A year ago my best friend gave me a copy of Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue,"
arguably the best jazz recording of all time. It was on an crusty,
practically rusty cassette tape, probably about as old as I was, and it
wasn't the new, remastered version of the 1959 classic - so the awesome
prowess of trumpeter Miles Davis, saxophonist John Coltrane, and the other
allstars were limited to the mono technology of the early '60s.
Still, the lack of stereo sound couldn't stop the beauty of the classic.
Within two months it became my favorite jazz recording of all time - and I
still was wearing out the original tape until I bought the remastered CD
earlier this summer. The music on the CD is wonderful, rich and moving...
but so was the music on the original tape.
My appreciation of this crusty, practically rusty tape isn't that unusual
among music lovers, nor lovers of other genres. People respect books
published years ago as much - perhaps even more so - than their
contemporary, mass-produced editions. Classic movies, such as "Citizen
Kane," are given reverence and are regularly played (usually) in their
original form. In fact, people can become outright hostile when the original
is altered, like the uproar created about a decade ago when Ted Turner
colorized the Christmas classic "It's A Wonderful Life."
One genre this doesn't cross over to, though, is video games in general and
indie games in particular - perhaps because our craft is directly linked to
technology. With the exception of the seminal Tetris, we are rarely able to
see the pure genius of some games without needing at least 32-bit level
graphics and sound to aid the process. Even more ironic, this need seems
most prevalent in (or is vocalized the most by) other indie game developers
who, ideally, should be able to look beyond the surface.
We are, in a sense, at the mercy of a medium which was suppose to give us
freedom.
Consequently, people can be quick to complement a programmer who makes a
faster or prettier graphics routine, which may do nothing for gameplay, and
relatively slow to complement one who does unusual or interesting gameplay
if the graphics aren't up to "par" - whatever that is. We may criticize the
industry for focusing on pretty pictures and putting gameplay second, but it
is almost as if we put pressure on our one-man, no-budget colleagues to do
the same thing.
It is doubtful that a Charlie Chaplin classic will be redone next year, with
"Matrix"-style special effects, but, within the context of gaming, that
doesn't sound too unusual. There's something wrong with that.
In no other genre is there such a link between technology and output, which
makes it that much more difficult for people to see the beauty in a
less-than-glamorous looking title. Many claim that gameplay is key but, like
the Miss America pageant, brains can only get you so far. Perhaps it is just
the nature of the beast.
--
Written by Damon Brown.
