# a lament for the videogarme critic > whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing obey it - and delete it before sending your manuscript to the press > ~ sir arthur quiller-couch (writer 1863-1944) a lament for the historical figure of the vidyagarm critic as personified in cool borgean fashion by bruno de figueiredo - told here in the matter of someone getting a random ludic ear-bending by an increasingly odd and annoying pub stranger > in its stirring and auspicious youth electronic garmes formed an enduring bond with the domains of literature sorry do what mate > this tolerant coalition between technology and the grasp of the written word was certainly not fortuitous as it did reflect the logical progression of computer science at the same time it evidenced how earlier developers the ingenious harbingers of the digital advent still nurtured and preserved reading habits in addition to a bashful form of reverence for both prose and poetry 'ingenious harbingers of the digital event'? *looks around* > whereas present day productions and ir dominant standards seem to borrow a fair share of stylistic canons and speech figures from the great paragons of blockbuster cinema and television ostensibly some of the most pervasive forms of entertainment there was a time during which the dearth of accessible memory and processing power enabled the usage of a far vaster vocabulary sounds like someone wants to be seen as having swallowed a dictionary or two! > the adoption of text once the resilient backbone of many a favored genre now insulated from the videoludic province was for all intents and purposes the sole resource to which pioneering coders could appeal as soon as they fathomed the extended profundity ir programs could embody when incorporating discourse or narrative to coat the kernel of recreational interactions *thinks* what a fantastic sentence - direct from the videoludic province no doubt > deplorably disregarded at present the lingering struggle to interleave text into such primitive systems - in truth the first great step towards a meaningful form of intellectual and aesthetic autonomy in digital garmes - freed the nascent technological phenomenon from the tightly locked shackles of numerical calculation *thinks* why do i feel like someone who originally came in for a quiet beer but is now forced to listen to some nearby punter intent on sharing ir nascent thoughts and shackled calculations? > contrary to common opinion the amplitude of functions performed by present-day (personal) computers was by no means evident to the visionary minds of leading specialists in the field as it existed decades ago er yeah no doubt > logically if not ironically each and every contribution made throughout the twentieth century that facilitated the onset of the video garme industry finds its origins in side activities and experimentations conducted by curious engineers as amusing diversions or off-duty pastimes that does all seem very logical > even among these embryonic examples and despite ir patent simplicity by today's standards we find revealing landmarks whose creators were openly galvanized by a root literary culture namely classics from the sci-fi shelf: steve russell's epoch-making spacewar! dating from as early as 1962 was admittedly inspired by ee smith's lensman series for which ey had great fondness; or the very first great japanese coin-operated sensation from 1978 nishikado's space invaders derived from the basic premise behind hg wells' seminal the war of the worlds what it must be to openly galvanized by a root literary culture > novels as is easily demonstrable stood firmly among the most fundamental references for this generation of foolhardy torchbearers fundamentally foolhardly references needing torching indeed > in retrospective east and west differed in ir efforts to recreate literature in an environment at once interactive and discernibly ludic oh of course > given the fabled console market recession of the early nineteen-eighties a sizable faction from within a partly derided audience turned to personal computers as the choice platform with which to jump aboard the high-tech convoy yeah didn't michael knight once do that > north-american and european markets were promptly flooded with text adventure floppies long before the interactive fiction classification was adopted *thinks* feels like my left ear is being flooded with floppiness > in stark contrast with the previous generation of consoles the standard of computer hardware setups permitted garme creators to piece software together without difficulties despite a transient exertion to ensure ir distribution i feel a transient exertion coming on myself mush > shortly after the prolific genre of graphic adventure sprang to life refining the vital essence of text-based fiction its spatial navigation mechanics and adorning the screen with illustrations or even animated graphics in some instances i love refining my vital essence too > a fistful from the greatest successes of this period consisted of digital adaptations of popular novels both of which garnered the fondness of players who envisioned computer garmes as a process where entertainment and learning coexisted in equivalence isn't "coexisting in equivalence" a paul and mccartney number? > nonetheless the most relevant contributions to the expanding genre came from titles featuring original written contents which in sporadic cases were known to match and indeed surpass the worth of common paperback fiction *thinks* ..unlike that sentence enthralled by the hollowness of a