There is a lot of scientific evidence to show that adults have a hard time keeping their attention focused on something for more than 90 minutes. I suppose it's just part of our rhythm, since we sleep in 90 minute chunks as well. That's why you have intermissions for events (even sports!) that last more than 90 minutes.

It has been argued on Gamasutra that film is about short edits, so videogames are about continuity. I remain unconvinced.

That would be member XRA from this very forum

I wanted to make something just like that after watching Wiley Wiggins's Dolven video. I lacked the graphics programming chops and only got this far: http://twitpic.com/8cltar

But that is whole other level. So awesome...

[is]

The first 2/3s of it sounds pretty much like the talk around here. I find that kind of exciting. The mainstream is starting to have the same opinion of videogames. Around the "fun factor" part seems to be where things start falling apart for me.

I love the first comment:

Assassin's Creed 3's Collector's Edition was revealed today, and it already has two advertisements for DLC, and the game doesn't come out for months. Ubisoft leads the way in ineffective, offensive DRM. Occupy is about the fact that we don't have any damn money, because people have been ripped off and disadvantaged at an institutional level.

To me, acknowledging that reality in a way that young people care about would look more like having progressive pricing systems...

That is absolutely absurd. DLC is a progressive pricing system. These people just don't realize that instead of flat prices going up along with the budgets, the developers have instituted progressive pricing.

I think I'm with Anna; videogames are just huge, which makes them stuck.

Yeah, lets just put that depth as side thing, that works fine

Ha! And that's why they'll remain stuck for a while.

This may seem a bit odd, but I take an even harsher stance than Michaël. I think it's perfectly ok that some things die quickly and aren't easily preserved. It leaves some mystery in the world.

I personally like the idea of some obscure artwork being buried somewhere, and then years later an adventurous person makes an exciting discovery and unearths it.

Now that I think about it more, I might disagree with what I said earlier about the magic circle being a games-specific suspension of disbelief.

Maybe the magic circle is not related to games at all, but is simply how you describe the suspension of disbelief when it comes to real-life media like live-action roleplaying (sports are LARP+games) or token-based roleplaying (boardgames are TBRP+games).

So in other words, the magic circle is pretending. In the case of real-life gaming, your pretending is an agreement to be bound by the abstract games structure, but for things like playing with your legos, the magic circle is simply agreeing to be bound by your imagined world.

I was hoping bill viola's game to come out, seems like it got canned, looks like it was going to be something like these games.

Whaaaaaat?! Are you serious? When is the visitation service? 

Saweeeet definitely going to check this out.

The abstract totally reminds me of Bret Victor. I have a feeling this paper is going to be a dryer, more fluffy-worded version of a good Bret Victor article.

Welcome

I do not hope for a return by means of repetition -- although my inner child may yearn it -- but hope instead to reach for the future. Often have I even thought to myself that I should leave video games aside for maybe 5-10 years and explore my issues of becoming my own person through other means, yet the mistress has a strangle hold, and so I persuade myself instead that the only feasible approach is the direct: confrontation.

To the tumblr!

You guys have no idea how much I want to post this on the tumblr But maybe that's a bad idea...

Board games can have bugs in the instructions as well. But I assumed we were speaking in ideals.

I see this as another way to explain the lack of a magic circle.

It is important to keep to the rules, because of the fragility of the illusionary virtual world conjured up in playing. Breaking the rules means a flip back to the ordinary world.

Ah yes, this is an important insight into why the computer reduces the need for an abstract rules system. The virtual world on a computer is not fragile at all!

The computer takes the burden of keeping to the rules off of the player.

But I'm still going to argue about it.

Agreed! Debate encourages progress.

Thanks for your clarification Bob, I do think it is very important to have a variety of perspectives here.

A much more interesting video on that site is an interview of sorts with Graft Architects. It ends with this amazing quote:

We are of the attitude that we would like the change the world, but we don't want the world to change for us. We're homesick for the future. We have a romantic nostalgia for the future.

Couldn't have put it any better myself ^_^

My current project is partially inspired by this notion:

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=24640
http://s9.postimage.org/533fcrrlr/Screen_shot_2012_02_28_at_3_50_14_AM.png