Sunday, January 18, 2009

Are We What We Link?

Are we obligated to outline our thoughts on the things that we point other people to? On Twitter, where I more or less say look at me or look at this, it's tough. At times, “agree” or “disagree,” “like” or “dislike,” is all it takes. When I link to a Ku Klux Klan boycott , I safely assume that my audience knows that I'm laughing at, and not endorsing, the so-called United Northern and Southern Knights. The link alone is enough. At other times, such as yesterday when I Tweeted the url to Nick Carr's writing on our age of advertising, inauthenticity, and sacrificed attention spans; and to Rob Horning's essay on how Guitar Hero is a symptom of a generational aversion to actual challenge, Twitter's alloted 140 words won't cut it. Directing attention to these writers was a way of saying that what they wrote is well worth reading; I didn't intend to endorse the messages in their entirety.

I was well aware of the irony when I Tweeted these. In pointing towards writing without engaging with it, I was proving Horning's point about the dangers of dilettantism -- in effect saying, “I've read this, so should you; talking about it is too much trouble, though.”

More Intelligent Life's Brett McCallon indirectly called me on it, by taking the time to write the following thoughtful email (to which, I'll respond in a separate entry as soon as I'm able):

Shawn:
I've listened to, and read, a number of your objections to GH/Rock Band, and those of the bloggers you've linked, and I'm still a little puzzled. It's not, of course, that I don't understand why someone wouldn't be into it, but the arguments against it seem to me to be a huge marshaling of rhetorical grandiloquence to assault a straw man. If you have a moment, I'd like to share a few counterpoints.

1) I don't think I ever linked you to my first column for More Intelligent Life, which regarded my Rock Band Band; if you have the time, it might make understanding my thoughts on the subject a bit easier.

2) In that article, I draw parallels between the experience of playing RB, and the ethos of the punk movement; I found it amusing that Carr used the same argument to opposite effect. His feeling about the Clash seems driven by a weirdly nostalgic view that wants to separate art out completely from the rest of modern life in a way that is deeply ahistorical. Because "Complete Control" is a rant against obedience and conformity in consumer society, it somehow can't convey that message if it is sold in a different package than it was originally (both times, I might add, by a multinational corporation)? Do the pieces that Mozart wrote for wealthy patrons (and therefore, presumably conforming to those patrons' tastes) lose their value due to some overarchingly "punk" reading of music history? He references John Lydon to dismiss him, but surely Johnny Rotten's layers of impenetrable irony were as intrinsic to the punk exercise as Strummer's (sometimes hammy, definitely put-on) working class solidarity-speak. Are we, finally, still stuck on "authenticity" as the apex of punk's meaning? Even at this late date?

3) While there will, of course, be a few people who conflate ability w/r/t the plastic instrument rhythm genre with actual musical skill, I can hardly believe that either of the authors whose posts you twittered, or you yourself, really believe that that is the majority opinion. Certainly, the drums can make one more aware of what goes into playing a real drum kit, but it's barely more than the rudimentary beginnings of developing that skill set (Bill Harris' Dubious Quality blog has some great entries where he details the benefits and drawbacks of knowing RB drumming as he begins his real drum lessons).

4) I'm going to quote myself (apologies) from the comments on my article--someone raised the standard objection to playing GH (that you could invest that time in mastering a real instrument, and that that would somehow be a more "authentic" experience:

Your comment voices a common belief, especially amongst musicians who haven't played games in the rhythm genre. However, I believe it is off-base. As a musician, I can tell you that the game does not require all that much time in order to achieve competency. Granted, playing on the higher difficulty levels requires more effort, but it's similar to the amount of effort one would expend on improving in another video game, not the amount required to master an instrument. Also, and this is key, playing Rock Band is not a simulation of playing music, so much as it is a simulation of being a rock star -- this is a feeling that most people, regardless of talent, will never experience. Also, it is relatively easy to get a few friends together to play the game over beers. Setting up a genuine rock and roll band requires a level of investment and effort (and generates a level of neighbor-annoying noise) that simply doesn't apply to the game scenario. Playing in a Rock Band band is more akin to joining a non-serious bowling league than it is to forming a band. And as such, it's a really fun way to spend time with friends.

