This morning, while I lay in bed, I thought about connecting with people and in particular spending more time listening to and trying to help people, to give them what I already know they will appreciate rather than predict what people don't know they want. I am planning to run Masks for a few friends, and so much of GMing a TTRPG is about paying attention to the players. Giving attention. It feels good to give attention, and I find it quite easy to forget that. The 'like' button only works because people choose to give.

Art can make the artist feel seen, but it can also make the person appreciating the art feel seen. By nature, Attention-Seeking Technology's secret flipside may be Attention-Giving Technology.

Quote from: Look at me, Leo Benedictus[RE: mass shootings]
The truth is that if you want the world's attention badly enough, you can have it tomorrow.

Last night when I wrote this I was thinking about how much technology we have available to us which is capable of amplifying the amount of attention we can get. The gun onebuttonized death; the screen onebuttonized attention.

See how the television, bright-screened and noisy and containing multitudes of simulacra of life, is a device which at the press of a button one person can use to attract the attention of many, bind it within a shared magic circle. Attention seeking isn't all bad, necessarily.

"Attention seeking behavior is to act in a way that is likely to elicit attention."

The article 'Look at me' summarizes several expert opinions into the basic idea that "people have been shown to need [..] attention that is positive and accurate." In this case I'd like to emphasize need. It's absolutely crucial.

brittanica.com describes technology as "the application of scientific knowledge to the practical aims of human life," and in this case I'm identifying technology which is applied to the practical aim of acquiring attention that is positive and accurate, or as 'Look at me' calls it, 'belonging'.

I think I've finished with the article, but I found it while thinking about 'attention technology'. I googled everyone wants attention and the article was the first result.

My own secret notes are mirrored in this quote:

QuoteThe truth is that if you want the world's attention badly enough, you can have it tomorrow.

Quote"'If only in real life we had a backspace button.' But no. Once you say something, it's out there. You don't get that kind of control." Until recently, in other words, most of us were simply too socially clumsy to avoid being ourselves.

Until recently, most of us were too socially clumsy to avoid being ourselves.

I have heard warnings about technology displacing human workers. The above idea suggests technology is similarly capable of displacing "being ourselves." What is the downside of that? I hope this article goes further towards answering my question.

QuoteLonely people lack attention that is positive and accurate, in short.

We walked along College on Saturday night -- after midnight -- and saw so many people doing so many things. This kind of living nightlife reminded me that such cultural phenomena occur, and I missed it: escaping loud places with friends to get a bite to eat at 2AM when none of us should have been awake but we were anyway.

when i resume i will fill in the gaps chronologically! i thought i was ready but Timestepped Gamefeel is next and it's only the fourth post EVER so i'm feeling particularly daunted by the task that lies ahead.

dear future droqen: resume @ Timestepped Gamefeel, and remember to have fun!

There's too much!!! I'm going to stop this incessant quoting, but the problem is that everything is leaping out at me! I want to remember all of it!

Responsible childs and lazy adults

Quote from: MerI remember watching Beyblade anime when I was 11. I'd have killed for a proper Beyblade, but they hadn't arrived in my country yet, so I had to content myself with other, less-cooler tops. It didn't matter, I'd spin those things everywhere, creating my own circuits and challenges. A year later, I could finally get some true Beyblades. And... I couldn't play like that anymore. There is a point in your life when lifting a toy-plane and playing pretend just stops being fun, but we don't realize it when it happens.

[..]

Maybe as adults we need... validation? Feeling useful? Is this also capitalism's fault?

Recognizing Play

Oh no. This is only September, and I've just noticed how it is a response to several posts which haven't been touched yet - looks like I have a lot more to reflect upon.

On life, games, and everything else (42)

Quote from: MerThe world is not deep. We decide voluntarily to look at it in that way. We decide to give importance to some things and others not, and those we don't know about, is like they don't exist. We invent meanings, goals, interests, reasons [..]

learning is a way of caring.

[..] I keep on dancing to the same tunes and playing a few games repeatedly. Because they GAMEFEEL good. There's no exploration, just plain visceral pleasure. And that's amazing.

[..] you can also be bored by all those things, regardless of their depth. Maybe it's not about running out of things to explore, but of running out of love.

