how do i want to structure my next project? i need a loose principle within which to begin creating, assembling pieces. this is the beginning of a research and analysis project:

what structures have facilitated a desirable return to good works?

what structures interest me or, better yet, fail to turn away my interest?

i first encountered zaratustra's inclusion of The End of Gameplay in a 50 indie game recommendation that had something to do with the game awards:

Quote from: zaratustraMashina. The Art of Reflection. Endlight. Lingo 2. Pudding: Lyre Knight. Puzzle Depot. FISH FEAR ME. Pocket Boss. HORSES. Blippo+. Mars First Logistics. Starstruck: Hands Of Time. The Trolley Solution. Rise of the Golden Idol. Kaizen: A Factory Story. Depersonalization. Öoo. Isles of Sea And Sky. // Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo. Sol Cesto. Bombe. Strange Jigsaws. Seeking the Guardian. Loophole. Ark's Wonder Dungeon. 4D Golf. PETS. Court of Wanderers. Babushka's Glitch Dungeon. Skin Deep. The End Of Gameplay. Yogurt Commercial 3. The Void Rains Upon Her Heart. The Button Effect. Lab Rat. // Every Draknek & Friends game. ENA: Dream BBQ. Gentoo Rescue. Leap Year. NO-SKIN. Gravity Circuit. Birdigo. Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip. Extreme Evolution: Drive to Divinity. Prodigal. Cobalt Core. PROXIMATE. Cape Hideous. Grunn. Judero. Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers. Arco. Tactical Breach Wizards. // Play more indie games.

Quote from: the bleet zara quotedNew rule this year: If you post "Play more indie games" during the game awards, you are required to make a thread recommending 50 of them.

"We are gonna ask you to listen to this song, and tell me your honest opinion of what you think about it while you're listening."

when i was asked what i meant by kill gameplay i eventually defaulted to moral arguments.

i now think that i was wrong to do so. discussions of morality do have a place but in my notebook i can see that i have written, "can a murder be a work of art? // of course it can." the idea of defining and understanding art and what makes it--or anything--have a place in my heart has nothing to do with its morality.

but, it was easier to defend my position that way, than to say what i was really feeling at a deeper level. setting aside the weapon of moral judgement, what's my beef with, as i call it, "gameplay"? i think that answering this question will be very important to me, and the key word will be "interesting."

i appreciate a good critical eye and if i open those floodgates in my mind i can criticize very harshly! recall this ugly heap of me criticizing wombat's gutwhale.

i have criticized many things but i'm not sure analytic criticism is a particularly useful or expressive medium for me. i look even at Steam reviews as an art form.

i know plenty of people who are good at criticism and i admire them, their ability to share relevant critical details. such admiration has always tempted me to share, too, my own criticisms of things. look at my past year of public-facing communications! all criticism and breakdown.

i was listening to the first episode of The Secret Lives of Games' series, "All Systems Brough - Introduction," and in the middle of listening to this episode, i went to a workshop to learn how to make a paper flower. it was beautiful, i loved it, i took one photo, and then i lost it -- it flew away. i was really distraught by the loss of this paper flower, but i think i was also getting emotional about this look into the past, a much larger and more important thing that has been flying away from me lately: gameplay.