critique and the evolution of entertainment

[WALMART]

in true nerd fashion, i'm debating with a friend about the evolution of entertainment and critiques leveled against various medias.


in my opinion, one who comes into contact with media during its initialization is likely more qualified to critique the subject matter than one who is performing retrospective analysis.

i'd liken it to someone playing Halo for the first time today and stating it is junk, as opposed to I and the millions of others that had the opportunity to play it when it first came out.


the idea can be blanketed across much of the entertainment spectrum, from programming and videogames to cinema and music.

what are your thoughts?

 

[acronach]

I remember halo being awesome when I first played it, but I dare not play it again because next to a lot of the new games, it is most likely a piece of crap. For its time though, it was pretty good.

 

[Fluffywolf]

I find this to be quite an unfortunate evolution. We become spoiled in a sense.

You see it in video games, but also movies (visual effects).

I have had the pleasure of experiencing all the evolutions in gaming, from black and white, to CGA, to EGA, to VGA, to SVGA/VESA and early 3d engines. And everytime a new game came out that looked better than any other, that game was the bomb!

But what is the next generation for games? 3d technology will improve a lot still I suppose, but sooner or later we'll have to develop some science fiction neuro chips that places us inside games.

But you're right. Without the right perspective, everyone will be biased to old content that isn't up to the current standards. I often try to have people try out my most favorite videogame of all time (still play it now and then myself) but they all don't like it now because the graphics are just too dated.

 

[Eugene Watson VIII]

^ most of what I need to say. I still appreciate a lot of old stuff, though I have to admit the better things become the more we expect out of it. But things like books are still essentially the same as long ago, so people of this time can still enjoy it.

 

[WALMART]

I find this to be quite an unfortunate evolution. We become spoiled in a sense.

You see it in video games, but also movies (visual effects).

I have had the pleasure of experiencing all the evolutions in gaming, from black and white, to CGA, to EGA, to VGA, to SVGA/VESA and early 3d engines. And everytime a new game came out that looked better than any other, that game was the bomb!

But what is the next generation for games? 3d technology will improve a lot still I suppose, but sooner or later we'll have to develop some science fiction neuro chips that places us inside games.

But you're right. Without the right perspective, everyone will be biased to old content that isn't up to the current standards. I often try to have people try out my most favorite videogame of all time (still play it now and then myself) but they all don't like it now because the graphics are just too dated.

And what is your favorite videogame of all time?

 

[Fluffywolf]

And what is your favorite videogame of all time?

Troika's Arcanum.

 

[WALMART]

Troika's Arcanum.

Lol, sounds terrible. I'll check it out after work =)

 

[Thalassa]

Nope. If something is art, if it came out 20 or 200 years ago, it's fucking awesome. Like Depeche Mode's Violator or Mozart's Requiem.

Here's a test of art: if after ten or twenty years, people MOSTLY say it's crap, it's crap.

If after ten or twenty years, if teenagers say they wish they listened to that music or played that video game when they were growing up, it's art.

Timelessness of humanity is pretty much what defines what is art. Otherwise it only has personal meaning to you. As junk or whatever.

 

[Fluffywolf]

Nope. If something is art, if it came out 20 or 200 years ago, it's fucking awesome. Like Depeche Mode's Violator or Mozart's Requiem.

Here's a test of art: if after ten or twenty years, people MOSTLY say it's crap, it's crap.

If after ten or twenty years, if teenagers say they wish they listened to that music or played that video game when they were growing up, it's art.

Timelessness of humanity is pretty much what defines what is art. Otherwise it only has personal meaning to you. As junk or whatever.

The platform of art does not evolve. Colors on a canvas, notes on a music sheet. These are the same now as they were hundreds of years ago.

The platform of media (movies/videogames) does evolve. There are movies, dialog movies, etc. That will be as good now as they were when they were made 50 years ago. But that depends on the genre a lot. In most cases, movies however lose their innovation and become cult classics. Videogame mechanics become outdated.

You can make a movie or a videogame that can be considered art by all standards at the time of its release. But you can never account for future evolution in the market. Sooner or later, it will fall out of favor.

Lol, sounds terrible. I'll check it out after work =)

If you by chance decide to give it a serious chance, make sure you also get the unofficial patch that's widely available on the internet. Although I doubt you'll be able to get past the outdated graphics very easily. The controls and mechanics might also take some getting used too. There is also a patch that allows you to increase resolution, but that one sucks pretty bad (buggy with the interface) so I don't use it myself.

 

[Qlip]

I'm not entirely sure that videogames are in a completely different catagory from other types of entertainment. Some games have the capability of being timeless, if the player is willing to get over their prejudices. Most gamers are just hyperfocused on graphics, kind of like those unwashed masses who'll refuse to see a movie if it's not in color.

Others will recognize the briliance of Ocarina of Time, or Asteroids or Monkey Island, because they are willling to take the experience as it is.

 

[ilikeitlikethat]

In media class back at Coulsdon College in '03, I learned that Sci Fi, that genre, replaced Westerns.
Heros went from fighting red people 'The Injuns' to fighting green people 'Space Aliens'.