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[Duke 2.0]

 It is unfortunate that the aliens explode saying the file type and not the name. Just so we can see the fleeting name of some important file we just murdered.

[IndonesiaWarMinister]

Well damn, there goes the extra craziness of playing on a windows computer.

Protip: Virtual Machine.

And that was what I first thought: There will be no risk of accidently erasing your most cherised files.

Brotip: There are NO Mac emulator.

At least I can't find any...

[JoshuaFH]

Stop arguing with yourself IWM!

[IndonesiaWarMinister]

Stop arguing with yourself IWM!

But... but...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

She's... not me! Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

[Cheeetar]

It doesn't? Awwww, what a disappointment.

Or are you just tricking us into messing up our computers?

Or atleast, comments on this game have led me to believe it dosen't destroy our files. Anyway, wouldn't such a game be detected as a virus and stopped before it deleted all our files?

[Sappho]

There was a long, heated debate on TIGS over whether this game is a powerful artistic statement or just plain stupid.  (And yes, apparently it does, in fact, delete your files.  Antivirus software writers are already updating their software.)

Those who say it is artistic claim that the game makes you reevaluate your stand on computer gaming by making you realize that when you spend time on a game, you lose something tangible (such as time from your life) and also by taking a stand against the fact that in a game, we're always just given a weapon and told who the bad guys are and instructed to kill them without any real moral quandry. 

Those who say it's just stupid point out that the game can destroy your computer (and could easily be used to do that to someone else), the message is not nearly profound or interesting or even original enough to qualify as art, and also that the game itself just plain sucks.

I would be willing to concede that the game has artistic merit if it were actually fun to play.  If there were some motivation to play the game and take the risk, then yes, it makes you think.  But the game is a pile of boring crap.  All it boils down to in the end is a jar of poison labeled "this is poison! don't drink it!"  There is nothing artistic about that at all except in the asshole avant-garde "look at how much CONTROVERSY I stirred up with my art!" way that basically means the guy got a bunch of people really pissed off about his borderline virus.

[DJ]

I think it's art. I haven't actually played so I can't tell if it's good art, but it's art. I don't agree with that exact interpretation of it, though. I think its about how killing others kills a part of ourselves (killing could of course mean other, less drastic negative behaviour), and how we should stop to think before we judge. Yes, it's not a very original artistic statement, but guess what - none are. Vast majority of art (including good art) is just same old ideas expressed differently.

[Servant Corps]

http://www.brothersoft.com/games/directory-blaster.html

Like lose/lose, kill an enemy, delete your file.

Unlike lose/lose, you get to choose what file to delete.

All the "fun" of lose/lose, without the horrible deleting of important files.

Hooray.

[Duke 2.0]

http://www.brothersoft.com/games/directory-blaster.html

Like lose/lose, kill an enemy, delete your file.

Unlike lose/lose, you get to choose what file to delete.

All the "fun" of lose/lose, without the horrible deleting of important files.

Hooray.

Could...
 Could I delete viruses with this?
 Could I delete temporary internet files for sites I would rather not have stumbled upon?

[JoshuaFH]

If that's all, then this is not art. I've never thought of art as something that will indiscriminately destroy a part of my life for no reason. And I mean that, there's stuff on my computer which has more than just monetary value. For a 'message' to destroy it and then cry "WAIT! IT'S ART!" is complete retardation.

[Sappho]

DJ: I think that's a valid thought, but I also think the creator ruined a lot of the potential for finding this sort of meaning by explicitly writing out the meaning he intended with it on his site.  Another sign of bad art: the creator needs to write you out a paragraph explaining the point he was trying to make.

The author's explication of the meaning of his art game:

Lose/Lose is a video-game with real life consequences. Each alien in the game is created based on a random file on the players computer. If the player kills the alien, the file it is based on is deleted. If the players ship is destroyed, the application itself is deleted.

Although touching aliens will cause the player to lose the game, and killing aliens awards points, the aliens will never actually fire at the player. This calls into question the player's mission, which is never explicitly stated, only hinted at through classic game mechanics. Is the player supposed to be an aggressor? Or merely an observer, traversing through a dangerous land?

Why do we assume that because we are given a weapon an awarded for using it, that doing so is right?

By way of exploring what it means to kill in a video-game, Lose/Lose broaches bigger questions. As technology grows, our understanding of it diminishes, yet, at the same time, it becomes increasingly important in our lives. At what point does our virtual data become as important to us as physical possessions? If we have reached that point already, what real objects do we value less than our data? What implications does trusting something so important to something we understand so poorly have?

And a comment on the TIGS thread by Cliftor that I think sums up most of my position rather well:

I’d just like to add my voice to the cacophony sounding off that this “game” is complete bullshit.

Now, it’s not clever. It hasn’t subtley and insidiously caused us to reconsider any of the basic assumptions we have about anything.

It’s inane and puerile to give this “game” credit for anything, as a game or a concept. See, as a game it fails because it’s designed to discourage you from playing it at all. As a concept it’s stupid because there’s nothing deep or interesting about being warned off of something and us heeding the warning.

If I told you that I rigged a manhole somewhere in your city to explode in your face if you removed it (I tell you where it is), what purpose have I accomplished, what meaning or message have I conveyed? I’ve just warned you to avoid getting gibbed. How the hell is that art or even an interesting mental exercise?

My biggest fear is that some self-satisfied game designer is looking at this thread, sitting back in his chair, rubbing his hands and patting himself on his back, congratulating himself on a job well done. What indulgent, self-congratulatory nonsense!

[qwertyuiopas]

Idea: a roguelike that when you use a powerful spell of a certain type, it picks a random file in the save directory and writes a few bytes of random data to random parts of the file. You can always savescum by putting copies of your saves outside of the save directory, but it would be fun in a "This could kill me or I could become a superwizard" for a random save file way. Since it would only operate on it's own directory, it becomes more of a neat fun gameplay mechanic than an iritating way of corrupting your OS 3% faster.

Or, maybe each save file contains the graphics data for it's tileset/font and something powerful can corrupt that data, by writing random pixels in. It would be neat to watch the world appear to literally fall to pieces of junk data as you overuse your powers.


Either of those would come closer to "art" because it limits itself to a safe area in it's destruction, and makes triggering it a completely optional action.

[Granite26]

Playing the game isn't optional enough?

Shooting the bad guy?

I agree with Sappho's pro-art summary.  It's certainly more art than game...

[Sappho]

Ah, another comment on TIGS that I like.  This is my last one, I promise:

Anyone want any of my tasty cyanide cookies? They kill you stone dead if you eat them. It’s my allegory on weight gain.

And Granite26, I do think that the author is attempting to create an "art game," but I also think it's terrible and fails miserably in its purpose.

[Cthulhu]

Darnit, I came in here planning to say

herp derp i made a art see i got writings abowt how compooters are important n stuf so its art

but it seems I was beaten to it.