darkened screen dimly lit by paragraphs of green orange or white informatics enthusiasts who delved into the sensational new world of text adventures - as those penned by moriarty or meretzky - might have envisioned ir treasured pastime would live to see a brighter morrow *sings* oh/ to see a brighter morrow/ where sweet the dim text sang > an outdated tradition of imprinting each output of text with an expressive value capable of redeeming the paucities of visual and aural expressiveness can still be found today surprisingly intact if at times overly revivalist as a recurrent and indeed dominant concern in the occasional point and click adventure my doctor said i have to redeem my paucity > furthermore the text adventure genre lives on - arguably no single digital entertainment genre has ever died out entirely in great part due to the tenacity of underground cult followers and retro trends - and has produced some of its brightest specimens during its recent years 'underground cult followers' - you mean some fat neckbeard called geoff who never washes ir dwarf fortress t-shirt (geoff having just heard ir name spoken turns around) > in the interim various authors and researchers have nurtured the ambition to permanently divorce if software from its most common understanding as a sub-adventure garme genre using the few examples of exceptionable electronic literature they can find as the validating flagship of ir crusade the doubtless self-validating flagship of this particular fictional crusade has a large gaping hole in the side > in an nearly conclusive inquiry conducted earlier this year professor yra van dijk has noted that this community made consistent efforts to raise its profile at the beginning of the nineteen nineties instigating a debate meant to determine whether ir pursuit should be considered a new form of literature one wonders if such ludic misadventures also constitute a new form > soon after they adds such concerns dissipated as the collective developed a greater curiosity for its hierarchic structure the rewarding of technical prowess and the exchange of software code abandoning what artistic or poetic proclivities had been manifested afore afore me hearties! > across the pacific a notably different scenario took shape *thinks* it's your mother calling you back for tea (its beans and chips again - your fave!) > the japanese case is one where literary references - even the style of prose and poetry - differ dramatically from those commonly adopted in north-american and european adventures hmm > in lieu of medieval lore or futurist dystopias sporadically employed nonetheless eastern text adventures - at least those likely to be considered as groundbreaking or at the very least worthy of note - have been known to address contemporary social concerns with mildly credible characters and a gist not all dissimilar from that mundane manga genre known as slice of life; often times sharing a marked penchant for the occult and the mystical in which case the believability of personages becomes fiercely contaminated the believabily of this strongly incredible passage also seems sporadically contaminated > a plethora of varieties surfaced ir idealized portrayal of the quotidian becoming the object of increasing temptation among a youthful society lost between traditional enlightenment and an inescapable technological revolution they simultaneously commandeered and stood witness to oh yeah of course that was what i was saying to my mate geoff only last week i said to ir i said "geoff your idealized portrayal of the quotidian is fast becoming the object of increasing temptation among a youthful society" and ey said "yeah i know - it's because they feel increasingly lost between traditional enlightenment and an inescapable technological revolution" - and then we ate some more chips > the visual novel genre alone not accounting for the incalculable amount of bestselling adult and teenage dating simulations created as per an archaic albeit highly marketable formula is proportionately vaster in size and more sought after than if ever was in the us market; although similarly monopolized by a handful of companies specialized in these text-driven narratives riiight > where if relies upon text input habitually facilitating complex human-computer interactions such as language recognition the interface of the bijuaru noberu tailored to the convenience of a control-pad is artfully simplified and minimized with the incorporation of multiple choice menus; a mere button required to leaf through textual content > i got your bijuaru noberu interface right here > and while a handful of inquiries have been conducted in an attempt to measure the impact of manga and anime on japanese society the depth of the repercussions that these highly popularized forms of digitally-enhanced and word-based entertainment have obtained through the years remains very much untouched i concur with the digitally enhanced impactful depth of your word based entertainment > an intriguing indicator of the rampant and continued approval of the genre as well as its sway in that society was unexpectedly brought to light by a 2006 survey conducted by the japanese magazine famitsu in which the 1998 chunsoft title machi - a respectable paradigm of the aforementioned quotidian-based fiction - ranked fifth on the list of reader's all-time choices cool story bruv > parenthetically it would be advantageous to determine with greater detail how japanese video garme writing has been dramatically conditioned by the discrepancy between storage media input mechanisms