5) Two real-life examples of musicians who play a lot of Rock Band:

My friend Dan is like a songwriting machine, churning out at least four or five new tracks per week on his real guitar, thanks to Garage Band. He also spends far more time playing Rock Band than anyone else I know. Does the latter have a detrimental effect on the former? Does his time doing the latter somehow devalue the former? Clearly, one is not creative all of the time. What's wrong with listening to music while also trying to ape its rhythms?

I'm a pianist, with fourteen or so years of classical training. I have a piano in my house, but I also have a 2-year-old, and my time to practice is hard to come by (when I have free time, she's generally asleep, and would wake up if I started gearing up Rachmaninoff). Once a week, though, I can go over to my friend's house and pretend to be a rock star, while cutting up and drinking. Where, really, is the harm in this? Would anyone conflate these two activities, really?

6) Do you really think that the Internet has led to an increase of dilettantism (which it undoubtedly has), without also spawning a hitherto unimaginable spread of deep, deep expertise? I don't mean to assume that the former isn't happening, of course -- I see its effect on my own media consumption habits. But let's face facts: one of your best go-to tropes, both in the Twitter feed and on GFW Radio, has to do with the absurd level of interest and time that people have poured into becoming expert at some unbelievably small slice of the human experience (here, I'm thinking specifically of the rant about how many ninjitsus that some anime character could learn if he split himself into some ungodly number of clones, or some other nonsense--hopefully you remember. It may have been Naruto). You and I think this is a ridiculous thing to focus on, but there's just no question that people throughout society are diving ever more deeply into extremely specific rabbit holes (some of which you and I would approve of, if that matters) to approximately the same degree that others of us (me included) are increasingly expanding our dilettantish knowledge base. And both of these phenomena are facilitated by the Internet.

7) The PopMatters article posits that someone who wanted to learn all about psychedelic music would be overwhelmed by the mp3 blogs -- as a counterpoint, I would offer my own example. I began reviewing music for Splendid magazine in 2000, and quickly deepened and developed my knowledge of dozens of genres precisely because I was faced with the need to sound authoritative, combined with a hunger for knowledge about the subject. Whie I certainly don't know everything about pop music now, I would never have achieved even a portion of the broad, fairly deep knowledge that I maintain of the history of thousands of bands, labels, and innovations without the Internet. It's not like reading a book, but it can eventually generate its own sort of expertise, and I guarantee that my experience when faced with the endless information available on the Net is not unique.

8) If game design were a more widely practiced art in our society, would people be complaining about the inauthenticity of Little Big Planet? Isn't the whole anti-GH argument (at least the "you should buy a real instrument" part of it) just a repackaging of the "you shouldn't play video games anyway, because they're a waste of time" argument?

These blogs are trying to point out a legitimate new development, but it seems to me that both of them go way, way over the top in decrying it. Rock Band is a pop culture phenomenon that is arguably on its downswing. I don't think that people have invested any more time into it than they did into "useless" but now nostalgically regarded phenomena of the past: pinball, classic arcade games, etc. It has arguably exposed a younger generation to music they might otherwise have missed, thus deepening their cultural awareness (though, to be fair, I kind of wish some of those songs had remained buried). Would it be a bad thing if something similar had gotten people our age interested in the great jazz of earlier decades? Most of the people who play GH/Rock Band (including me) never had any intention of learning to play the guitar, nor are we under any illusion that we have done anything to develop our knowledge of that instrument. It's a fun way to hang out with friends. I'm just not seeing the problem.

55 comments:

Ian said...

I agree with you completely and fully %100.

Kajaah117 said...

I wrote you a question about this too. I wasn't so much objecting to your posts as much as I was curious to hear what your actual thoughts on this whole thing were. Not making an excuse, merely pointing out that my shitty writing can often misrepresent my mind-frame.

