One of the most excruciating moments in the life of any gamer is handing the controller to a friend, your face swollen with the joy of pure playfulness, and having your entire life ruined as your buddy clamps down on the controls, scowls, and starts spewing obscenities. If you're anything like me, you've rebuked more than one person to just relax, have fun, it's really not that hard, you'll get it ... only to have your heart broken as they try to use their entire body (instead of a button) to jump a cliff, turn a spaceship, or fire a gun.
Those moments make me feel lonely. I am no wiz, you understand. But seeing someone lather themselves into a lockjawed froth because they can't push a button at the right time...it makes me sad for them, sure, but mostly sad for me. Lonely me, offering the controller, and being waved away: "No no, I'm terrible, I'll just watch." More comfortable in being terrible at something, than in learning a new way to have fun.
Jhonen Vasquez has never been one of these people.
Kids, being the blessed ignoramuses that they are, get easily excited and intrigued - It’s how they learn. But adults…they’re a different, sadder story altogether. I’d put the controller in their hands, finishing it off by nailing it through their flesh, and suddenly there was a look of concern, a feeling of HAVING to do something and do it perfectly at the start. Just try asking a broken noob to play Guitar Hero and listen as they make excuses about how they’ll probably suck and how they don’t want to embarrass themselves.
In his review of Flower for the PS3, a zen-like game in which you waft a cloud of flower petals over a lush meadow, he follows a thoughtful examination of the game itself, with a lament for the frozen state of the adult mind.
[Via Mindspill]
Contest:
8:00 PM on 02.18.2009
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good start with this article though
Why is everyone such a dick to him all the time? Serious question. He's one of the nicest fellows I know.
The industry is in the shitter right now, right along with the rest of the economy, and getting stuff greenlit these days isn't exactly easy. That old adage about Hollywood being recession-proof isn't true this time around, because we can all stay at home and watch Hulu for free.
So as a fellow freelancer, I am real tired of the constant bullshit I hear from people who supposedly enjoy his work. Why insult someone you admire? It bothers me to see people I respect, like the Dtoiders, acting like such jerks.
And I will forever hate Nickelodeon for destroying Invader Zim.
Believe it or not, I have a couple gamer friends who won't download Mega Man 9 because the demo was too hard. My one friend is more of a Zero fan anyway, but come on!
Johnen Vasquez LIVES!
Let me second that point you made about the economy. I write short fiction and the magazines that I can turn to for publication are thinning out by the minute. Dropping like flies. I am publishing less now, but I am writing more than ever. People think if you aren't out there as much, you're sitting at home doing nothing.
That's why I need games like flower in my free time. To help me forget how crappy things have been lately! LOL.
yeah lol (us) JV fans can be cocks, but if you enjoyed Zim, you should check out his comics, his style and sense of humor is very "one-of-a-kind".
Squee is kinda like Zim without the kid gloves, and Johnny replaces those with uhh.. the kinda gloves you'd wear if you were going to strangle people... now reverse that order
She just kept mashing the R1 button and just got frustrated every time she missed her target because she was going at gale forces.
I tried to convince her to use R2 because it makes a wonderful accelerator, and she did what GFs do best: Mashed down hard on R2, then turned to me and said "See! It's not any better!"
Patience goes a long way...
LOVE LIVE INVADER ZIM!!!!
well after the MSI video i had only heard of Jellyfist and not these other things so if hes actually working on stuff than good... im excited
dont misconstrue my teasing for hate... im a fan... just an impatient one