Comments for PaulCallaghan.net http://www.paulcallaghan.net My home, on the web Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:59:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Comment on Synecdoche: games, control, subtext, and art by Pykk http://www.paulcallaghan.net/blog/2010/05/02/synecdoche-games-control-subtext-and-art/comment-page-1/#comment-3546 Pykk Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:59:26 +0000 http://www.paulcallaghan.net/?p=492#comment-3546 When I saw that post of his I laughed and thought of Theodor Adorno in Aesthetic Theory, writing, in the context of art: "The moment a limit is posited, it is overstepped and that against which the limit was established is absorbed." [translated by R. Hullot-Kentor] The moment you ask whether games can be art or not, the moment you introduce that question of "Can they?" into the minds of artists and people who love art, the more inevitable you make their eventual absorption into the category of art. Does it seem reasonable to picture a sea called 'art' running up to the border of a continent called 'computer games' and stopping there forever, kept magically at bay by some component of a game that makes it utterly superior to, or alien from, everything else that was once not part of the art world and now is (West African clay heads, Aboriginal dot paintings, abstract expressionists, knitting, a urinal), isolating it in a new category of its own? Games have qualities that are theirs alone, but do those qualities have the power to repel artists? I don't think so. When I saw that post of his I laughed and thought of Theodor Adorno in Aesthetic Theory, writing, in the context of art: “The moment a limit is posited, it is overstepped and that against which the limit was established is absorbed.” [translated by R. Hullot-Kentor] The moment you ask whether games can be art or not, the moment you introduce that question of “Can they?” into the minds of artists and people who love art, the more inevitable you make their eventual absorption into the category of art. Does it seem reasonable to picture a sea called ‘art’ running up to the border of a continent called ‘computer games’ and stopping there forever, kept magically at bay by some component of a game that makes it utterly superior to, or alien from, everything else that was once not part of the art world and now is (West African clay heads, Aboriginal dot paintings, abstract expressionists, knitting, a urinal), isolating it in a new category of its own? Games have qualities that are theirs alone, but do those qualities have the power to repel artists? I don’t think so.

]]> Comment on Synecdoche: games, control, subtext, and art by The Ebert Response | The Game Critique http://www.paulcallaghan.net/blog/2010/05/02/synecdoche-games-control-subtext-and-art/comment-page-1/#comment-3139 The Ebert Response | The Game Critique Mon, 17 May 2010 06:02:24 +0000 http://www.paulcallaghan.net/?p=492#comment-3139 [...] Post #2 Ben sent me. Art, Critical Responses, Roger Ebert [...] [...] Post #2 Ben sent me. Art, Critical Responses, Roger Ebert [...]

]]> Comment on The Emerging Writers’ Festival…(& podcasts, interviews, and reviews…) by Emerging Writers Festival → What they are saying… http://www.paulcallaghan.net/blog/2010/04/24/the-emerging-writers-festival-podcasts-interviews-and-reviews/comment-page-1/#comment-3103 Emerging Writers Festival → What they are saying… Thu, 06 May 2010 00:03:52 +0000 http://www.paulcallaghan.net/?p=490#comment-3103 [...] Paul Callaghan: I’m running a 2-hour writing for games workshop with Express Media on May 22nd from 2-4.   I’m going to cover the key similarities and differences between games & more traditional media and how to approach the process of games writing. [...] [...] Paul Callaghan: I’m running a 2-hour writing for games workshop with Express Media on May 22nd from 2-4.   I’m going to cover the key similarities and differences between games & more traditional media and how to approach the process of games writing. [...]

]]> Comment on The trouble with games reporting… by Paul http://www.paulcallaghan.net/blog/2010/03/22/the-trouble-with-games-reporting/comment-page-1/#comment-2926 Paul Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:05:19 +0000 http://www.paulcallaghan.net/?p=469#comment-2926 <a href="#comment-2923" rel="nofollow">@FreakyZoid </a> Thanks. I actually think the way to deal with the problem isn't to bring games industry people in at all, but to find our mainstream voices. Both of the other panellists on that program were well known in other circles, whereas Tim is a gamer and identifies as one - and has no media presence beyond that. As a result, he's easily dismissed - and the same thing would happen to someone like Stuart Campbell, especially if they resorted to the same tactics as the other speakers on that show. @FreakyZoid
Thanks.