People should understand through common sense that the things you post don't indicate what side of any arguments you're on. Like your KKK example, it's purely for our entertainment. Although every once in a while you do post something thought provoking, still, most of the time it's entertainment.

Part of me is still happy that people misunderstand you though, because the rest of us get to read fantastically written blogs like this. This is the quality stuff I used to pay to read.

ToddYoung said...

That's funny about the KKK link. I emailed it to a friend who's wife is black, and i had no reservations at all, knowing his sense of humor and the fact he would be able to see the absurdity in it. I really wonder why people with no sense of humor would bother following your blog or twitter.

RyNaples said...

People who assume you endorse the content of all your posted links on Twitter just because you post them should leave the internet.

garion333 said...

"People who assume you endorse the content of all your posted links on Twitter just because you post them should leave the internet."

Uh, no. How are we to determine Shawn's intentions from little to no introduction/discourse on what he is posting. Yes, most of what Shawn posts is a complete and total joke, which is how I went in to the GH article in question, but until this post I wasn't able to truly discern his intention/position (little as it should matter [said with total respect]).

Please, dispense with the idea that Shawn is god and everything he does is obvious to everyone. Writing is not always a perfect medium, especially when all one is doing is linking to something online.

@Shawn: For your tweets, perhaps you should come up with some way of showing what is worth reading, though not "Shawn canon" when posting.

Unknown said...

This is Brett, the guy who wrote the e-mail. Just to clarify, I was considering Shawn's twitter links in context of some comments on the rhythm-action genre he had made on various podcasts in the past--I took out that bit of context when he asked me to edit my e-mail for posting on his blog. I was trying to scope out how these blog posts might relate to the "wah-jah" feeling he had mentioned when seeing people play GH/RB.

rmesi said...

When I look at what you tweet, I understand what you post as jokes/human stupidity/random pictures/further thoughts on subjects. While I didn't quite agree with the whole GH RB argument, isn't that why you put it up there? To get people to think more about topics. If everyone can take the time and think critically about what they spend their time and energy on and focus it on something more productive, then real change may happen. Unfortunately that's not how it is and instead we get people who can destroy at Dragon Force (which I have to say I'm jealous of because I can't spend that much time on it to get just as good.)

Thanks for pushing these topics though as it will lead to thoughtful discussions.

Unknown said...

Shawn, while I understand why you would be slightly miffed or disappointed about the possibility, that such misunderstandings would take place, I believe that the ambiguity of your Twitter links is really what makes them intriguing. Well, the ones that are thought-provoking in the first place anyway, since I guess there is nothing ambiguous about something like the "Kid's Slide Cock Cock Train." It is the fact that I don't know what you yourself might think about the content you put up for us to see that forces me to think about how they are interesting or relevant about the things we observe and participate. In a way, you have provided us all a channel of information that is devoid of any context other than that of our own, and I can really appreciate that.

With that being said, it would be nice to have a regular outlet where we could gauge your thoughts from time to time. Those GWJ podcasts were great, don't get me wrong, but I guess it feels that your were a bit hamstrung by virtue of being a guest. I guess we'll just wait for your announcement then?

garion333 said...

Hanjun, thank you for saying what I wanted to say, but better.

Unknown said...

Hmm. Don't want to get too off topic here, but I always felt it was a kind of "Shawn-ism" to intentionally link to something where the reaction isn't obvious. About 98% of the twitter links are wah-jah we're all in on or some bit of neutral videogame news. The rare post however with the slightest bit of ambiguity can set off a nerd fire storm that only Shawn and a more exclusive slice of the twitter following is 'in on' as its the general twitter following that is being wah-jahed (wah-jah-ed?). Kind of like his griefing style on TF2, its the griefer griefing other griefers by exposing that however hard you're laughing theres someone out there laughing harder at you.