and the magnitude of ir imported vocabulary since it is undeniable that this once inescapable drawback continues to exert a rather tangible pressure on current garme production no doubt indeed > the case of manga is seemingly illustrative of this not unlike western comics in regards to the space allotted for words and how the governing precept almost always prizes visual flair over extended dialog - and this in a format commonly denominated as book its previous magazine designation for the most part extinct prizing extended dialogue over the space normally allotted for good writing might also be extinct > the brevity of writing or even its complete absence gave birth to an undersized lexis of recurrent terms and expressions distinctively incubated in snug frothy white speech bubbles no comment > it can be argued that the very surfacing of the comic magazine phenomenon represents a first great advancement towards an age of images and icons as opposed to a cultural establishment which prized the intricate architecture of speech formulation and writing uh-huh > equally the early systems' incapacity to store a broader amplitude of kanji characters paired with the notion that garmes were under a theoretical obligation of being inclusive and therefore impeded to use advanced vocabulary not yet within the reach of younger audiences propelled eastern garmes to develop a singular terminology of a comparatively narrow diversity please go on > even though past restrictions have been entirely lifted for several years the consensual lexicon was seldom expanded or improved on which could account for the identified accessibility of japanese garmes - even the very latest - to those trained in the initial and intermediate levels of that language sorry say that again mate i was just er > even though past restrictions have been entirely lifted for several years the consensual lexicon was seldom expanded or improved on which could account for the identified accessibility of japanese garmes - even the very latest - to those trained in the initial and intermediate levels of that language oh right yeah > to a great extent the evolution of graphics processing as well as the expansion of available memory signaled the end of an era in which screen text was regarded as an esteemed resource soon to be replaced with voice-over narration full-motion video sequences and eventually the inception of an age of widely unpersuasive vactors i've met a few widely unpersuasive vactors in my time > with the exception of a few particularly loquacious varieties that have remained indifferent to this tendency shift most of which involving role playing or scrupulous pixel hunting vidyagarmz have come to rely less and less on scrolling words in order to contextualize ir characters and settings therefore contradicting older and now obsolete practices dating from an era during which real-time visuals were lacked pictorial eloquence and perspicuity that's what my mate geoff is always telling me - "your real time visuals are lacking in pictorial eloquence mate" > assuredly the process of adaptation to a new technological reality did not only revolutionize the manner in which garmes have been conceived or beforehand envisioned as it did instigate drastic changes to the manner how digital garmes are played and understood i'm having trouble adapting to this new technological reality myself > perhaps it was foreseeable and in many regards imperative that garmes would eventually acquire a defining audiovisual identity if only to spare players from the laborious task of perusing innumerable pages in a non reading-friendly environment *think* if only i was spared from perusing these innumerable pages myself > the recent e-book phenomenon boasting e-ink as its ex-libris can be interpreted as a tacit confirmation that previous screen technology be it crt or lcd-based was decidedly unsuitable for extended periods of reading boasting ownership of words unsuitable for extended periods indeed > on cause of an incomprehensible affinity for interfaces the presence of text in garmes was in many instances condensed to its use in the context of menus gauges and other measuring indicators of purely instructional value; and even that which served - and serves still - purposes closely related with storytelling continues to be employed with an unmistakably utilitarian intent functioning merely as a makeshift brace or hinge holding together the accentuated disparity of its contents and workings under the most implausible of pretenses 'implausible pretence' eh > narrowly it can be hypothesized that the quality of the writing in itself proves to be far more decisive than the method or medium used to deliver it *thinks* o_0 > per contra it seems fairly inconsequent to extend or expand on the dialectic reflecting upon whether or not video garmes from a cultural standpoint alone have benefited from the reduction of on-screen text in light of significant hardware advancements; or if in some alternative version of events they could have generated an altogether different influence over players instead of priding on ir irresistible mass appeal someone else needs a little dialectical reflection > for what it's worth story-driven titles of moderate production values upward still require at the very least the presence of a in-house or delegated writer who may compose or correct a written piece akin to a screenplay or teleplay: one including scene descriptions character dialog or needless to say the multiplicity of choices and ir outcomes in the case of branching stories *mumbles to