I actually think the way to deal with the problem isn’t to bring games industry people in at all, but to find our mainstream voices. Both of the other panellists on that program were well known in other circles, whereas Tim is a gamer and identifies as one – and has no media presence beyond that. As a result, he’s easily dismissed – and the same thing would happen to someone like Stuart Campbell, especially if they resorted to the same tactics as the other speakers on that show.

]]> Comment on The trouble with games reporting… by FreakyZoid http://www.paulcallaghan.net/blog/2010/03/22/the-trouble-with-games-reporting/comment-page-1/#comment-2923 FreakyZoid Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:07:48 +0000 http://www.paulcallaghan.net/?p=469#comment-2923 Great article. There is also a problem that when games journalists are given a platform to defend them, they often come across as the exact "quiet shut-in" stereotype. We need confident, charasmatic, and well informed people out there being a talking head/opinion for hire. I wrote something today about a TV piece that aired recently in the UK here, I would be inetersted to hear your thoughts: http://www.mainlyaboutgames.co.uk/2010/03/how-to-better-stand-up-for-the-video-game-industry Great article. There is also a problem that when games journalists are given a platform to defend them, they often come across as the exact “quiet shut-in” stereotype. We need confident, charasmatic, and well informed people out there being a talking head/opinion for hire.

I wrote something today about a TV piece that aired recently in the UK here, I would be inetersted to hear your thoughts: http://www.mainlyaboutgames.co.uk/2010/03/how-to-better-stand-up-for-the-video-game-industry

]]> Comment on The trouble with games reporting… by Brenda http://www.paulcallaghan.net/blog/2010/03/22/the-trouble-with-games-reporting/comment-page-1/#comment-2914 Brenda Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:14:39 +0000 http://www.paulcallaghan.net/?p=469#comment-2914 Why do they single out games? The violence in an average video game is more tame than the Grimm brother's tales. How about a witch abducting children and baking them in her oven? Campaigns to stop books being published have disappeared from our society - or at least they don't get the kind of press coverage that games get. As a fun exercise, try changing every instance of "gaming" to "reading" in an article. Shows how silly they are. Why do they single out games? The violence in an average video game is more tame than the Grimm brother’s tales. How about a witch abducting children and baking them in her oven?

Campaigns to stop books being published have disappeared from our society – or at least they don’t get the kind of press coverage that games get.

As a fun exercise, try changing every instance of “gaming” to “reading” in an article. Shows how silly they are.

]]> Comment on The season of acronyms… by Garth Robertson http://www.paulcallaghan.net/blog/2009/12/13/the-season-of-acronyms/comment-page-1/#comment-1712 Garth Robertson Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:20:13 +0000 http://www.paulcallaghan.net/?p=447#comment-1712 GCAP was quite business and tech focused, well done nonetheless but not as useful for those in the art or design field. Thanks for uploading your slides, they are a great resource. GCAP was quite business and tech focused, well done nonetheless but not as useful for those in the art or design field. Thanks for uploading your slides, they are a great resource.

]]> Comment on The state of things by Blitz http://www.paulcallaghan.net/blog/2009/11/11/the-state-of-things/comment-page-1/#comment-1331 Blitz Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:12:30 +0000 http://www.paulcallaghan.net/?p=341#comment-1331 <a href="#comment-1306" rel="nofollow">@Paul</a> Hey, Thanks for clearing that up. I don't think I have any better ratings data for you though :) I don't think any of the gaelic games ever got reviewed in any official online media, unless it was in gaelic? I only ever remember seeing one review online for hurling and i think that was just some guys blog :P Cheers @Paul
Hey,
Thanks for clearing that up. I don’t think I have any better ratings data for you though :) I don’t think any of the gaelic games ever got reviewed in any official online media, unless it was in gaelic? I only ever remember seeing one review online for hurling and i think that was just some guys blog :P
Cheers