With all that said though, I've found I've had some pretty contemplative reactions to some of these unexplained controversial links. For instance the recent Max Blumenthal Israel-Gaza youtube link had the short explanation "so sad." I immediately thought "well, the Joke is that its a jewish kid poking fun at jewish people at an israel-support rally." Then I caught myself and thought "maybe Shawn thinks the kids message is right and its the situation in Gaza itself which is so sad". And to be honest, that desire to 'jump to the wah-jah' on any given link showed me how hard of a time I have looking at an issue as complicated as Gaza and really absorbing multiple opinions.

Macroe said...

Shawn, the only thing that you can truly assume as a fact is that you have 5,359 people following your posts. How many of those are your friends? How many are people you know in some form? 300? 500?

It's logical to assume that most of us who actively follow you:
a) Have some knowledge of your ideas and through the podcasts, blogs, posts and magazine articles.
b) Agree in a high degree with those viewpoints.

Still, with more followers that you can possibly know, it's quite probable that some also have a limited knowledge of you. If only 5% of us disagree or fail to understand your reasons behind a specific tweet, you have 268 people with emotions ranging from a simple dismissal to a pissed off follower.

In any case, you obviously have delved into the aspects of being a regular guy who has turned into a sort of a celebrity. In one or two podcasts you have conveyed --in an honest humbled and grateful manner-- that the attention garnered onto you is definitively not what you are after but that it does generate a great positive feeling.

In this regard, your Twitter feeds are one way messages broadcast to the community that has taken an interest in you. All links generate particular responses in people who most probably don't agree across the board. At the same time, those feeds also shape --perhaps unconsciously-- our understanding of you, of your motivations and interests.

For me personally you have shown a very black and white type of personality in terms of your clear intelligence, deep and thoughtful discussions and insights, contrasting with your playful nature, your easy way of lapsing into an immature 18 year old having the time of his life playing with his buddies online, shocking the hell out of whoever innocent bystander listening in his mind to your description of the sounds of a tunnel full of dicks.

Are you getting enough back from the community? I'm sure that's the case. Keep it up, we are listening. I appreciate your continued involvement with this community that revolves in some respect around you. Your motives for what continues to drive you to keep this involvement up are hopefully a matter of another blog. I want/need/look for your ideas, discussions, jokes and random crazy stuff that you throw around, since the substance and implicit messages are worth my while. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

While I believed that the blog posts were overly negative towards Rock Band and guitar hero I believe that it served as a good warning. That people are taking a more Jack of all trades master of none approach to life. I feel that people should strive for excellence in some parts of life at least one purely for themselves, even if that thing has practical implications it shouldn't be something they need to get, say a promotion, doing something for yourself boosts confidence and self esteem.

With regard to Rock Band I think it's important to recognise that it's not self improvement or expanding your horizons (although not when you're actually playing, that would ruin the fun) and that it's the entertainment side of your life.

@Shawn Completely understand your apprehension of being mistakenly thought to endorse the more moderate controversies amongst the things you post. Although something I have noticed though reading things you've posted is that you don't like to be misunderstood, it normally results in well written polite reply to undo any confusion. Quite refreshing on the internet, particularly when what you normally get, is the headstrong David Jaffe and Denis Dyack approach. But it sometimes still feels a little like the embarrassed apology that you make to someone you don't know, for saying something potentially offensive that you wouldn't be making to friend who had greater reason to be offended but knows your only joking. (There should be a word to summarise doing that). Just an observation, it might just be that you're a writer and your word and the correct expression is worth more to you.

On the other hand in regard to RyanC's post, while our interpretation of what anyone might post may be to find potentially offensive material ridiculous and funny (I could probably laugh at most KKK propaganda/plans as stupid pathetic drivel of irrational idiots) but if I was to learn that the poster was racist and promoting this in an attempt to get support for the KKK I'd prefer to see those posts knowing that, ready to mock whatever was posted and the poster as well. You'd feel guilty if before learning of the motives you thought you were laughing with the poster, we worry about how it was intended for us to perceive and interpret as well as how we interpret, and how we are perceived to interpret it. Just another observation.

