[game_preservation] Arty Games

[Andrew Armstrong]

Digital files are important not to lose, but the wording of the games 
title "Lose/Lose" implies that losing the game (it deleting itself) is a 
loss (besides my point that it probably implies the "player losing his 
ship" as the loss, which is more likely, and more boring ;) ).

The loss of such a game is in fact *not* a bad thing (just as if a virus 
deleted itself), and so saying it is losing makes no sense to me in that 
view. :)

Interesting, a decaying digital novel eh? Mmmm...

Reminds me also of the game from the indie game jam where you can be the 
only one playing (and if you join you kick the person currently playing 
off), and you had to simply last for X minutes, meaning then you had the 
most unique experience of being the only one playing that game at that 
time in the universe. :)

Andrew

Devin Monnens wrote:

> An interesting thought: William Gibson once wrote a digital novel that 

> would decay each time you opened it. Unfortunately for him, people 

> found a way around it. I don't know if there's a way around this (say, 

> loading it from a flash drive).

>

> Digital files do have value. For some, there may be only one copy in 

> existence (say a document you created). If you are afraid of losing 

> your files, there might be two reasons. 1. You haven't backed them up 

> yet. 2. It is a pain to reload your software. I have a combination of 

> these two...

>

> On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 2:58 AM, Andrew Armstrong 

> <andrew at aarmstrong.org <mailto:andrew at aarmstrong.org>> wrote:

>

>     Heh, the game sure does question the worth of your digital files,

>     it's interesting, but not as effective as doing it for something

>     that simply can't ever be got back (although that applies more to

>     the real world where you'd be proving a point in the worst way

>     possible).

>

>     I think games title is a bit rubbish though. I personally think if

>     it calls itself lose/lose, it implies that the game deleting

>     itself is a loss (in addition to the stupid thought that dying in

>     a game is "losing", gah, what a silly think to say, but is

>     probably what he means), which if it is, heh, we might as well

>     start trying to save every other destructive program, such as

>     viruses ;)

>

>     Andrew

>

>     Devin Monnens wrote:

>>     Actually, Lose/Lose is particularly interesting to us digital

>>     media preservationists! I even blogged about it :)

>>

>>     http://deserthat.wordpress.com/

>>

>>     On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 8:55 PM, Devin Monnens

>>     <dmonnens at gmail.com <mailto:dmonnens at gmail.com>> wrote:

>>

>>         Andrew,

>>

>>         Thank you for the info! The last arty game I played was a

>>         'Today I Die'-esque ludic poem about a guy walking and

>>         thinking about his girlfriend who dumped him. Sadly, I can't

>>         remember the name!! I also still have the Steam indie games

>>         collection to play through.

>>

>>         I am designing a course on game art (or videogames as art,

>>         rather), so these will come in handy.

>>

>>         -Devin

>>

>>

>>         On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 11:54 AM, Andrew Armstrong

>>         <andrew at aarmstrong.org <mailto:andrew at aarmstrong.org>> wrote:

>>

>>             Thought this was a little bit interesting:

>>             http://www.stfj.net/art/2009/loselose/ - although as a

>>             technophile I'd play it only in a VM of course, heh ;)

>>

>>             There was also This Is The Only Level -

>>             http://armorgames.com/play/4309/this-is-the-only-level -

>>             which I'm sure you've seen, same kind of parody (or in

>>             fact, here, a little more of a design lesson) as

>>             Achievement Unlocked.

>>

>>             Anyone got any recent arty-like games (not just assuming

>>             anything by calling them this, but I hope you know what I

>>             mean). I've got a few in my backlog to play (Dear Esther

>>             and Korsakovia, Gravity Bone), once I feel like playing

>>             them, but I'm always looking for more.

>>

>>             As for how this relates to game history - well, frankly

>>             the quality varies but they're interesting, and usually

>>             free, which is great, especially since they can teach a

>>             mechanic or develop or parody it so well. :) Good for

>>             teaching, for sure.

>>

>>             Andrew

>>             _______________________________________________

>>             game_preservation mailing list

>>             game_preservation at igda.org

>>             <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>

>>             http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>         -- 

>>         Devin Monnens

>>         www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>

>>

>>         The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>     -- 

>>     Devin Monnens

>>     www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>

>>

>>     The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>     _______________________________________________ game_preservation

>>     mailing list game_preservation at igda.org

>>     <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>

>>     http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>

>     _______________________________________________

>     game_preservation mailing list

>     game_preservation at igda.org <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>

>     http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>

>

>

>

> -- 

> Devin Monnens

> www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>

> _______________________________________________

> game_preservation mailing list

> game_preservation at igda.org

> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>   

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/attachments/20090925/2721cbc0/attachment.html>