Nothing you have done deserves such praise...

Dec 10, 2013 by

 The game starts off very straightforward, telling the gamer that it will be filled with praise apparently since people have a compliant addiction to praise. The first few levels are very straightforward, with simple objectives and plenty of compliments along the way. The setting is a little strange, with many explosions and several paramecia following the little stick man around the screen. It seems as if this game is a satire on other computer games. One of the reasons that computer games are so popular is that they are very rewarding towards people who enjoy overcoming small achievements or receiving some form of affirmation from a computer. Everybody needs to be praised in some way, even if it is by an inanimate machine. The game is mocking human nature and how most people require...

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Shift: A Tricky Game

Dec 9, 2013 by

Shift is a game where you press shift and use the arrow keys to move through the door which leads you to the next level. In this game, the term “Shifting” is defined as turning the world upside down or right side up, in order to find your way to the door. Like all games, this game does have a goal, which is to complete all levels. Because there are time limits and the doors are locked, you must find the keys first before you get to the door. This game uses the colors black and white to represent the ground and the sky. (The color black represents the ground and the white color represents the sky.) However, when you “shift”, it becomes vice versa. As you progress in the game, the levels become...

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So!! Is it Positive of Negative?...

Nov 28, 2013 by

So!! Is it Positive of Negative?

 I started playing Nothing You Have Done Deserves Such Praise (NYHDDSP) by Jason Nelson, expecting some form of artistic arcade game. This expectation was met, though differently than I anticipated. Expecting oddities and nihilistic views, it was a bit of a shock to experience seemingly positivity in the game. The objective of every level consist of moving. It was as if your character was the camera frame and without movement nothing would occur. This could be said of most games, however in most games there are negative consequences for not moving. Foes or antagonists would kill you or inflict some method of harm. In the absence of enemies, most games would present opportunities that would disappear if not acted upon. They could include grab-able items available for a limited time, or even a game time counter...

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Video Art

Nov 21, 2013 by

Are video games art? Is an architect an artist? Is a writer an artist? Is God not the first artist? As a musician and therefor an artist, I find this an easy question.  For some of us, getting up in the morning and getting to school on time is a form of art. I see a video game programmer as an architect of dream worlds. I would argue that anyone who creates something from nothing is an artist. Like any artist, a video game programmer is inspired by their imagination and then MUST create it. Through this artform, the video game programmer hopes to inspire others or at least create an escape for the viewer. Although I should cite one of the articles in class to back up my points, this time I am...

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Are video games art?

Nov 18, 2013 by

Are video games art?

As Bogost points out in “How To Do Things With Videogames,” asking if video games are art is just another variation of an antediluvian argument. Art can not be defined and should not be defined, it should just be. Ergo video games, along with everything else that identifies as art is art. All of the video games that we were asked to play are art, same as every other video game out there although the video games that we played, such as Passage, conform to an conceptualization of art as defined by Ruskin. Ruskin, an art critic, said that art is only art when it has something to say or serves a social purpose. Passage, Marriage, and Arteroids are all games that have something to say and therefore can be defined as art according...

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