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Director's Commentary: "Bad Graphics" (Patreon)

Published:
2020-04-04 08:12:19
Imported:
2022-02

Content

Oh boy. Come for the discussion, stay for the complete crisis of self-confidence at the end.

Files

Director's Commentary: "Bad Graphics"

zip zop zooey thanks for sticking with me through the uhhhh apocalypse

Comments

Anonymous

For what it's worth, I've found your video to be spot on. Sure, maybe you could have done it more effectively, but that will always be true no matter what. You did your best, and it's a hella thoughtful, entertaining essay. For me personally, it's exactly the kind of video I love to see from you: weird, bold, bringing together interesting ideas from different domains, and hopeful. *And* it has both the architecture talk and the Shadow of the Colossus talk. :) Can't wait for the next one.

Anonymous

Hey, I just listened to your director’s commentary. Before I begin, I have to say that this is the video that made me buckle up and throw in my support for you. There’s just something about this video that spoke directly to me. I’m turning 40 next year, and I’ve been playing video games for a very long time. I don’t say that to establish some kind of hollow cred, but to give context. Which is that I’ve been playing games for so long, I kind of pine for the days when what constituted the mainstream frontline of videogames used to be so crazy and wild. They could look like rotoscoped polygons, or vector renders and more commonly impressionistic renders of all kinds of things in pixel and polygon form. So when people talk about the visual development games in the parameters of technology – a linear progression from pixel art to photorealism – that’s only half the story. The other half is the broadening of the marketplace and escalating production values that has made games turn away from a once diverse aesthetic. What I took away from this video – other than a revelatory introduction to Cosmo D – is a conversation about our increasingly homogenized expectations of what video games and how this is presented as a general look deemed necessary to be worthy of merit. Just as movies seek hyperreal spectacle to attract a broad audience, the cutting edge lusts for the prestige of photorealism. It feeds into this notion that the games you mentioned, the games Sony is so keen on financing, are considered artistically valid because they look like what they look like. That for all my disinterest towards games like The Last of Us or my contempt for Detroit: Become Human, they’re given greater consideration as art and entertainment than something that looks rough, punk, impressionistic, abstract or ridiculous. So even though, like you, I love a pretty looking video game and obsess over graphics processing features – to the extent that I mess around with SweetFX and ReShade to “improve” them – I bemoan that the mainstream edge has lost that sense of visual heterogeneity and abandoned any interest in embracing anything else. That we’re going to be trapped in cinematic first-person / third-person cameras forcing us to admire god-rays and bokeh and the water reflections on the street. So I’m sad to hear about people getting hung up on Detroit: Become Human. That the question of whether it is a game of merit or not became such a huge stumbling block for their understanding of what the video is about. I got that the game warranted an explicit mention, a visual inclusion or both because you’re talking about the kinds of games that are the “face” of triple A gaming, and Detroit clearly counts among their number. But I don’t know if the video could be anymore effective – that is to say, perfect – in prefacing an invitation to discover what lies behind the hyperrealistic face of gaming with an adoration for the latter. I don’t know how it could be lost on anyone that the Spider-Verse example illustrates that this isn’t about valorizing indie cheapness over the mainstream. This comment is already practically an essay, but in any case, I’m commenting because my partner heard me react to this video, heard how incredibly sad I felt that the reception to the video could be such a wellspring of existential crisis, because to me this is a video that needs to be listened to. They told me I should leave a comment to let you know that I support you and that I loved this video and that kind of positive feedback is something you probably need. Hang in there, man. I know you make these videos not to make obvious points that have been kind of beaten to death in the broader discourse, and I think you’re really good at them. Take care. Peace, out.

Nestor Custodio

IMO, what you do has value because you do your research, you consider multiple viewpoints, you approach things with a critical eye, you account for context (cultural, temporal, political, etc), you communicate incredibly effectively, and (most importantly) you have *something interesting to say*. Anyone who disagrees with what you publish has either misunderstood something, is just plain missing the point, or has their own opinion on the matter and it happens to not coincide with yours. All three of these possible scenarios can and will happen from time to time, and that's fine. Don't let yourself get tripped up by criticism, and welcome to the internet.