“Altering the game” is unhelpfully broad. Changing the gamma level is altering the game, allowing subtitles is altering the game, swapping the enemies for teletubbies is altering the game.
We’re getting into ship of Theseus territory, coupled with authorial intent, death of the author, and stuff like that.
Plenty of people would like an easy mode. It’s up to the developers of they get one. I think it would be a better product with more options for difficulty but you seem to feel it would be bad…?
Perhaps more helpfully I draw the distinction between game modes that alter the mechanics in some ways but not others. As in, some games have difficulty levels that change not just the damage mechanics but also the numbers of enemies, the objectives the player is required to complete, the available routes through the world, and any number of other things.
Other games just adjust things like damage mechanics and timing windows, without touching other stuff. The latter I feel falls under accessibility.
Conflating the two to me seems strange. Can’t play the game for as long as someone else? No game for you!
So his vision for the experience is that only some people are worthy to play? I mean, it’s allowed but it’s not an opinion I’d personally go to bat for.
Worthy as in “having the time and capability to play it in the way he feels is correct”. So if my carpal tunnel is acting up then I guess no game for me because I wouldn’t be playing it the way he feels it should be played.
As I said, it’s certainly an opinion one is allowed to hold. I don’t have anything more positive than that to say about it.
And i think that criticism is a fundamental part of interaction with art. I’ve been playing Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn lately (wife got on an fe kick and I decided to try out the series) and the entire time I’ve been discussing what I like and dislike about the decisions they made. I shouldn’t get to force their hand, but from what I hear a lot of my complaints were addressed in future (and past) games, while unfortunately many of the kudos I have for it didn’t roll forward.
To engage with games (or movies/tv) without asking what was done well or poorly is fine, but I’d really encourage doing it. The internet can be very loud about their opinions, but artists do well to learn which opinions to consider or reject.
No that’s part of interacting with products, not art.
Some games are just art and not a product, they’re not there to be negotiated with only presented as the artist made it. Some games are both and the developers care about what people want, movies also sometimes use focus groups. The best movies don’t.
But people don’t actually know what they want and that’s part of what makes actual art like film or fashion exciting…and what makes it art.
I find it troubling that you’ve described a consumer feedback cycle as having something to do with art
And yet to ask questions about what was done well or poorly and what resonated or didn’t and what made something easier to get into or didn’t is part of analyzing it, just like trying to determine themes. In an art gallery I often have an initial like/dislike reaction, from there I ask why.
The best movies don’t care what the masses think, but they do care what the critics who they respect think. The best movies are often made by people who saw a movie and were inspired by what they liked or didn’t like about it to do their own thing that they thought they could do better or their own way.
And I agree that it’s good and exciting when artists do their own thing and create something unique and cool. And when it works it’s fucking amazing, and it’s really easy to only remember the things that did work. I have a lot of respect for the music of Yoko Ono, she said “fuck you” to the critics and everyone else and did her own thing, but I also wouldn’t call myself a fan of her music.
Miyazaki does his own thing, he acts as an artist who feels that the difficulty of his games is a fundamental piece of the experience. I can respect that. And I can also respect the people who hear these games are very good, are interested in them, and acknowledge they don’t have it in them to “git gud” enough to truly enjoy them and are saddened by that. I see the people wanting an easy mode in difficult games as similar to my wife who complains about the lack of a hard mode in most Nintendo games.
“Altering the game” is unhelpfully broad. Changing the gamma level is altering the game, allowing subtitles is altering the game, swapping the enemies for teletubbies is altering the game.
We’re getting into ship of Theseus territory, coupled with authorial intent, death of the author, and stuff like that.
Plenty of people would like an easy mode. It’s up to the developers of they get one. I think it would be a better product with more options for difficulty but you seem to feel it would be bad…?
Perhaps more helpfully I draw the distinction between game modes that alter the mechanics in some ways but not others. As in, some games have difficulty levels that change not just the damage mechanics but also the numbers of enemies, the objectives the player is required to complete, the available routes through the world, and any number of other things.
Other games just adjust things like damage mechanics and timing windows, without touching other stuff. The latter I feel falls under accessibility.
Conflating the two to me seems strange. Can’t play the game for as long as someone else? No game for you!
I feel the developers should release games as they see fit, that’s it.
Your opinion is that your opinion doesn’t matter because you’re not the developer? 😆
Miyazaki personally designs the levels according to his specific vision of the experience.
So his vision for the experience is that only some people are worthy to play? I mean, it’s allowed but it’s not an opinion I’d personally go to bat for.
Worthy to play? He’s making something he finds fun. It’s not a statement on someone’s worth if they can’t also play it.
Worthy as in “having the time and capability to play it in the way he feels is correct”. So if my carpal tunnel is acting up then I guess no game for me because I wouldn’t be playing it the way he feels it should be played.
As I said, it’s certainly an opinion one is allowed to hold. I don’t have anything more positive than that to say about it.
And i think that criticism is a fundamental part of interaction with art. I’ve been playing Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn lately (wife got on an fe kick and I decided to try out the series) and the entire time I’ve been discussing what I like and dislike about the decisions they made. I shouldn’t get to force their hand, but from what I hear a lot of my complaints were addressed in future (and past) games, while unfortunately many of the kudos I have for it didn’t roll forward.
To engage with games (or movies/tv) without asking what was done well or poorly is fine, but I’d really encourage doing it. The internet can be very loud about their opinions, but artists do well to learn which opinions to consider or reject.
No that’s part of interacting with products, not art.
Some games are just art and not a product, they’re not there to be negotiated with only presented as the artist made it. Some games are both and the developers care about what people want, movies also sometimes use focus groups. The best movies don’t.
But people don’t actually know what they want and that’s part of what makes actual art like film or fashion exciting…and what makes it art.
I find it troubling that you’ve described a consumer feedback cycle as having something to do with art
And yet to ask questions about what was done well or poorly and what resonated or didn’t and what made something easier to get into or didn’t is part of analyzing it, just like trying to determine themes. In an art gallery I often have an initial like/dislike reaction, from there I ask why.
The best movies don’t care what the masses think, but they do care what the critics who they respect think. The best movies are often made by people who saw a movie and were inspired by what they liked or didn’t like about it to do their own thing that they thought they could do better or their own way.
And I agree that it’s good and exciting when artists do their own thing and create something unique and cool. And when it works it’s fucking amazing, and it’s really easy to only remember the things that did work. I have a lot of respect for the music of Yoko Ono, she said “fuck you” to the critics and everyone else and did her own thing, but I also wouldn’t call myself a fan of her music.
Miyazaki does his own thing, he acts as an artist who feels that the difficulty of his games is a fundamental piece of the experience. I can respect that. And I can also respect the people who hear these games are very good, are interested in them, and acknowledge they don’t have it in them to “git gud” enough to truly enjoy them and are saddened by that. I see the people wanting an easy mode in difficult games as similar to my wife who complains about the lack of a hard mode in most Nintendo games.