self* if only i had the choice to sip this overpriced warm beer in quiet > independent designers in ir turn devise alternate strategies which may counterbalance the sparseness of resources and manpower as they're known to singlehandedly execute the tasks which in studio environment are otherwise attributed to many hmm > what this presumptuous attitude of personifying the renaissance-like ideal of wholeness lacks in contributive worth it appears to accumulate in cachet among indie fun-loving garmers *thinks* your entire monologue in a single sentence > at the bosom of an industry of incalculable worth and revenue-generating potential organized or individualized to the extreme the manifestation of the primeval craft is by no means dead though it has slept - and sleeps still it most certainly does feel difficult to remain awake in this particular bosom mate > while the act of writing still represents a very sizable portion of both conceptualization and development the disinclination of the old muses to inspire its dramatists may very well be at the root of why this industry remains desperate to be taken seriously i'm personally disinclined to be anything less then desperate to take this sizeable portion of writing-act seriously myself > it would appear as if by distancing itself from pure forms of literature and moving towards writing formats closely associated with hollywood film making garmes have likewise made ir truest priorities clear and unequivocal clear and unequivocal indeed > granted the bulk of literary references in the field throughout the eighties and nineties was found in sub genres such as science fiction or high-fantasy; nevertheless they come as rather defensible and elevating when stacked up against vidyagarmz' recurrent piffle so visible a byproduct of box office hits animated serials or primetime television 'granted'? talk about back-handed complements > writers as would be a valid claim in respect to visual artists or composers lending ir talents to this agency are not necessarily the only blamable party come again mate > the veritable breadth of this subject spreads out as far as the entire history of the twentieth century particularly the (re)birth of the consumer-aimed industry which followed the primacy of prior war efforts > "oi geoff!" sorry just talking to my mate geoff - "geoff get us some snv peanuts would you.." > in tandem with the development of new disciplines in psychology and as the face of commerce was progressively transfigured into an ever more engaging visage the confluence of all contents towards the individual were decisive in introducing pristine notions of wasteful hedonism and gaudy competitiveness - drawing vital strength from an unending clash of inflated egos - which did trickle-down from a corporate establishment into a society perpetually seeking the convenience and positive reinforcement of ineffective novelties *just stares at ir* > the vidyagarm industry reveling in its mountainous takings succumbed quite naturally to the doctrines of the very age it came to crown *sips pint slowly* > should the long awaited blueprint for the video garme counterpart of welles' earliest stroke of genius ever descend from the heights of parnassus as if by divine intervention it would failed to be greeted by a garme production structure of sufficient ambivalence flexibility and what is worse maturity for it to be aptly assimilated into a coherent end result *to nobody in particular* i'm waiting for a coherent start and middle myself > for a brief period of time computer garme luminaries felt challenged by the prospect of offering an upgraded complement of garmebooks devising systems and strategies that underlined the functional boundaries of printed materials *slight sigh like an unwell wood pigeon* > with the rapid expansion of informatics this postulated enhancement was soon enabled at the same time as a great new objective arose: to surpass the excitement derived from reading a book the pledge of interactivity being hinted at as the immediate step forth in artistic endeavours of all types *mumbles to self* i've give you postulated enhancement > it too proved to be a force too formidable to be handled by tenderfoot engineers who regardless of ir aptitude and dauntless command of compiling tools were but mere laymen at odds with the expansive reach of these newfound prospects whose precedent could not be found *continues sipping pint > time and again this encumbrance persuaded creators to shy away from the authentic challenges implied by a more skilled harnessing of the medium's essence 'time and again this encumbrance' indeed > as audiences fell deeper into the stupor of kitschy mass culture this connotation of linearity as the epitome of progress acquired a comprehensible eminence as a watchword for the impending millennium i think i fell into it about half an hour ago > the bulgarian garmebook golden age lasting for the best part of the nineteen nineties decade was one among the many symptoms exposed by a formerly communist society slowly initiated in the ways of parliamentary democracy tell you what - you're lucky i don't have a large bulgarian garmebook handy > while the interest for literature was by no means discouraged in the years leading to the collapse of the iron wall eastern-bloc nations were immensely skeptical of all neoteric forms of western entertainment namely those intimately based on offering the consumer the privilege of willful selection wilful privilege indeed > contrariwise societies for and by democracy and ir increasingly consumerist populations grew