I've been putting off watching Beyond The Black Rainbow. It's one of those movies I can tell requires a certain state of mind. I am excited about the visuals and audio. The soundtrack composer Jeremy Schmidt does some really cool work. His only album Sinoia Caves - The Enchanter Persuaded is in the vien of Boards of Canada; that same sort of retro synth, hazy stoner vibe and I quite enjoy it.

Well I am a nerd and a geek. I'm also an escapist. I like visiting and imagining other places and times. I hold science fiction in the highest regard. It has inspired many scientists and engineers and that is a good thing. The geeks and nerds of the past though, they wrote new stuff, now it's all fan fiction and endless francise novels. I don't believe anything is 100% original but where's the inspiration? People just want to visit the same place every time. It's like vacationing in your back yard.

I get bored with the same old shit. Imagining the same place is not a good thing, it's stagnating.

It's not just Star Wars, it's the whole geek culture thing. It's the obsession over the same boring shit.

Or maybe I'm just in a bad mood.

I've had enough of Star Wars and Star Trek. I could care less about any new movies from those francises. I'm tired of cutesy nerd steampunk/Lego/Avengers mashups and Yoda quotes. I'm sick to death of Star Wars parodies. It's not original, it's not funny. It's not even a clever pastiche as that would be something of an attempt at creating something new. It's a sign of stagnation.

There's better stuff out there.  Here's the truth: Firefly was better than Star Wars and Babylon 5 was better than Star Trek. And even though I didn't like Looper at least it wasn't another goddamn Terminator movie. As many a lacklustre sequel has shown, more isn't always better. Great, you liked Star Wars, now move on.

Sorry, I had to get that off my chest. It's just frustrating.

http://dustinpanzino.deviantart.com/art/Endless-Forest-Themed-Costume-Design-294551999

Maybe people leads to petty in some eyes sometimes? Not in mine. Not always.

I think my point may have been lost. I may not have communicated it properly.

For me, one of the most important aspects of art is to show people how they are beautiful. Hence the perceived pettiness, I presume.

I don't follow. How does beauty lead to petty?

Seems like the same conversation we've heard time and again.

You know what bothers me about the criteria of what is good and meaningful in the arts is "human experience". We are incredibly self-involved naval-gazing bunch, aren't we? There is more going on out there in the universe than us. Why is the measure of great art how "profound" a statement we make about the human condition or some such shit? How many times do we need to be reminded about the unfairness of mortality or whatever. Human relationships are often petty, boring and annoying. All the so-called important literature and movies are about petty, boring and annoying human interactions.

A common criticism of movies with heavy visual effects is "it looks great but doesn't have much depth". What's wrong with simply appreciating beautiful visuals? Isn't that art? Why do I need a "sophisticated" human story on top? How does that make the experience better or more meaningful? How is that adult?

I say give me more visuals, less people and less story. Robot had it right at the beginning, the stories will stop sucking when developers no longer feel the need to put them in. "Games" don't need stories and neither does art, to be adult.

Welcome! I'm sorry about your loss. The game looks lovely. I know I'm looking forward to experiencing it.

Welcome to the forums! Second Life was my roundabout way into game development and getting back into 3d as well.

I don't hate all modern work. Some of it I find very appealing. It was also very important to the development of industrial design and decor. And despite my distaste for much of modernist architecture, there are a few gems. I just think it did more damage than good for fine art and architecture.

I just realised that for me the whole café situation with wine, cigarettes and chess was meant to show a mundane and ordinary context, inspired by the workmen's café in Moderato Cantabile. Ironic that the author sees it as the opposite. Even Chauvin wouldn't have.

I don't think it's too difficult to comprehend how he approached this but then, I am American. I think it's a cultural thing. There is a strong streak of anti-intellectualism in the US. That and an association with Europe and sophistication.

I have noticed this before. There is a school of thought that equates art with some sort of puzzle design. Basically they see art as a complicated way to say something simple. And art appreciation is then solving the puzzle, ie finding that simple message that the author for some reason didn't want to just share up front.

This is the fault of modernist and post-modernist art. 20th century art has fucked us all.

I liked this quote from the comments: "I'd rather have sincere folk trying to do something different than cynical opportunists doing the same old thing but "better."

The guy from Mythbusters talks about what he likes about games. He mentions The Path and seemed confused about it which is interested because earlier he mentions how much he loves exploration. Unfortunately they move onto another subject without expanding his thoughts on it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac4ijed4nj0&feature=share&list=UUiDJtJKMICpb9B1qf7qjEOA

It got me thinking - maybe the The Path had too much interaction. I would have liked the game more if it had even less. No collecting things. No goal (implied or otherwise).  Just wander around and look at things. Maybe it's trying to hard to subvert expectations in a game.

I'm interested to see how lessons learned from The Path are applied to Bientôt l'été.

Has anyone here contacted him? Does he know about the notgames initiative?