The Escapist is an online magazine, which according to their visitor’s page
“is dedicated to providing readers with the highest quality journalism covering interactive media, games, and the culture behind them.”
Five days a week it froths, covering internet-related news with opinion columns, video editorials, and irreverent reviews & humor.
Examining their layout, their offerings to the ten-second-website-viewer are: news in their industry (at the time of writing, condemnation for the SOPA act, with some coverage of the major developments in Video games), columns and videos from their employees, and advertisements for their sponsors. With bonus content available for personal information or credit card subscriptions, the joy of commercialism is in the layout, indeed!
Their perspective is Empiric while also subversive. A sum of parts, individual authors present conformative pieces with others present in apocalyptic style. The editorials tend to take a taciturn tone, such as
The Tao of Leveling, a pseudodeep attempt to tie spiritual principles to life pursuits (don’t forget how faithfully reading the Escapist can only help you level up!) The language-tied-to-gaming in the article is vague-as-theology, with no prescribed objective. However, an understanding of the medium presented (specific: the Role-Playing-Game) must be acquired to understand it in full.
Contrasting, anything
Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw does. His take
on Role-Playing-Games is more a flaying of them. Someone who sits in the video-game corner of the site and dissects anything served to him, his appeal for content in the face of postmodern game design is phrased
“Surely every game is a "simulation" of something, whether it be flying a World War 2 fighter plane or finely slicing the buttocks of minotaurs.”
Take that, Nihilism!
With regards to the Kingdom, The Escapist is a magazine. It exists to create and distribute content with a profit motive. As a community, it may attract individuals beyond the pale of the consumerist fold. It can serve as a sanctuary or an effigy-burning ground. It’s not the best example. I find satire in the system a sign of the roots of Apocalypse. Something could grow.
1: Churches often demonize publications for not fostering “the Kingdom”. What role can the media-distribution system play in the Christian narrative? What roles does it play already?
2: What is the Apocalyptic aspect to Escapism? Where can we find, ironically, a non-escapist aspect to it?
Interesting artifact choice, Sam! As with all media outlets, The Escapist is cultivating a point of view on its subject. It might be interesting to tack on the question "unto what?" on the end of the mission statement you quoted. Why is The Escapist in the business of reporting on gaming? Is it simply to keep people purchasing more interactive media? Or is it to highlight the unique corner of culture making activity in the gaming world?
ReplyDeleteNice work identifying the good work of some of the writers on The Escapist. It's always helpful to find trusted advisers when sorting through all of the information/advertisements/ideas flying our way!
I like Yahtzee's video reviews, mostly to marvel at how fast he can talk. But he doesn't seem to enjoy much of anything. I guess he's slightly apocalyptic because he doesn't accept popular opinion as his own. However, one thing he does like is a good story.
ReplyDeleteAs we learned in class the other day, escaping to another world can often make us more aware of the problems with our own world. But, escapism isn't always like this. For example, the escapism I sometimes take part in by playing online shooters. Walking around shooting imaginary people is essentially mindless. In some forms of escapism we become more aware and in others we turn our brain off.
Interesting comment, Kyle. Gaming isn't a world that I'm too familiar with. How do we know the difference between harmless escapism and gaming that forms us in negative ways? I'm thinking about the military using games to train soldiers to kill real people. Does our motive for engaging in the game help determine how it shapes us in the end?
ReplyDeleteThere has been huge controversy over whether or not violence in video games makes people more violent, especially during the aftermath of the Columbine shootings. But there's really no observable evidence of the effect of virtual violence. Perhaps it effects different people in different ways. But maybe the overwhelming amount of violence in games does suggest the idea that violence is inevitable or second-nature to us. Video games need to be discerned just like any other medium. We should be aware of the negative messages attached to games.
ReplyDeleteBut, video games can create community just like board games or sports. And some video games with deep stories could be thought of as apocalyptic (Bioshock for example). And even the most violent war games can have little packages of redemptive qualities scattered within their stories.
Sam and Kyle, I wonder if either (or both) of you would be interested in the video game stuff that the SAO is doing on campus (if you haven't connected already). Here's a link: http://www.calvin.edu/sao/projects/video-game-enclave.html
ReplyDelete