Fuckin' Nerd

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jeffrubinjeffrubin:

I recently wrote about Braid, a new Xbox release that really redefines what a videogame is capable of doing. It’s almost like a Watchmen for videogames in the way it exploits the unique advantages of the medium and intentionally shatters cliches. I would make a dorkier comparison, but I fear it would crash my website.

I loved Braid, but sometimes it got a little artsy-fartsy for my tastes. To give you an idea what we’re dealing with, here’s an excerpt from a fun-to-read but difficult-to-process AV Club Interview with Braid designer Jonathan Blow:

JB: …. But it’s personal in a different way, I guess is what I’m getting at there. It’s important enough to me that I spent three and a half years of my life trying to express it.

AVC: Is it about the idea of traveling in time, or the idea of traveling in these spaces?

JB: Well, both of those things. Whether you’re traveling in a space or traveling through time – one of the worlds in Braid is intentionally about conflating those two things. Traveling through space is traveling through time in World 4. And the reason is, it brings to light again some of these existential questions that really bother some people who are up on the latest physics and things, that don’t seem to bother the kind of people who are doing the literary bullshit, again.

A lot of people still aren’t aware that some videogames are being designed at this level. There will always be plenty of wisecracking animals saving princesses and large dudes with larger guns, but take note society! The medium is rapidly maturing.

Reblogged from JeffRubinJeffRubin.com.