accustomed to them reliant even on this continual yearning to define personality by means of choices what a masterful use of commas > it fails to astonish then that in this century of darwinian determinism even literature and storytelling were granted little choice other than to survive by forceful adaptation to a prevailing forma mentis as much shaped by politics and economy as all any other attributes of a society surviving forceful adaption to this 'form of mind' is proving quite a task > the term linearity acquired vast notoriety in the context of vidyagarm critique as the target of regular derision what about "the term 'vidyagarm critique' soon acquired vast notoriety in the context of literature as a target of much needed derision" > the fascination for choice intensified during the last decades - or in the industry's own perception of a chronology the last hardware generations - led to a unique handling of this notion as if it signified quiescence or submission; as opposed to the view that interactivity presupposes freedom or an expression of free will quiescence or submission to this particular expression is not an option > because the field is distinctively centered on dynamic systems it therefore relies on users' continued response to given instructions as its sole driving force; without which it suits no purpose other than a potential one *sips beer* > it could be argued at this juncture that the notion of freedom - be it creative or intellectual or merely the liberty of action - is altogether inapplicable to the conditioning context of garmes organic as they may deceptively seem *looks out window - sees a pigon taking a large dump on a shiny new bmw - wishes for a second ey was the bird* > for the longest time the predominant aspiration turned to the achievement an untapped sense of wholeness as an entertainment medium as the motion picture average has been reached and indeed giving credence to purported connoisseurs and theorists alike generously surpassed by the singular attributes of social garming > do you sometimes climb tall towers in italy to play a violin > common standards overly sterile to begin with grew poorer by the decade the seams of its irregular amalgam noticeable from a distance the sterile seams of your amalgam are showing mate > besides from a cultural perspective the field of garmes is pitifully ill equipped the vulgarity of its own references starving for sufficient erudition and artistic elan to even entertain hopes of achieving a higher and all encompassing form of existence oh just jog on mate > the march of progress is relentless as it is tactless what blind man mounting a blind horse nearing the edge of a precipice if you jumped off you could hear me slow clap all the way down > in sum the matter at hand appears to transcend the nevertheless important quality of writing or the acceptance of a more sophisticated epitome in that regard for which there exist some very engaging yet not necessarily successful exceptions even in recent years; conversely no medium can earnestly expect to be correctly represented by its periodic unorthodoxies the periods of your sophisticated epitome itself seem earnest exceptions > it is however the generalized lack of any literary references of any kind which does account for the appallingly poor contents and narrow thematic exploration which are so familiar to virtual environments at least for those who are committed to observing them with other lenses than those of permanent infatuation with reworked technologies trendy pocket contrivances or slight additions to dust-coated devices 'trendy pocket contrivances' - bet your girlfriend's said something similar > bearing in mind all the different forms of lucrative mass-entertainment garmes are most assuredly the one displaying greater aversion to culture often concealing this unsurprising hollowness beneath layers of distracting elements and unreserved technical prowess *eats a handful of snv peanuts* > borrowing a page from the tawdriest of silver screen blockbusters the producer's task appears to rise above all other concerns as designers and creative directors lean towards a passive and subservient posture; only to later inhabit the roles of contemporary artists philosophers and innovators before the inquisitiveness of the anaesthetizing dedicated media anaesthetizing indeed > others make a habit of preaching a similarly unending and self-aggrandizing oratory directed at the ever-increasing number of spectators attending the industry's countless tradeshows and symposiums an unending and self-aggrandizing oratory absolutely > furthermore the patent difficulty to reconcile culture with modern entertainment mechanisms makes it all the more impossible for a common ground to be located *pfffff* > the very worth of literature has been severely dented during the last century subject to mass market demands which continue to destitute it from much virtue balls more like > and once this impediment is identified it can be inferred that the field provides a powerful disincentive from literature sooner than it invite players to complement ir recreation with a learning activity since the majority of video garmes unlike literature - no matter how blemished by an age of industry and commerce - have promptly relinquished the responsibility to educate to sensitize or to ultimately expand the player's intellectual horizons beyond the immediacy and vapidity of the brainteasers and puzzles they ordinarily endow *gets up belches slowly pours last dregs of beer over orator's head and leaves* // republic of bob