@Paul Most people who would follow Shawn's Twitter would know him and his character, and know that his disposition in this case your argument isn't as valid. A better solution to not knowing the intent would I think is to get twitter to install a multiple choice tag: Update, notification, message, event, humour, serious ect (use bracketed shortcuts from phone).
And personally I'd prefer if Shawn was God, unlike God I like him and at least I'd know where I stood. To top it off Heaven would probably be eternally greifing those in Hell.

Shawn we enjoy laughing with you.

Nick Carr said...

Because "Complete Control" is a rant against obedience and conformity in consumer society, it somehow can't convey that message if it is sold in a different package than it was originally (both times, I might add, by a multinational corporation)?

Sorry, but context matters. If you want to play Guitar Hero, then by all means play it and have fun, but Brett McCallon gives himself far too much credit in believing he is somehow acting out the punk ethos when he and his buddies play Rock Band. The Clash were certainly aware of the irony of attacking their label in a song that the label would then put out as a single (and profit from), but the band's awareness of the irony only fuels the ferocity of the song - the performance turns the irony into dust. Recycling the song as a cheesy exercise in paint-by-numbers instrumental karaoke reduces everything to ironic dust. The ethos of Rock Band and Guitar Hero is far more consumerist than punk.

As to McCallon's argument that Rotten's "layers of impenetrable irony were ... intrinsic to the punk exercise," I couldn't agree more. What's sad is that Rotten has traded in his impenetrable irony for easy irony. He's become a mediocre court jester.

Mike said...

All I have to add is that I miss your writing/podcasting. Twitter is not, has never been, and never will be a suitable replacement.

I often wish you had two tweets - one for the nonsense and one for the (often very good) serious articles. But that would be pretty annoying, I imagine.

Shotgun VS Shogun said...

To Shawn:

I think that you unfairly capitulate to the viewpoint of Horning's essay when you say:

"I was proving Horning's point about the dangers of dilettantism -- in effect saying, “I've read this, so should you; talking about it is too much trouble, though.”

Dilettantism is an endemic quality of any twitter. As a distillation, twitters offer no real intellectual stimulus excluding authorial intent. As a supposition then, dilettantism as a qualifier of “twitter” becomes unimportant. You supposed that about your twitter. When we interact with this particular medium, we (the viewer) understand that, whether or not we're aware of the SAT word that describes it, it's fleeting. It is unfair to expect your twitter, or anyone else's for that matter, to be a substantial investigation of any topic. That expectation is an error by you, the author, if you presume so, or by anyone else who actively participates with your twitter. By and large, a twitter, and then act of subscribing to one, is a self referential admission that the viewer likes the twitter and, often its author. Nothing more. Considerations of irony don't even begin to enter into it. Or shouldn't.

While meditating on what I wanted to say with this response I hit upon the idea of typing "political twitter" into Google. The first a available link was to a twitter called politicalticker (http://twitter.com/politicalticker).

I was immediately struck by two thoughts, one following the other. After linking to this “political twitter”, the first posting I saw pertained to Nancy Pelosi. What immediately occurred to me was that, while I have no verifiable statistics, I'm sure that at least 70% of Americans don't even know who the fuck Nancy Pelosi is. This isn't meant to be an indictment of American stupidity (that'd be off topic), rather it shows that twitters in general are intrinsically tailored to a specific audience. By making a twitter, you did this yourself. I could easily substitute the nouns, and link ideas, of all the previous sentences with movie director, hip-hop, or horror references. My mom knows who Nancy Pelosi is, but if I mentioned names like Michael Mann, Jonathan Demme, Stan Winston, Blackalicious, or KRS-One I'd be met with a blank stare. Following that thought, I became certain that anyone who would subscribe to this or any other twitter would have a certain amount of requisite knowledge either about the subject or about the author. I don't think that twitters have achieved the necessary ubiquity required to be simply stumbled upon without knowledge of what the viewer is looking at. Can you imagine a 50-something housewife typing Animal Planet into a search engine and finding Jack Hanna's twitter? You might find a twitter about animals, but, probably, it'd be way down the list, and it would certainly not authored by Jack Hanna himself.