What (or Who) is responsible for the Resolution Problem?

Quote from: JackI think we can give this same amount of care to an individual game.

Quote from: Jackthe piano was designed with a very deep resolution. (Singleplayer) videogames maybe less so. [..] let's not forget about very simple instruments that I think you could say have a 'resolution problem' when compared to piano. Like maybe the recorder? Can you go glitch-hunting with the recorder to find some new techniques of play? Is that breaking through the resolution wall?

[..]

When digging into all the reasons that we get bored or not with something, it's good to remember that it is also a product of how much we put in, how much we care.  And it makes me reconsider: why do I stop caring about jumping around in Mario's world? Is it simply the lack of novelty in its challenges? And if so, why aren't I making up my own challenges? What is stopping me?

What (or Who) is responsible? Whoever takes responsibility.

Quote from: droqIs speedrunning Game X the same as playing Game X, or is it something different? Using the equipment of Game X to perform a "speedrun."

[..]

players can be coerced, tricked, manipulated, convinced, and a large part of videogames culture involves actively seeking out the designer's intended way to play.

Taking Responsibility for Taking Responsibility

Quote from: Jackgames always take on some responsibility for what the resolution of the game experience is, and it has a limit. They can't avoid it.

[..]

many games work like this – with the game being a curious device we operate to drip-feed ourselves some 'non-gamefeel content' which evokes different themes and ideas that we connect with to various degrees.

[..]

I often can't connect with non-gamefeel content, and I don't have a good understanding of why. In some cases, the curious device is the interesting thing that we are receptive to, and I have a better time connecting with that, and appreciating it as a game that reaches beyond itself

[..]

It seems to me like there should be a way to bring the non-gamefeel content back into the realm of gamefeel content

[..]

I want the aesthetic leap of the non-gamefeel content to be a part of the game.

This is fascinating. I feel like there's a discussion that never continued here... mainly, I don't think I follow what's being said, and I would like to follow so we can talk about it.

Taking Responsibility for Taking Responsibility -- The conversation cannot die here!

But in the meantime, let's return to our regularly scheduled reflection.

P.S. Holy crap, so many responses to Brevity is the dark souls of wit! This is quite the spelunk.

A haiku game is not a piano, or a lifelong hobby. It's a singular creation, a mere artwork or artifact. This doesn't seem like quite the revelation now that it did back then, but I promise it was one.

This particular thread is over and we can finally return to Mer's post...

Brevity is the dark souls of wit

Great title.

Quote from: Jackthe more I play these games, and the more I understand how they work, the more I am left wanting – wanting for something more than the crystalline perfection of the design. I've learned this system, but now what? I can dance in it, play it like an instrument, and there is certainly a perennial joy to be found in that!

Quote from: ZeigfreidVideogames have a resolution problem: they will never be our musical instruments, languages, or literature. "Videogames" is a hobby with a great deal of depth and room for study, but I think each videogame is more like a hobby with not a lot of depth. [..] You can read the text of FFVII, but I assure you there are more interesting texts in other media.

[..]

Jack's "but now what?" above addresses this resolution problem. We love these GAMEFEEL games because it can be really interesting to move Mario around the screen gracefully, or to grasp and hopefully master a curious puzzle like Recursed.

[..]

HAIKU games made me think "ah yes, videogames: [..] don't pretend to be a piano, or a novel, or life itself. Be Videogames. Videogames have a resolution problem (I insist, there is no escaping it). I take Jack's suggestion as a call to work with that constraint rather than against it.

I think the first time I read this I didn't quite grasp it, but I suppose I'm up next, let's see if the me from last year actually acknowledged Zeigfreid's excellent points here or simply ran off in another direction!

playing videogames, or playing with the idea of videogames

Quote from: droqeach game as not a world or a hobby unto itself, but a single rock skipped across the surface of a great pond.

The KNOWING WINK of mokesmoe's I can't carry all these ducks! relies on an acknowledgement of 10,000 hours spent not playing it, but spent playing games.

The games I love most are the ones that propelled me forward, that made me think about games-in-general and perhaps life in a novel way, not the ones that folded inward and demanded increasing levels of understanding and mastery.

[..] I loved learning to understand how to play a game that I never played again once I finally felt I understood it.