h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh well laziness can be good. Dreaming time. Doesn't get much respect in this culture.

Same as conversation on h2g2....a good one can be pretty damn good. Good thread.

Don't get me wrong about Post #2. I love computer games. I've spent months of my life on Elder Scrolls and Football Manager games, whiled away hundreds of hours on Command and Conquer, and become far too invested in my Bloodbowl team.

And while I can see that GTA IV, Mass Effect and Portal are up there in terms of story with any movie or book released in the same year, I don't feel the need to get defensive (see Penny Arcade vs Roger Ebert) or offended.

People who don't like games are a dwindling group in the Western world. Soon, it'll be just as "odd" as not liking TV or cinema.

But if it's not for you, it's not for you.

If you've tried it and don't like it, then fine. If you've not tried it and still say you don't like it, then you're just as culturally insular as people who won't try opera, ballet, poetry or drum and bass.

>>If you've not tried it and still say you don't like it, then you're just as culturally insular as people who won't try opera, ballet, poetry or drum and bass.

Isn't there a slight difference, though? To get anything out of a cutting edge game, my impression is that I'd have to devote some time to it. Possibly I'd even have to come to it via a few other games. With opera I can just attend a production, with poetry just pick up a book.

"If you've tried it and don't like it, then fine"

No, hang on. That's like saying "if you've tried reading books/watching films/listening to music and don't like it, then fine". It's not fine. It's WEIRD.

If you've tried listening to music and don't like it, then what most people do is listen to OTHER music until they hear something they like.

Similarly books. Similarly films. I know a few weirdos (is anyone surprised?) who simply don't like films. I know a few benighted morons who don't read books. If we've not already reached it, I think we must be close to a point where saying "I don't like computer games" is like saying "I don't like books."

I would suggest that if you just turn up to an opera, or just turn up to, say, a production of Coriolanus, without having done any background research on it or ever having seen any opera or Shakespeare before, you'd be actively put off.

"Cutting edge" games are deserving of the effort you need to put in to appreciate them.

Don't tell me it's not an effort to read "Ulysses". You might even have to come to it via a few other literary works first.

Effers,

> I've seen Mirror several times over. There's always new insights and discoveries to be made...and like other special art forms it stays inside you very vivid... you can't beat thinking about it...and new connections and ideas come to you in periods of tranquility about great art...and suddenly they are in your mind, from where.

Completely agree - I chose Tarkovsky because he's one of the few directors that can get you to really inhabit his films (over several viewings) in that way. David Lynch might be another. There are not that many directors who can do it though.

I actually put off watching Mirror for over a year, because I'd loved his other films so much I thought I could only be disappointed by it. When I finally got round to watching it, I was absolutely stunned.

I also put off playing Portal 2 for 6 months because I thought I'd be disappointed. It wasn't quite as good as the original, but not far off.

Ed - I think you asked on the wrong forum! I think outside of h2g2 there's plenty of people who don't play/feel the need for computer games.

Hoo - Portal on Flash - dammit! I was already on level 24 by the time I realised I ought to be working.

Me.

I'm bad at all sorts of entertainment and most sorts of relaxation, so it's not just games. Completely shite at them.

I don't read modern fiction, though I can just about manage 19thC and earlier fiction.

I have watched 4 hours television in the last 12 months - (a thing about Victoria Wood in the Ibis in Carlisle on Boxing Day, since you ask, and the Royal Wedding in April. And the Morcambe and Wise biog on Christmas 2010 before that).

My life is really, really dull. Catholic guilt has nothing on the protestant work ethic.

Ben

>>Ed - I think you asked on the wrong forum!

I'd already realised that I've created a monster.

But I *won't* play a Star Wars game.

Probably wise. Star Wars games in the main suck donkey balls. The exception is the lego star wars games, which are close to perfect family entertainment.

There's a difference between saying you don't like computer games...and saying you'd rather spend time doing other stuff....we have such mind blowing choice.

I did enjoy my dalliance with them. But she always won...which didn't help

Actually...I'm possibly the anti-Ben in that I'm completely slothful by nature. You'd think I'b be happy to loll about waving one of those controller thingies around.

Well, I'm not sure that playing computer games necessarily indicates laziness. Granted, the Wii aside, it's not physical exercise but it requires more of you than vegging in front of the TV. They can actually be quite demanding in terms of attention, concentration, attention to detail etc.

Ed,

> with poetry just pick up a book

Now I know you don't think that - you've actually told me so!

Hoo,

> I think we must be close to a point where saying "I don't like computer games" is like saying "I don't like books."

I think we're still a way away from that. I think the vast majority of computer games are still too trashy (which is also fine, I like trashy films too ). There are fantastic ones that I'd argue are up there with very good literature or film, but not enough, and there's not yet a game (that I've played) to match the best literature or films. But, it's a young medium, and I think it will get there.

When playing Forza on Xbox, don't move the controller around like you would on Mario Cart Wii - it can be very dangerous.

But most books, most films, most tv is trashy.

... are ....

True. I feel like there's a difference, but can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it's that there's just a critical mass of good books, films, etc., more so than computer games.

So...what have we learned? That I'm weird and culturally insular?

So is Ben, but she makes up for it by Doing Things.

Meh. Dunno...I'm still not sure that I want to spend hours playing a game. I'm happy with my culture dumbed down in book sized nuggets.

Oh, there's certainly a lot of unbearable trash out there on all media. Believe me...I've just read 'World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Wars'. It was so poorly written and politically dodgy that I would've hurled it aside if I wasn't reading it on Kindle.

It's alright Ed, you don't have to play computer games. I don't go to opera myself. (It's just musicals for rich people, right? )