I think this revelation elucidates what twitters are, and what their value is. They are simple portholes into a subject that the reader has an interest in -- in the case of your twitter, largely, humor. Twitter's reach isn't nearly broad enough to assume that someone who knows nothing about the subject or author will find him or herself on your site, and will make no inferences about your posts (NB I don't think anyone, or BARELY anyone anyway, has come to your twitter without some expectation about the subject material and the ability to make inferences based on your previous writing -- e.g. “This guy loves the KKK”). Point being, anyone who would infer your worldview as myopic from your twitter probably isn't reading it anyway. As such, you should feel no obligation to the reader -- if you want to call a twitter viewer that -- to expound any further. They know. Again, anyone who subscribes to your twitter is a willing participant who, in this case, has requisite knowledge of your writing, sarcasm, and humor. I'm sure that most people who read your twitter know what Tenderondo is. You, and anyone else with a prolific and popular twitter, cannot fool themselves into thinking that they possess moral responsibility to their viewers. It is pure affectation to presume that your twitter carries the kind of social obligation that the omnipresence of the words George Bush, Oprah Winfrey, or even someone like Ira Glass carries. You cannot ironically post something because, I think, we are aware of your irony and won't take it non-literally, as a reader-in-the-know,but rather as sarcastic commentary. The active affect of you writing betrays the smartness of your thoughts, and that's what we as readers have keyed in on. To think that we don't get the irony robs us of the primacy of fun and reason we get from reading your thoughts.

I enjoy your twitter because I understand its quality. To me, it is the awesome, crazy bastard child of Bill Hicks and America's Funniest Home Videos. Its the opposite of something like 4chan; its not just stupid, sick images. It carries a tone of comic desperation that isn't present in lurid horrorshows, from tame to disgusting, like YouTube or rotten.com.

This does not absolve you from your responsibility to your readers. Stepping back from twitters in general, where your responsibility lies is is to your blog. To be fair I'm sure that, while many fewer, you have lots of subscribers here. As someone who looks up to and respects your writing, I know that if I want your thoughts on a subject, there is a more formalized and intellectual place to read them. I don't want to be presumptuous, but I do think you have responsibility to refrain from being always oblique or holistically sarcastic here. But again, as with twitters, it is because YOU have established a grammar and tonality that elicits that expectation.

To bring it together then, placing a link in your twitter that is serious is an analogue for placing a sarcastic rant on your blog. Those entries are fine. But, as a viewer, it becomes axiomatically apparent that this is without the purview of the tone of the medium you're writing in, be it twitter or blog respectively. I can't think of a better term, so, with regard to each, I guess I'd call them “special entries” on either. Your blog can be funny, your twitter can be serious, but I know -- and I suspect your other fans do too -- what to expect from each. So, please, don't take your twitter too seriously. It endangers its quality as great place to pass some idle time with my like-minded buddies.

~James

Unknown said...

I would caution the sense of elitism that may come off when highlighting the failings of dilettante pursuits. I don't believe it fair to acknowledge what the internet enables and then frown on the broad stokes it teaches us to draw. Change is good, especially when it can upset our epistemic conceits. It could be that we latch onto the diametric of forest vs. trees merely to further extend or celebrate our vantage. The makeup of Shawn's Twitter feed shows us a forest of trees, if that makes any sense. Taken as a whole, it just happens to demonstrate the effects of hugging a bit too hard.

Unknown said...

Why can't people just enjoy their hobbies without constant approval of the media. I am on Brett McCallon's side of the debate but he should feel that RB needs defending to begin with.

Yeah and people taking the business of a twitter post wayy too seriously. I does it matter what Shawn thinks on every subject? Make your own mind up!

Rory Taylor said...

I subscribe to your twitter, but haven't checked all your links and confess to have never seen the KKK thing. Having said that, I don't assume that you're endorsing the things you post in any way, shape, or form. I take it as "check this thing out, and form your own opinion".

