Artsy

For a guy who focuses so much on story and the like, you might think that I'm a fan of games and movies that are, as I tend to call them artsy fartsy. You know, stuff that's all about the meaning and the story behind it, rather than necessarily what is there presented to you. I get why these kinds of things exist. In a way, they probably need to exist. They have a purpose, and I know what that purpose is. I get it.

I hate them.

I just feel like these kinds of things are trying to push a message on to you, trying to make you feel something that you might not necessarily want to feel or even fully understand. And frankly, half the time these messages are incredibly depressing. I don't understand the fascination with sad things. Sad music, sad stories, sad anything. I don't want to have sadness thrust upon me. I've been in deep, dark places, and quite frankly, I don't want to have to go back to them.

Maybe I'm just seeing the wrong corner of the artsy fartsy genre. But every time I see one pop up, the story is depressing, and the author is either giving you a narration of exactly what is happening, or is willing to tell you absolutely nothing. Neither of these are useful to me. If you want me to experience something, let me experience it. Give me the necessary details, like where I am, who I am, where I'm going. But you don't have to tell me anything more than that if your goal is to make me feel. Give me something to experience and I will experience it. Give me something to feel and I will feel it. You don't have to hold my hand through it, or dump me carelessly into an open, empty world to get your point across.

I'm not trying to say that you shouldn't enjoy these things. I'm never trying to say that. And I understand why people enjoy them. I'm just saying that I don't, and these are my reasons why. I feel like you can tell these stories in a much better way. You can have your artsy fun and still make something compelling and interesting. But I personally have yet to see it.

I haven't really talked about it much here in the blog, but I'm a big gamer. And these things that I'm talking about apply especially in artsy fartsy video games. The people who make these kinds of things abandon everything that we know makes a good game. They limit gameplay, push storytelling, and generally make it feel more like you're watching a somewhat interactive movie than playing a game. Again, that works for some people. Even I play rpgs, which are heavy on cutscenes. But you can only push that so far before it starts to seriously detract from what makes games fun and interesting.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to be artsy fartsy. Wanting to do something in a new and different way. But if you're going to do that, don't forget what elements of your media of choice make it good. Push the boundaries, reach for new heights, that's how things change and evolve. But don't just abandon the things that worked in the past. They worked for a reason, after all.