Remind me why again you have to "suspend disbelief" to get involved with a story. An eye to technical detail does not mean you're ignoring everything else...
-edit- and my apologies for mixing the two arguments together. I'll try a tad harder to make sure that doesn't happen again, but arguing multiple pieces of a topic at the same time, and keeping track of who's ideas are who's can be confusing. Not really something I'm used to having to do.
That's true... you can keep both in mind at once, that is what good professional critics would do. Although, if you do this, don't you keep both mindsets separate? For example, on one hand, noting how good or bad the special effects are, and noting plot mechanisms, but on the other hand, suspending enough disbelief in order to take the story as it is? The willing suspension of disbelief serves the basic purpose of allowing unrealistic (as in fantastical, or for our time period) elements of story, or even the basic fact that we know that this story is not real and that it is being told by actors, to be put under the table, so to speak, in order to examine the world of the story as something that is real in and of itself? I'm trying to think of a better way to word what I mean, hmmm...
But your previous statements in this topic led us to believe that you do not involve yourself in the story at all.
fireball87 wrote:
And here I thought none of these games ever happened...
... I see no reason to say it never happened, because well, it obviously didn't.
In the context of this topic, these statements made it seem like you were not open to discussing the game's reality (although I agree with you that it is artistic license in these cases).
That's true... you can keep both in mind at once, that is what good professional critics would do. Although, if you do this, don't you keep both mindsets separate? For example, on one hand, noting how good or bad the special effects are, and noting plot mechanisms, but on the other hand, suspending enough disbelief in order to take the story as it is? The willing suspension of disbelief serves the basic purpose of allowing unrealistic (as in fantastical, or for our time period) elements of story, or even the basic fact that we know that this story is not real and that it is being told by actors, to be put under the table, so to speak, in order to examine the world of the story as something that is real in and of itself? I'm trying to think of a better way to word what I mean, hmmm...
I quite like alot of the old Dr. Who's, and I comment on the cheesiness of the special effects quite often. I do not like them for the reason of the cheesy special effects, so I'm under the opinion that I can both like a good story, while thinking critically about it's implementation. I never plan to watch the movie Avatar again. It was a remarkably solid telling of a completely questionable quality story. I'm not ignoring the story and only focusing on technical details, nor am I only focusing on the story and ignoring the technical flaws.
Dark Zaphe wrote:
But your previous statements in this topic led us to believe that you do not involve yourself in the story at all.
fireball87 wrote:
And here I thought none of these games ever happened...
... I see no reason to say it never happened, because well, it obviously didn't.
In the context of this topic, these statements made it seem like you were not open to discussing the game's reality (although I agree with you that it is artistic license in these cases).
See, that's all in personal contexts though. I'll happily discuss time paradoxes within series universes, and stuff like that, but I'm not going to do that for the Mario games. It's not even trying to tell much of a story, more then say Donkey Kong (on the arcade) despite the hardware being quite capable of it. We were talking about the reality of a Mario game. I don't think the designers in any way want you to think in the scope of the universe's canon, and if they do, there isn't enough sane material for the suspension of belief. I can survive with "there is sound in space" and other such technical implementation issues, in fact in many cases I'd prefer it as ignoring that reality provides immersion, but in this case, nope. Even then, there is no harm in recognizing the differences between fiction and reality.
So are you saying that your reality is absolutely perfect? That you have absolutely no need to escape? That nothing has ever happened to you that would piss you off, make you sad, or otherwise emotionally unstable? Must be nice.
It's rare, and when it happens I more often just lay down for awhile instead of trying to watch or play something, assuming I don't intend to throw my controller threw a wall. "Escaping from reality" is just a phrase about moving attention anyway. I can "escape reality" by dissecting a movie just as easily as I can trying to "watch it as it was intended". If my focus isn't on my problems, it's all the same. As for this whole "stories are intended to be an escape from reality", why are so many of them written in an attempt to remind you of it again?
Oh I see. Not everyone else is like you regarding how you feel about "escaping from reality."
I'm not sure where you got the notion that stories alone are escapes from reality. A lot of general media were meant to be escapes from reality. Usually the ones that are attempting to remind you of reality are trying to tell you something the head honcho deemed important or to provide insight on something.
I also wish to add that I do see what you are saying regarding "seeing it both ways" as I'll call it. I too am guilty at times of commenting or flat out poking fun at poor acting/special effects and/or lame story in movies and games. I still try to take the media in question seriously unless it's just an impossible task.
_________________ The Local Video Gaming Lunatic
Recent stuff I'm into:
Watching: A Certain Scientific Railgun (ep.14, stalled), Hoshi no Kirby (ep. 71, stalled), Nazo No Kanojo X (ep. 8), Acchi Kocchi (ep. 8)
Reading: nothing
I'm not sure where you got the notion that stories alone are escapes from reality. A lot of general media were meant to be escapes from reality.
*sigh* I originally wrote that as movies, but changed it to stories to be a tad more generic and refer to the other media, but that obviously failed.
Yeah, I'm just one big load of fail. :(
I actually thought that was what you meant at first, but I guess my brain cancelled that out and went for a more literal approach by figuring you were talking about the plot in question.
_________________ The Local Video Gaming Lunatic
Recent stuff I'm into:
Watching: A Certain Scientific Railgun (ep.14, stalled), Hoshi no Kirby (ep. 71, stalled), Nazo No Kanojo X (ep. 8), Acchi Kocchi (ep. 8)
Reading: nothing