I think that the key question is simply: “Did he enjoy doing this?” Time spent in an enjoyable manner is never sad or wasted (at least from an Epicurean or Hedonistic standpoint). If he hated doing it and did it just for the accomplishment, then I would call it sad. I think we’ve all had our moments when we were…

And this, folks, is why you should wait a few months after launch to buy a game, no matter how long you’ve been eagerly waiting to play. It really sucks, but that’s just the way it is...

I love how you accuse me of straw-manning and then make the exact same point that you said you never made in 1). Your proof only serves to prove my point. Upton Sinclair intended The Jungle to promote Socialism. Ray Bradbury intended Fahrenheit 451 as a diatribe against television. Neither succeeded in the author’s…

Look, I don’t know where you got your literature degree or what kinds of theories of literary critique you studied, but you obviously do not understand what a synopsis is or the factors on which narratives are judged.

Oh, also, if your rebuttal is 20 pages long again or if you insist on quoting film critics while at the same time arguing that a video game, because it’s interactive, isn’t “allowed” to be like a film, then I will simply delete your comment. Just so you know. If you want to offer a rebuttal, you can do it one or two…

All right, I will.

Eye in the Sky was in no way, shape or form a revenge story. It was the Trolley Problem in modern, cinematic form.

Yes, and you have also helped me remember some of the parts that I felt uncomfortable with while playing through it. From a narrative perspective, the Santa Barbara portion of the storyline probably should either have been done very differently or cut entirely. In fact, they could have cut to black just as Ellie…

Eye in the Sky is one of the best movies of the last decade, no doubt. I wonder if you actually saw it. It ends with the little girl being pronounced dead in the hospital. It does not show the inevitable new wave of leaders in command of terrorist organizations. It really does not go into revenge at all. I think that…

Your entire, extremely long argument boils down to this: the player of the game should be allowed to choose how the story goes. I find that argument to be quite ridiculous. Sure, there are games that allow the player to do that (to a limited degree...you basically just end up with multiple endings, rather than true…

You do a great disservice to gaming in general by asserting that games should not be compared to literature. That is the same attitude that leads people to assume that games or comic books are nothing more than entertainment for an immature manchild. Games ARE literature, whether you want them to be or not. Movies,…

You are right. The game is manipulative and sleazy, playing on heartstrings. I just don’t see those as bad things in and of themselves. The second game is entirely the story of Ellie and Abby and the rest of the characters (with the exception of Lev) are indeed just pawns. This is an overall story weakness, yes.

Still thinking about it a week later? Oh yeah, it worked.

I’ll try. It really is hard not to be an asshole about movies when genuinely good movies are ignored at the box office while MCU rakes in ALL the money, which leads to more and more MCU and fewer and fewer genuinely good movies. 

And the people who argue against that, their whole argument comes down to “it made me feel bad.” As though feeling bad must mean the story is bad. It’s okay to feel bad once in a while, and it’s great that we can do so in the safe world of a game without any real-world consequences. As far as I am concerned, every…

Here, let me show you what you sound like for reference.

まだまだ単語の定義の話ばっかりじゃないですか。あなたは単語の意味するところではなく、単語そのものの定義を巡る議論にしか興味ないでしょう？意図をちゃんと分かっているのに。あなたは誠実な議論に全く興味を示していません。意味論は話になりません。以上。

And here’s a tip for you: please avoid condescending assumptions about the literary value of video games. This story could have been a movie or a novel and you would have hated it for all the same reasons.

Those are valid points, but I do think that the relationship between Abby and Lev was kind of a saving grace, serving to pull us back from the brink. Had Lev not featured in the story, I think that I would be inclined to agree with you. Lev (and his effect on Abby) made it more than just misery porn.

Indeed. Please do yourself a favor and avoid stories like Requiem for a Dream, Les Miserable and the works of Kafka or Dostoyevsky. You will not enjoy those at all.