Jonathan Blow: Video Games and the Human Condition

What Hacker News said

Strong rec kitsune_ · 2012-07 · on “Thoughts on Consoles and Certification Processes - Jonathan Blow”

He is the exact opposite of a "hipster". He is a very smart (and in my opinion humble) guy. I don't know where his portrayal as an arrogant guy comes from. He held an amazing talk / presentation at Rice University called "Video Games and The Human Condition": [this video]

Strong rec JasonSage · 2016-11 · on “How Casinos Enable Gambling Addicts”

I see a lot of parallels between gambling and video games, specifically in how video game reward mechanisms resemble gambling with the way the brain responds to intense situations and risk/reward scenarios—simply put, you can get quite a rush from either, and there's an entire industry built up around both to profit from this. I'd love to see a thorough comparison between these two. I think there's a lot of room to explore similarity in stigmas around addiction and indulgence in these pastimes, how people justify it, and the addiction mechanisms at play. Maybe there's even an exploration of healthy gambling habits that mirror healthy entertainment habits? I'd love to read about this stuff. J

Recommends alexkcd · 2011-10 · on “Who killed videogames?”

Jonathan Blow (creator of Braid) has an interesting rant on social video games: [this video] The gist being that games like Farmville are A/B tested to maximize addictiveness and profit, rather than maximizing fun.

Recommends dunckr · 2014-04 · on “Ask HN: I am a good developer but have a serious gaming addiction”

I think that many of us with addictive personalities it is difficult not to be 100% committed to something. So for myself it was a goal of shifting my interest away from gaming and initially towards programming. The best wake up call for me was realising that my focus on games was really just manipulation. I would watch Jonathan Blow's talk on Video Games and the Human Condition now. When you understand that you are being completely manipulated it becomes easier to do something differently. Another idea is to focus on the wasted effort. If you channelled all this time into creating something - your own game for instance. You would have something tangible at the end of it. Good luck. [this video]

Recommends ultimape · 2014-11 · on “Screeps – the world's first MMO sandbox strategy game for programmers”

I'd argue that all 'games' are about manipulating attention - its just a question of what means they use to do so. Game design is really a sort of meta-game about designing systems that effect the behavior of players. Consider: Game Mechanics and Mechanism Design ( [LINK] ) I'm fully with you on the notion that we shouldn't be manipulating players life like farmville. Johnathan blow put on a great talk about games and the human condition where he covers this aspect quite scathingly: [this video] To completely ignore this aspect is to develop a game with no real-stickyness factor. Money aside, don't you want a game that people enjoy playing? The entire point of an MMO is to have a large reoccurrin

Recommends kelukelugames · 2015-02 · on “‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game”

I've followed Jonathan Blow for a while. He has a reputation for being condescending. If you follow him a Twitter then you might come to the same conclusion. But he has given some amazing talks. [LINK] <-compares games to televison [LINK] [this video] [LINK]

Cites ANTSANTS · 2014-02 · on “How in-app purchases have destroyed the game industry”

There are all kinds of ethical ways to get your most dedicated customers to "pay more" (what's the MBA-speak term for "trying to get everyone to pay exactly as much as they're comfortable with"? I can't remember). There are pre-order bonuses, special editions, purely cosmetic items that don't change the gameplay, mission packs, "mission pack sequels," actual sequels, "pay what you want," donations... It gets "unsavory" when you're focusing more on designing the perfect skinner box than actually creating a game. I think games are all about the feelings and mental states you get into when you play them. An action game gets your adrenaline pumping, competitive ones especially so. Strategy games

Cites pdfernhout · 2017-08 · on “Do Laptops Help Learning? A Look at the Only Statewide School Laptop Program”

My wife and I spent over seven person-years building stuff for education in the 1990s on our own dime (funded by unrelated consulting) -- hardly anyone cared: [LINK] No doubt we could have done a better job on that software (including about marketing and financing). But puzzling over that situation, to try to understand what went wrong (despite magazine articles back then going on about the need for better educational software), I read widely in the alternative educational field. I discovered many surprising things about the differences between "education" and "schooling" (including regarding self-development, citizenship, employability, and obedience). One big clue though should have been r