posted
Late last week I had a discussion on whether or not video games could ever become 'Great', leading us to define 'Great' as: A piece of art or literature that can profoundly change your worldview.
Now today was our Social Sciences' last day on the book in a different voice by Carol Gilligan. I have never thought harder about a book, ever. I'm still thinking about it. Never before has a book changed the way I viewed the world.
Will probably have more coherent things to say tomorrow, brain is fried due to lack of sleep.
Posts: 1574 | Registered: May 2008
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by T:man: Late last week I had a discussion on whether or not video games could ever become 'Great', leading us to define 'Great' as: A piece of art or literature that can profoundly change your worldview.
If that's the definition of 'great,' then even very small games like Braid have already done this.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've mentioned this before but Albert Camus' The Stranger had quite the impact on my mental balance, almost as if it created a place for my catharsis and dry apathy. Meursault was an avatar for my unwillingness to join the world in a proactive manner and the unhappy story that played out helped me in resolving that a bit.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by T:man: Late last week I had a discussion on whether or not video games could ever become 'Great', leading us to define 'Great' as: A piece of art or literature that can profoundly change your worldview.
If that's the definition of 'great,' then even very small games like Braid have already done this.
I personally have never played a game that has profoundly changed my worldview.
*continuing to deprive myself of sleep~*
Posts: 1574 | Registered: May 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
The first game I can recall playing that really gave me a different perspective was Suspended, by Infocom.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
The books The Autobiography of Malcolm X, As Told to Alex Hailey and I Am Legendby Richard Matheson both did this for me.
Posts: 6026 | Registered: Dec 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
The only video game that truly met that criteria for me is Xenogears.
The main character had killed billions of people, and the villain didn't have bad intentions. In fact, at the end the villain realized that he had gone about it all wrong and says "Now I go to meet God unprepared."
The religious overtones got to me, as did the philosophy in the game. Xenosaga also had quite a bit of philosophy, but Xenogears contained the best writing of any Squaresoft game. It was Takahashi's best work. A little known fact, Xenogears' was originally an early concept for FFVII.
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: I wonder how I'd prepare to meet God.
God in Xenogears wasn't a deity, it was more of an existence from another dimension. It was sucked here and trapped in our dimension. It was made of pure energy and was extremely powerful. It was a pretty interesting take on God and religion.
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Be different, be special, show up with an order of the best pickle-chips this side of St. Louis.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
By the standard put forth for a great book, I've never read one. I've read a lot of books that have changed my views about particular things, but never has a change been fundamental. I'd go so far as to say that not only am I essentially the same person I was when I was 5, the way I perceive the world has remained static.
Maybe I'm just deprived. Then again, maybe it's the right way to view the world. Just sayin'.
Posts: 2705 | Registered: Sep 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Honestly I don't think a game has fundamentally changed me - I'd consider Braid, the Void, Marathon and a few others to be fairly deep but not life changing.
There's a game called Home, which plays sort of like the Sims, except you are an elderly person, moving is sluggish, and the game is rigged so that it is not possible to continuously replenish your sleep-energy, bladder, social exercise and food. One by one, you fail to accomplish your basic needs, and they are replaced by diapers, drugs, IV feed and catheter.
The game ends when you are trapped in bed. (You don't die)
It wasn't life changing exactly, but my grandmother was dying at the time and it drove home a lot of powerful and terrifying understandings.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
| IP: Logged |