I think that's mostly a coincidence currently. This is a pretty obscure community, so most of the participants here are individuals. Furthermore, many of us here are interested in more artistic experiences, so naturally we'll be biased toward more of an auteur-based creative process, if that's what you mean by 'author'.

But like I said, that's just a coincidence.

If you're referring to author in the fictional sense, like a specific authored narrative, I haven't really noticed an overall investment in that concept. There seems to be a variety of stances in that regard.

Agreed, great answer!

People do this spontaneously when stimulated in the right way.

So this sentence says to me that it might be productive to forgo the computer altogether early on and just do random magic tricks and stuff IRL to get a better understanding of how to "stimulate."

Or is this medium so distinct it would be more productive to stay purely virtual? hmm

Also, speaking of addiction, I think in general even if auntie pixelante describes it as a parable on working-class alcoholism:
http://arcaica-pfp.blogspot.com.br/2012/04/anestesia.html

Clay Shirky has an interesting take on the history of alcoholism and it fitting into a much larger context in Cognitive Surplus. The Industrial Revolution brought leisure time. People didn't know how to deal with it, so at first it was wasted: people turned to alcohol. Once we matured some things got a bit better. And then mass media came about. We didn't know how to deal with it, so at first it was wasted: so many TV shows that are shallow and meant only to pass the time. Once we matured some things got a bit better.

He likens our current fascination with lolcats and other often-thought meaningless uses of the Internet to the Information Revolution bringing access to information and communication. We don't know how to deal with it, so likewise, at first it is wasted.

He suggests that we need to simply experiment a lot to gain a better understanding of it, and use that understanding to mature as citizens of the Information Age. Interesting idea.

Lets assume the richness could stay the same while shortening the experience. If you want to look at film as an example, the solution was a better use of editing through a transition from depiction to suggestion. What does suggestion look like in videogames?

Guess beauty is my addiction.

Ha! In pursuit of the sublime...

All the recent research I've heard about (and studied myself) seems to suggest that, as a whole, organized religion is slowly and steadily declining in the Western world. Any growth seems to be within specific sub-groups and is not representative of the whole. But it is clearly growing in the Eastern world.

I actually think we need more of it, but that's because this is my definition: "to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

But in my opinion these sorts of game experiences have the opposite effect of what the user thinks they're having. Like other forms of addictions, specifically use of drugs, games make players feel that they are opening their mind and learning and experiencing all sorts of new things, while in reality, they are in  fact closing their mind and building walls around their own little world.

Well put! Yeah, Lantz seemed to be referring to games as a sort of "perfect drug." I find that really disturbing. I never figured he would join the segment of the industry that's trying to take games in that direction. What happened to just wanting to make a popular sport?

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...