Shawn Elliott said...

I appreciate the replies. I'm reading via phone and intend to respond tomorrow.

AvoryX said...

Hey Shawn,
I'm a long time listener to all of the one up podcasts, but i rarely remember to participate. Back when you were still at 1up you mentioned a graphic novelist, I believe his name was Chris Were, but i'm having issues finding his stuff, maybe it's my horrible spelling, but could you direct me somewhere that i could find his stuff?

Avoryx@yahoo.com

Chris said...

As far as the basic question of whether or not we are what we link is concerned, I feel that ultimately we are. The things which we present to the world create the persona which other people perceive. It sucks that you are not able to show things that you find to be interesting without having them come to reflect on you in some way, but the fact of the matter is that what you put on the internet is still something that you are accountable for, even if its just a forwarding link. I wouldn't just quite posting or anything, maybe just be a little more self aware as to how something you post may affect other people, especially when it involves people who are in the same industry as you. Of course what I am talking about only really should affect your more thought provoking links, such as the ones about games, games journalism. As for the KKK posts or anything pertaining to meat spin, people would have to be pretty brain dead to mistake those for anything other than off handed weird shit to look at.

PS your twitter is one of the best arrogates for amazing and weird links, but are the days of hearing your soothing voice while I am at work only possible with CGW reruns? Keep us posted.

Macroe said...

@AvoryX: The name of the artist is Chris Ware, I bought two titles, Acme Novelty Library and Jimmy Corrigan, based on Shawn's recommendation. I was blown away by the mastery of Ware's extremely detailed craft, as well as by his use of time in the stories. Chris Ware is definitively at the forefront of his field. You can find more at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=chris+ware&x=0&y=0.

Level Up said...

Speaking of links...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmLSexOIVwJI.s.0DItHS3lJxQt.;_ylv=3?qid=20090120141114AAMqwiB

Steve Shaw said...

I play Rock Band because it's really fun. I've played the drums for 16 years for the same reason. To compare one to the other, or to insinuate that one can detrimentally affect the other in any way, is a insult to the two completely seperate acts. It's like implying that Virtua Cop is no good because it doesn't accurately replicate the feeling of really shooting criminals in the face, or it might stop young children from wanting to become police officers in the future.

A whole glut of children are being presented with a fun and interactive way to hear guitar music, which is where radio now completely fails them.

As for the content of links posted, you can't please everyone. Your intended audience will get the joke/relevance/irony, what's the matter if others don't?

trip1ex said...

I see both sides.

On one hand some choose to use GH and Rockband as entertainment just as any other videogame or media or pastime.

On the other some see the absurdity in playing fake plastic instruments and putting a lot of time into them.

No right answer there. I'm sure more people would think the latter the more they see someone put hours into the former.

I thought the Horning article incorrectly assumed everyone plays GH or RB 10 hours a day. And incorrectly associates a game's difficulty with a bigger societal problem. Last time I checked people liked simple games in all eras. 25 years ago we had Pac-man and Space Invaders. GH/RB is at least as complicated as those games. Sports were simpler games 100 years ago too.

I think what throws Horning off is the plastic instruments. The plastic instruments lead him to conclude an either/or proposition of real instrument vs fake instrument. The reality being something else - that GH/RB are just popular (light) entertainment for the masses and that the masses were never more likely to pick up an instrument if RB/GH hadn't come along and practice for hours/years.

ON the larger topic, I think to post links without some short explanation tends to invite misunderstanding. And probably more explanation or less questionable links are needed the less you know the intended audience. ....Unless of course your goal all along is to provoke a reaction (knowing all along some stranger out there somewhere is going to take take it the wrong or get up in arms over your link.) :)

Then again there is probably no way to prevent misunderstanding or adverse reactions when posting material/links to hundreds and thousands of strangers.

Jeff said...

I'm so happy I found your blog. You have a profound way of looking at the world, and it's refreshing to see things from a well thought out point of view (that often comes together in a humorous way).

Brian Block said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
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