The Pretentious Gamer

image source – FFFFOUND

Look! Free t-shirt!
…

Guys, you’re really not selling me here.

I found this video (posted after the jump) amusing – using a gaming icon to illustrate trends covering a few different topics. Also Ratatat as soundtrack!

Commenter response to the video on Kotaku seems to communicate disdain, ambivalence, or utter bafflement. The struggle seems to be with either the lack of a powerful message or the strangeness of familiar game elements used out of context. It is what it is … only using a somewhat unorthodox medium for the subject matter.

Certainly by this point, Mario and other gaming icons have adequately penetrated the cultural/societal lexicon to be used effectively to communicate an out of context message. Will framing real life issues within the vocabulary of interactive entertainment become more widespread with technological accessibility and increased (possibly) cultural relevance? This also has plenty of implications for the serious games movement.

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After writing on twisted, distorted body imagery in Japan’s Real Kanojo, I see this stunning image, also titled, without any context, “Real Konojo”…

Found here.

From Blade Diary.

An Almost Ephemeral Autumn – an installation in Madrid. (via DesignBoom)

TGC‘s Flower, anyone?

Hello from Tokyo and TGS.

Just a quick post to thank the editors at Gamasutra for selecting two blog entries of mine as their favorite user posts of the week. It was quite a surprise as I just began reposting some entries on my Gamasutra user page and certainly didn’t expect any recognition. Gamasutra editors, thanks again – and also thanks to all the users who commented as well.

Since coming back to work, I can see how much energy it takes to maintain a regular posting rhythm – even compared to my sporadic posting on sabbatical. When I commented about a topic that I felt he should write about, Justin said in so many words that when he spends the majority of his workday writing game documents, coming home and writing MORE about games seems like a tall order. The truth of that statement notwithstanding, we’ll do our best to continue to try to improve the quality and consistency of content here.

Now on to empty my wallet!

…Though perhaps not for usability.

via Kotaku.

via reddit.

…and there are games to write about. My personal ivory tower of unwarranted self-importance awaits.