I still haven’t seen Angel’s Egg, the 1985 movie by Yoshitaka Amano (who I mostly know from his Final Fantasy work) and Mamoru Oshii – but with the 4K re-release around the corner, I’m holding out a little longer. In the meantime, I just keep watching this clip on repeat...
Beautiful, haunting stuff.
We live in the golden age of enthusiast media! For proof, just look at this beautiful book from publisher Tune & Fairweather on the mythology of Elden Ring!
I am replaying this game at the moment, mainly to finally get to the DLC, and this just keeps on confirming that this is one of the finest games ever made. And if you dipped just a toe into the deep water that are VaatiVidya lore videos, you know how fascinating the mythology of that game can be.
So, yeah, I’m pre-ordering.
This is a meta post about the newsletter – sorry!
So far, I’ve shared a few photos on the blog (still very much a hack-ish work in progress), but I haven’t sent them out via the email newsletter. I’m wondering if I should change that.
It feels like a good step toward getting all my social stuff in one place, but I can imagine it might get a little annoying for some (even though it probably wouldn’t happen more than two or three times a week).
What do you think? Hit reply and let me know!
Reading this article by Christopher Butler had me nodding along the whole time.
Our world treats information like it’s always good. More data, more content, more inputs — we want it all without thinking twice. To say that the last twenty-five years of culture have centered around info-maximalism wouldn’t be an exaggeration. (…) When every moment is filled with new inputs, we can’t fully absorb, process, and reflect upon what we’ve consumed. Reflection, not consumptions, creates wisdom. Reflection requires quiet, isolation, and inactivity.
This is a sentiment I’ve seen echoed by a lot of people lately – and something I feel deeply myself. What started as a drizzle in the early days of the web, a chance to explore different viewpoints, get fresh ideas, or learn new things, has turned into an unrelenting tsunami. One that sweeps our attention away as it rushes endlessly through our minds.
Everything that made the web exciting is still possible, sure – but now it takes effort and discipline not to get swept up in yet another algorithmic feed, carefully crafted to keep us “engaged”. Making us angry, anxious, or afraid we’re missing out are great shortcuts for the platforms to get more “daily active users,” but they do little to nurture what Butler calls “wisdom.”
The chance to gain even a little bit of that wisdom is something I hope for myself – and for my kids. To see past the constant rush of the now, and learn to apply our attention intentionally.
If our attention is our currency, then leverage will come with the capacity to not pay it. To not look, to not listen, to not react, to not share.
Something to remember.
One benefit of video games is that they let you pretend to do something else for a living – or even live a completely different life. That’s been a driving force behind a lot of long-standing trends, especially in the sim and cozy game genres. If your day job is stressful and hectic, why not unwind in your simpler, virtual job? Feed the cows at your farm. Meticulously clean really dirty objects. Serve up some coffee.
As time goes on, all genres undergo an evolution. I think it goes something like this: From their purest initial expression, to iterative complexity, then to subversive reinterpretation, and ultimately to reclaiming the original intent in a more modern form.
A recent game announcement – Neverway – made me think about this genre evolution: A life sim game with farming, coffee shop talk and all, but in a horror setting.
First off all: this looks cool! And with music from Disasterpeace, no less (I’ve been a fan ever since FEZ)! This one’s definitely on my radar.
But it is also interesting from the genre evolution perspective. Horror, in a game like this? Not so cozy anymore. It will be fascinating to see what it has to say about aspects of the genre that might already be a horror-inducing: the mundanity, the repetition, the pre-scripted relationships. Or if it is simply window dressing: A new look for old ideas.