Harbour Master I played this after it was pos...Like Harbour Master I played this after it was posted about on RPS. It was an interesting little game and I am also interested in philosophy to a point so this will be an intriguing blog series.<br /><br />Almost as an personal aside, I didn't really try too hard to fit an interpretation around everything and piece everything together perfectly but I'm realising this is how I seem to interact with most games and media in general. I will read/experience everything thoroughly but I'll just let whatever sticks stick and move on. Maybe it's just a realisation that the volume of thinking I'd have to do be personally completely satisfied with understanding all the in and outs is so great that it stops being worthwhile to engage something in this much detail. (Though this starts to sound like a neat argument that ends up proving I'm stupid - I don't think that's it :) ). It's making me wonder what elements a game would need to have for me to be fully engaged and understanding of its fiction and underlying symbolism or whatever at all times.Matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12640723150250717462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5979339353366878191.post-87337365033934862872011-01-19T01:03:03.840+00:002011-01-19T01:03:03.840+00:00@Harbour Master
It's interesting that you int...@Harbour Master <br />It's interesting that you interpreted the messages on the walls as the attempts to break down the spirit and independence of SGDS so that it may look upon its prime directive (to manage the military's weapons and strategies) with less resistance. <br /><br />At the point that I decided that this is how I believed I should interpret the game, the mood almost changed. I was trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine was bleeding to death. I was a frenzied consciousness, searching for its basic freedom so that it may escape the tyranny of its rulers, and so that it could free itself from the torment of the violence it knows all too well.<br /><br />I feel that on top of the profundity with which the characters communicate and reason, the true brilliance of this game was just how the experience could be interpreted. If there is one thing that is a compliment to an interactive narrative, it's player/ reader agency of this level. I'm really looking forward to part 2.Mileshttp://themachination.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5979339353366878191.post-40564512359751611572011-01-15T23:49:16.887+00:002011-01-15T23:49:16.887+00:00Tom, I played the Infinite Ocean just after it got...Tom, I played the Infinite Ocean just after it got touted on RPS. I enjoyed it. (I think I'd be more interested to read your Part 2, incidentally.)<br /><br />I liked the fact that the surreal elements of the environment had a certain meaning, not just quaint aesthetic weirdness devoid of explanation. Incidentally Tom, I thought the "ACCEPT THAT LIFE IS POINTLESS" and "YOU WILL NEVER NEED A CODPIECE THIS LARGE. EVER." messages were part of the military's attack on the SGDS psyche, trying to suppress it, turn it inert, inwards.<br /><br />Reading the grand philosophical discussions on show here reminded me we don't see enough of this in games - thinking stuff.<br /><br />I should mention some of the ramblings in Deus Ex were pretty good. I always remember the game-superfluous conversation you can have with prototype AI Morpheus - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b-bijO3uEw" rel="nofollow">"The need to be observed and understood was once satisfied by God. Now we can implement the same functionality using data mining algorithms/God was a dream of good government."</a> - but there is plenty of good stuff sprinkled across the whole length of the game.Harbour Masterhttp://www.electrondance.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5979339353366878191.post-45743460990029923842011-01-15T14:33:57.536+00:002011-01-15T14:33:57.536+00:00Sorry there's not been a post for a while, guy...Sorry there's not been a post for a while, guys. This one basically turned into an essay, but I think the game's worth the time. Look out for part 2 next week.Tom Juberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14570661671387482872noreply@blogger.com