Five Arguments Against Good Graphics in Video Games

Hey y'all.  So as a kid, I dreaded the future of video games.  Why?  Because graphics were getting better.  Sure, the sample display of Star Fox 64 at the video store (yeah, this was the mid-nineties) looked pretty fun, but I didn't like the idea of game consoles having really great, developed graphics. Star Fox 64 was a great game, but it was a sign of the future -- games were going to get more complicated and realistic, and there was nothing ten year old me could do about it.  The future was coming, and I didn't like it!

Granted, I'm not really sure why I dreaded it so much as a kid.  Guess I always was an old fogey at heart.  But now that the age of modern, high resolution gaming has come to pass, I agree completely with my old opinion.  Modern gaming has become a beast, with more darkness, less charm, and just a conglomerate of spend, spend, spend.  My younger friends rant and rave about modern games, but I'd rather not bother anymore.

Keep in mind that I'm not being entirely serious with this post.  While I don't particularly like modern games, that's for varying reasons.  Not the least of which is that I'm now a grown up, so I don't have time to waste playing them.  This is just my reaction to people whining about older games, as well as an expression of my old fogey-ness and love of the aesthetic style of nineties games.

Onward!

1. Good graphics force games to be more about story.

Write Club: the Three Stages of Artistic Development

Hey y'all.  So I was watching an old season of Project Runway, and I realized that in all artistic endeavors, there are three general stages that happen to any given artist.  Granted, this is more hypothesis than certainty, but it's a general observation that people who want to do anything artistic have three general stages they go through, each adjusted in length and intensity by the individual's personality.

Stage 1: the discovery of talent/interest, rebellious stage.

This is the time when the person in question finds out about a particular art form, and that he's talented at it.  Or at least so interested in it, he thinks he's talented.  Which is perfectly fine, because thinking you're talented in an area is a great step up in actually becoming good at it.  Sure, you might realize how awful you were several years down the line, but if your false belief in your own quality got you ahead, then hey, it did its job.

A Philosophical Note on the Nature of Fate

Hey y'all.  So I was thinking about fate.  People tend to be rather "yes or no" concerning it.  That is, it exists, or it doesn't.  Doesn't it occur to anyone that this is strange?  Why should fate apply equally to all?

Top Ten Reasons The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask is Amazing

Hey y'all.  So one of the things readers of this blog might notice is that I can be pretty negative at times.  This is because it's usually easier to describe what one dislikes about something, rather than what one likes -- it's easy enough to say that something is fun or inspirational, but when you dislike something, you have to really explain it for other people to get why that's the case.  Thus, an explanation of dislikes is more likely to be detailed and informative.  Unless you like something other people don't, but generally people tend to be accepting of what other people like rather than what people dislike.  You would not believe how hateful fans of the movie Clue can be to people who recognize Clue for the schlock it is.

All the same, this blog can use more positivity.  I tried to write a happier blog once about Mortal Kombat (1995), but it got too long and ranty.  Since I'm on a Legend of Zelda kick right now, why not talk about Majora's Mask for the time being?

Top Ten Things to Say about The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Part 2

Hey y'all.  Let's get this moving, shall we?