From Wikipedia:
"Art is the process or product of deliberately and creatively arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions, especially beauty."
"Product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or need."
Although you can argue that both can be satisfied in one object (a game, movie, book...) if a person creating it derives money from it, that means the user is paying for satisfying the need that is greater than the need the money he is paying could satisfy if used differently. You can read the sentence again, if you need. I do not charge for it. I am an artist.
Therefore only free stuff - that exists for the purpose of appealing to the senses and not attracting money - is art.
This should answer "the big question": there isn't one.
Although I usually enjoy your articles, I feel this one misses the point entirely. Or, more precisely, hits the point squarely but with the premise that I do not accept.
The game is an experience for me, and if somebody crafts this experience in a certain way, changing a part of it (and difficulty level is an important part) it would mean changing the experience. Try taking a book and making it easier to read for everybody with changing the sentences to six words max. And only short words please. Or make a movie where actors pause after every scene to explain their motives and intentions. Would this take fun out of almost everything for everybody trying to use the 'easier' version? I think it would.
Let's be clear on this: including the difficulty level has only ever been the tool for publishers to make a game sale-able to bigger audience. The developer usually aims for one experience and creates the game with one difficulty level in mind.
What we really need is clear separation between games made for children, for young adults and for adults. And control systems to match. Than if you cannot play a game - it means this game is not for you.
Or, to paraphrase this: if you do not understand Joyce, maybe you should think about what is wrong with you and where you should improve yourself and not what is wrong with the book and where it should be changed.
Well, as X360s are really easy to modify and in fact can be bought modified (I saw this in a shop in Vienna - the price is just €50 over the standard issue), I'm not so sure this will not hurt the sales.
Nor am I sure that this is an accident. Microsoft needs to have a lot of Xboxen in the hands of users to bury PS3 before it can get a big enough user base. M$ is also, probably, starting to earn money on the boxes as the price of components has gone down in the last few years.
So, what does Xbox 360 really have that PS3 doesn't and that will sell more of it in the times of credit crunch? Well, free games - as PS3 games cannot be pirated.
If we go a step back and ask ourselves why did PSOne sell so much better than Nintendo consoles in those days, the ease of pirating is again one of the key factors people usually fail to mention.
The history is repeating and Blu-ray may be the death of Sony yet as the cartridge nearly spelled the death of Nintendo, They wisened up since, though. Wii is notoriously easy to mod.
Aside from consoles vs PC fanboyism (graphic, better controls, more "immersive" experience...), your standing is not in line with the idea of free economy.
We shouldn't buy something to help it develop or support it when it's withering. If it were an important industry the state would support and protect it with our tax money (look at the treatment banks are getting), and if something is not commercially sound, it will get slaughtered by the competition.
That is the way capitalism works. I am not saying that is the ideal way, but if you live in such a system, you should understand the world around you.
And piracy is a crime. But so is jaywalking. And if there is no efficient and effective way to prevent or punish a certain crime, than no amount of pleading will get people to cross the road only on the marked spot.
If today publishers do not find efficient and effective way to stop piracy, maybe somebody else will. Tomorrow. Just like the original creators didn't have the money or time or whatever to make the third Fallout. But somebody else did. And no one was thinking: "let's buy more Fallout 1 & 2 copies and we will get Fallout 3". They went down (or whatever), we are buying the new Fallout (me on PS3) and the world goes on.
SotC for me was very reminiscent of hunting, without the wetness of leaves, uncomfortable clothes and the actual killing of creatures that I really do not like. Although they do make good meals.
Anyway, my two cents: confusing war in games / books / movies / pictures with the real thing is something that can happen only when you lived in peace and never experienced anything else. In that way it is easy to confuse Spore with evolution (if you have no education on the subject) or Civilization with research of space-travel (if you are an economy or law major). A game is a game, nothing else. It may be art, but it is not the real thing and anybody confusing it with the real thing should take note of "over 18" sign on the box.