]]> Comment on The state of things by Paul http://www.paulcallaghan.net/blog/2009/11/11/the-state-of-things/comment-page-1/#comment-1306 Paul Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:16:32 +0000 http://www.paulcallaghan.net/?p=341#comment-1306 <a href="#comment-1302" rel="nofollow">@Blitz</a> I'm looking at releasing the spreadsheet at some point. To gather the numbers, I pretty much just typed the name of the developer into the metacritic advanced search and copied the results straight into a spreadsheet. Some games, as you've pointed out, weren't represented - AFL being a big example - or didn't have a score. In those cases, I left them out or searched gamerankings.com for a representative sample in cases where there was more than one SKU (as there was for Lucinda Green). In cases where there was more than one version (both Heroes of the Pacific and Heroes over Europe are good examples) I treated the highest rated version as the 'original' and the other versions as 'ports' of that. All versions of Heroes of the Pacific rated 76% so it's just a function of a sorting algorithm that I took the Xbox version as the original. In the case of Heroes over Europe, the PC version rated 66% compared to 64% on PS3 and 62% on Xbox 360 so that's treated as the lead platform and the others as ports. If you have ratings data for the AFL titles and the Gaelic Football titles, I'm happy to add them in. @Blitz

I’m looking at releasing the spreadsheet at some point.

To gather the numbers, I pretty much just typed the name of the developer into the metacritic advanced search and copied the results straight into a spreadsheet. Some games, as you’ve pointed out, weren’t represented – AFL being a big example – or didn’t have a score. In those cases, I left them out or searched gamerankings.com for a representative sample in cases where there was more than one SKU (as there was for Lucinda Green).

In cases where there was more than one version (both Heroes of the Pacific and Heroes over Europe are good examples) I treated the highest rated version as the ‘original’ and the other versions as ‘ports’ of that. All versions of Heroes of the Pacific rated 76% so it’s just a function of a sorting algorithm that I took the Xbox version as the original. In the case of Heroes over Europe, the PC version rated 66% compared to 64% on PS3 and 62% on Xbox 360 so that’s treated as the lead platform and the others as ports.

If you have ratings data for the AFL titles and the Gaelic Football titles, I’m happy to add them in.

]]> Comment on The state of things by Paul http://www.paulcallaghan.net/blog/2009/11/11/the-state-of-things/comment-page-1/#comment-1304 Paul Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:03:59 +0000 http://www.paulcallaghan.net/?p=341#comment-1304 @Christian I agree that metacritic isn't the best source of data, but sadly it is all I have easy access to. Ideally, if metacritic had an api I could do some deeper data mining. It would be interesting to see overall trends across years, along with whether or not certain outlets rated some types of games - those that fall into the categories you point out - more harshly than they deserve. Removing outliers in my data (or at least knowing where they were) would be a useful addition. As a start - what licensed games released by Melbourne developers on PC / Console would you consider to have been rated harshly? If there are one or two I'd be interested in taking a deeper look at the reviews overall to see if removing the outliers significantly changed the overall trend. Like I said during my talk though - everyone in the room will have their own reason for the overall downward trend. I don't want to draw conclusions on why because there isn't enough data to support a conclusion other than 'based on metacritic aggregate scores, games developed in Melbourne have trended downwards since 2000.' @Christian
I agree that metacritic isn’t the best source of data, but sadly it is all I have easy access to. Ideally, if metacritic had an api I could do some deeper data mining. It would be interesting to see overall trends across years, along with whether or not certain outlets rated some types of games – those that fall into the categories you point out – more harshly than they deserve. Removing outliers in my data (or at least knowing where they were) would be a useful addition.

As a start – what licensed games released by Melbourne developers on PC / Console would you consider to have been rated harshly? If there are one or two I’d be interested in taking a deeper look at the reviews overall to see if removing the outliers significantly changed the overall trend.

Like I said during my talk though – everyone in the room will have their own reason for the overall downward trend. I don’t want to draw conclusions on why because there isn’t enough data to support a conclusion other than ‘based on metacritic aggregate scores, games developed in Melbourne have trended downwards since 2000.’

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