I won't quote anything from the second blog post; all it did was cement in my mind that this is a person who wants to sell games, who thinks a fair amount about marketing and the financial reality of trying to sell games. The "Impossible Games Manifesto" is written from the perspective of a person halfway through the process of (1) rejecting market forces while still (2) wanting/hoping/expecting to benefit from engaging with the market...

and it shows.

QuoteDemand the Impossible

• If making impossible games is not possible, create a world where it is.

I don't know how to read this except as "If making the games you want to make is not profitable or valued, somehow figure out a way to change the world so that making the games you want to make is profitable or valued."

Why not just make the games you want to make? What's with this creating the world thing that has to come before making impossible games? We started with "Always let your desire to create and communicate fuel the rest of your decisions." & "Your ideas are more than whatever worth is being attached to them by a marketplace." but now the statement seems to be more like...

"Being allowed to express your desire to create and communicate is the end goal, but you can't do it yet, it's impossible under these conditions."

"Your ideas are actually worth exactly what is being attached to them by a marketplace, so change the marketplace first."

Quote

• Not having a job is not a personal flaw, it's a sign that bosses are having trouble finding ways to exploit your existence for profit.

"Not having a job is not a personal flaw" -- this is absolutely true and I agree with it 100%. But I think the following clause is kind of... linguistic trickery. Like a leading question, it comes pre-loaded with an assumption/bias, in this case that the relationship you have with money must be exploitative, combative, that the only way to have a job is to be exploitable and exploited, and that the only thing that a boss could possibly see in you is profit margins.

QuoteMake it impossible for others to ignore you.

There's no "right way of doing things", aside from the right way to maintain the status quo.

• Following the rules set out by those in power means confirming the notion that they have power over you to begin with.
• Seeking approval from the powerful, means destroying yourself.
• Rejecting their rules and their approval, also means rejecting the power they have over you.
• Never reject yourself, force others to engage with your work and do the rejection for you.

"Following the rules set out by those in power means confirming the notion that they have power over you to begin with."

This bullet point is in denial about a tautology which it sets out itself. "Those in power" literally describes those who have power. This is not a 'notion', it is the material truth. You can confirm or deny it all you want.

Also, "Make it impossible for others to ignore you" as a header kinda has nothing to do with the points underneath. I can see the connection but it's pretty thin. This is more like "Act as though it's impossible for others to ignore you even if they're ignoring you," which I think might actually be good advice, but it is definitely not the same as manifesting unignorableness. If/when this fails and you are ignored because you were just pretending you wouldn't be, then what? Do you "deny the notion that other people are ignoring you"?

QuoteMake Games that don't sell and sell them anyway:

• Always let your desire to create and communicate fuel the rest of your decisions.
• Don't let yourself be pushed into treating your own ideas as products to be sold and exploited by others.
• Your ideas are more than whatever worth is being attached to them by a marketplace.

I am on board with all of these bullet points, but why "sell them anyway"?

1. "Always let your desire to create and communicate fuel the rest of your decisions."

Therefore, Make games (regardless of whether they sell). But why sell them? Get me there, manifesto. What does selling my games do for my creation or communication?

2. "Don't let yourself be pushed into treating your own ideas as products to be sold and exploited by others."

Therefore, Don't sell them, actually?? I could arguably parse this as "it's OK to treat your own ideas as products to be sold and exploited by you" but that really does not seem in the vibe of the manifesto.

3. "Your ideas are more than whatever worth is being attached to them by a marketplace."

So you either sell your game and see the worth that the marketplace attaches to your ideas, or you don't sell your game and don't see the worth. I can see an argument that there's value in seeing the marketplace attach worth to your ideas so that you can actively reject that valuation, but this is not an argument that's being made here well, or at all.

My argument: this uh capitalism counterculture is fuelled by the fantasy (utter fabrication) that completely rejecting money and all good money-making strategies will somehow, in the end, be rewarded with money. Or it 'should' be and therefore we 'should' act as though doing this is a good idea, financially speaking.

I'd like to start out by saying my takes on these two posts will be primarily negative, but it's not meant to be directed at these posts, specifically. I've heard similar things written in these posts in other places, and I read these posts at just the right time for my feelings to finally crystallize! With that said, let's embark on a journey.

Rara Racer, increpare

The game is about how it's a game about a fictional game.

I read this novel as a kid, and I remember being fascinated by the weird little adventure game that Ender plays -- not the wargame likely referenced by the title.

Mike Meginnis has written a couple of fictional videogame stories. I like them both a lot.

• Angband, or His 55 Desires
• Navigators

A short story from China Miéville's Three Moments of an Explosion

This novel is about the protagonist's search for an arcade game which he played before as a child, Lucky Wander Boy. He -- the character -- writes about the game and the experience of playing it, while also writing about his experiences with other real games.

Quote from: p447-448It felt like the right decision at the time but you know, you wonder. What might have happened next?

That's what I started working on, even though it was unplanned. I wasn't working, at all, for a while there and I didn't know what I wanted to do, I didn't know what I wanted at all so I kept thinking about what is it that I want and kept coming back to telling stories in game form. I got to thinking all of this might be a halfway decent game if it were a game. Part spy movie, part fairy tale, part choose your own adventure. Epic branching story that doesn't stick to a single genre or one set path and turns into different stories but it's all the same story. I'm trying to play with the things you can do in a game that you can't do in a book. Trying to capture more story. A book is made of paper but a story is a tree.

You meet someone in a bar. You follow them or you don't.

You open a door. Or you don't.

Either way the point is: What happens next?

It's taking an absurd amount of notebooks full of possibilities but it's getting somewhere.