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bero's Comments
From Wikipedia:
"Art is the process or product of deliberately and creatively arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions, especially beauty."
"Product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or need."
Although you can argue that both can be satisfied in one object (a game, movie, book...) if a person creating it derives money from it, that means the user is paying for satisfying the need that is greater than the need the money he is paying could satisfy if used differently. You can read the sentence again, if you need. I do not charge for it. I am an artist.
Therefore only free stuff - that exists for the purpose of appealing to the senses and not attracting money - is art.
This should answer "the big question": there isn't one.
Although I usually enjoy your articles, I feel this one misses the point entirely. Or, more precisely, hits the point squarely but with the premise that I do not accept.
The game is an experience for me, and if somebody crafts this experience in a certain way, changing a part of it (and difficulty level is an important part) it would mean changing the experience. Try taking a book and making it easier to read for everybody with changing the sentences to six words max. And only short words please. Or make a movie where actors pause after every scene to explain their motives and intentions. Would this take fun out of almost everything for everybody trying to use the 'easier' version? I think it would.
Let's be clear on this: including the difficulty level has only ever been the tool for publishers to make a game sale-able to bigger audience. The developer usually aims for one experience and creates the game with one difficulty level in mind.
What we really need is clear separation between games made for children, for young adults and for adults. And control systems to match. Than if you cannot play a game - it means this game is not for you.
Or, to paraphrase this: if you do not understand Joyce, maybe you should think about what is wrong with you and where you should improve yourself and not what is wrong with the book and where it should be changed.
Well, as X360s are really easy to modify and in fact can be bought modified (I saw this in a shop in Vienna - the price is just €50 over the standard issue), I'm not so sure this will not hurt the sales.
Nor am I sure that this is an accident. Microsoft needs to have a lot of Xboxen in the hands of users to bury PS3 before it can get a big enough user base. M$ is also, probably, starting to earn money on the boxes as the price of components has gone down in the last few years.
So, what does Xbox 360 really have that PS3 doesn't and that will sell more of it in the times of credit crunch? Well, free games - as PS3 games cannot be pirated.
If we go a step back and ask ourselves why did PSOne sell so much better than Nintendo consoles in those days, the ease of pirating is again one of the key factors people usually fail to mention.
The history is repeating and Blu-ray may be the death of Sony yet as the cartridge nearly spelled the death of Nintendo, They wisened up since, though. Wii is notoriously easy to mod.
Aside from consoles vs PC fanboyism (graphic, better controls, more "immersive" experience...), your standing is not in line with the idea of free economy.
We shouldn't buy something to help it develop or support it when it's withering. If it were an important industry the state would support and protect it with our tax money (look at the treatment banks are getting), and if something is not commercially sound, it will get slaughtered by the competition.
That is the way capitalism works. I am not saying that is the ideal way, but if you live in such a system, you should understand the world around you.
And piracy is a crime. But so is jaywalking. And if there is no efficient and effective way to prevent or punish a certain crime, than no amount of pleading will get people to cross the road only on the marked spot.
If today publishers do not find efficient and effective way to stop piracy, maybe somebody else will. Tomorrow. Just like the original creators didn't have the money or time or whatever to make the third Fallout. But somebody else did. And no one was thinking: "let's buy more Fallout 1 & 2 copies and we will get Fallout 3". They went down (or whatever), we are buying the new Fallout (me on PS3) and the world goes on.
SotC for me was very reminiscent of hunting, without the wetness of leaves, uncomfortable clothes and the actual killing of creatures that I really do not like. Although they do make good meals.
Anyway, my two cents: confusing war in games / books / movies / pictures with the real thing is something that can happen only when you lived in peace and never experienced anything else. In that way it is easy to confuse Spore with evolution (if you have no education on the subject) or Civilization with research of space-travel (if you are an economy or law major). A game is a game, nothing else. It may be art, but it is not the real thing and anybody confusing it with the real thing should take note of "over 18" sign on the box.
All bero's Comments