[HN Gopher] All Work and No Play (2021)
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       All Work and No Play (2021)
        
       Author : herbertl
       Score  : 20 points
       Date   : 2024-10-04 20:47 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.dissentmagazine.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.dissentmagazine.org)
        
       | sufficer wrote:
       | "utopian work simulator" well said. These games give the illusion
       | of accomplishment and progress.
        
       | moribvndvs wrote:
       | Tangentially, I feel that the technical pursuit of hyper realism
       | and novelty in various media over methods that require active
       | participation of your imagination and intellect are a part of why
       | many of us feel so disappointed and underwhelmed today.
       | 
       | I look at today's sci-fi blockbuster or television show where
       | unbelievable sums of money and effort were spent on highly
       | detailed, elaborate CGI sequences and, more often than not, I'm
       | not very moved and forget about it almost instantly. However, I
       | watch an old Star Trek episode that has hilariously bad effects
       | thrown together as cheaply as possible and I can _feel_ parts of
       | my curiosity, imagination, and so on shift into motion. In order
       | to make that embarrassing sound stage with a guy in a rubber suit
       | work, I actually have to participate in it, provided the crew was
       | skilled enough to provide a fertile playing field and a
       | compelling scenario. It's no different for games.
       | 
       | Being shoved through bigger, louder, and more audacious carnival
       | rides where you just kinda walk from point A to point B becomes
       | disappointing after a while. The disparity between the scope and
       | ambition of the presentation and your actual engagement greatly
       | amplifies any sensations of being underwhelmed and disappointed.
        
         | johnnyanmac wrote:
         | That's because the things adults in western culture are most
         | hooked on isn't their own imagination, but other, wealthy,
         | attractive people and what they say. That's why there is always
         | this push to make things look closer to reality, and why any
         | kinds of animated works that were popular by themselves have
         | this inevitable shift to the "real medium" of live action. They
         | want to sell you on real people as brands, not silly cartoons
         | or artists.
         | 
         | Whether that speaks to the power of the advertising machine or
         | the lack of imagination in the people is a question left to the
         | reader.
        
       | johnnyanmac wrote:
       | well that read got more and more bizarre the farther I got in.
       | Started with a simple allusion to "hype" culture, advertised
       | Schrier's new (at the time) book about the devs trying to live up
       | to that hype, and then somewhere we took a left turn into
       | corporatism and how entertainment is just a "work simulator".
       | Then by the ending 10% we go to the typical preaching to the
       | audience about better work conditions.
       | 
       | It ends up feeling like 3 different stories stitched together
       | instead of one solid thesis. I don't know what to make of it.
       | Things only got worse in the 3 years, so all it seemed t provide
       | was nice platitudes to hope for.
        
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       (page generated 2024-10-05 23:00 UTC)