CLIConline

National Editor

Commented 4 months ago - 7th January 2013 - 10:39am

My view is that there is no compensation for human imagination. Computer games, while often educational, are passive compared to a page with words on that only your mind can elaborate on.

I was really turned off by a lot of the stuff I was expected to read in school (I have also tried and failed in my own time to enjoy traditional literature like Dickens), so instead I read what I know I will enjoy (Hunter S Thompson, Graham Greene, Irvine Welsh etc). If you enjoy what you are reading, you will read more.

Films, (some) computer games, music and live performance are all great, but if you read a book for an hour before bed every night, I think you'll have the perfect balance.

End0fDarkness

Commented 4 months ago - 8th January 2013 - 03:23am

I agree, the act of turning words on paper into sounds and images in your mind requires imagination, which films, video games and theatre just kind of 'gives' you, makes me feel a bit lazy sometimes.

When you read a book or a story though, when you read a description of say a house or other location, do you kinda take your time to really imagine it, or just accept the first kind of image comes to your mind? Cause I think that's something that I tend to skip over. When I read a book, I tend to see just as facts and events that are leading up to a climax, in the same way that a film does. When something is described to me, I usually just automatically have an image of something similar that I have seen in real life and just accept that image without really getting into it. So maybe I'm losing out on some of the things that books have to offer =/

But, in the same way...I can't help then think that many films are someone else's imagination put into images for me to see and, sometimes, their imagination trumps mine. Like for example, I don't think that I could have pictured a world like Pandora from Avatar, a building 'ripple' and then explode like in the Matrix or the characters that Tim Burton comes up with.
With CGI becoming ever more advanced and same with HD, if there is no compensation for imagination, are films just our access to someone else's imagination...one that could even be more open or finely tuned than our own, like the 'genuises'?

To me, the main time I use my imagination is when I'm really into a story, be it from books or games or whatever, and then think about things that aren't explained. Like when reading the Harry Potter books, I would imagine what the other classes were like or what the people in the other houses would be like compared to Griffindors or Slytherins. But I've also had this with video games, particularly Role Playing Games like Final Fantasy or Mass Effect (not so much the 'aim and shoot' first person shooter kind of games, although they are starting to become more in depth these days).
So I wonder then, is it more so how 'good' a story is that fires up our imagination and makes us curious, than the type of media? Such as a poorly written book compared to an in depth video game, or vice versa?

However, I could not agree more on the whole 'traditional' or 'classic' media thing. Some of them just really don't keep my interest at all, including books and films.

CrazyDistortion

Commented 4 months ago - 8th January 2013 - 17:44pm

People may not think it, but games and books have something in common, and that is interactivity.

With games, it's obvious. You play the game to get ahead in the story, doing different things and whatnot.

With books, the interactivity comes with imagination. The book is a form of script, and your mind creates what it perceives from the story.

With films, all you do is watch someone else's vision. There's hardly any interactivity nor imagination required. In a sense, this can be said for music as well.

One thing that annoys my nipples off is when some people say that, in gaming, it's all about the killing or the graphics. To those people, play Final Fantasy X. Yes, there is killing (I mean, name ten modern day games that have no killing or death at all), but it's not your mindless "kill on sight with a gun" thang. It (as well as other Final Fantasies) have a really interesting battle style and, more importantly, really intriguing stories.

And besides, how can we legitimately call anything traditional or new media. People assume blogging is new media, but it's just another form of writing. Just because Halo 4 has "high end graphics" and a half decent story (I wouldn't know, I'm no longer a 360 man) doesn't really mean it's any better or worse than the days of pong and tetris.

It's whatever we grow up with most that we feel a bond with more. For me, I felt more of a bond to gaming. Most of my friends have a closer bond to films and books. It's just something about life, inneh?

End0fDarkness

Commented 4 months ago - 9th January 2013 - 20:54pm

The Final Fantasy games are awesome and I couldn't agree more about how ignorant some people can be about video games. One of the most gripping stories I have ever been through from any media is Final Fantasy VII for the PS One.

I agree to an extent about the interactivity thing. I agree in the way that you can passively watch a film, but you can also passively read a book. I find that if I'm not interested in a book, I can 'read' an entire paragraph of it and not really take anything in. Same as I can 'look' at a film while it's playing and not pay much attention to whats going on. However, some films can really grip you and send you on quite an emotional journey, same as a book can.
However, to me, I have to say that video games trump them all in terms of interactivity. With games again like Mass Effect, Deus Ex, Dragon Age, Skyrim etc, the choices the player makes will determine how the story goes and how it ends. Some books kind of have this, where they may have 'if you want to go into the dark cave, turn to page 46' at the bottom of them. But personally, I find that these aren't as intricate or thought out as video games.
Also, like Dara O'Briain said, you can't be bad at watching a film or listening to an album, but you can be bad at video games and the video game will punish you and deny you access to the rest of the game. In this way (although some people may see it as pointless) there is some personal growth for the player. They must improve their problem solving skills or co ordination before being able to continue with the rest of the game.

In terms of whether something is 'traditional' or 'new', I agree, they are subjective terms and we can never really pinpoint that a piece of media has to be so many years old and have sold so many units per capita to be considered a 'classic'. It is all subjective and down to the individual. Like personally I consider many Disney films to be 'classics', but many people would disagree and neither of us are really right, although we can put points forward for our views.

I agree too that for many people the media medium that they grow up with is likely to be their preferred later on in life, due to comfort and nostalgia etc. But like for me for example, I was a big gamer when I was younger, but now I rarely play games, opting to spend my leisure time watching Youtube videos and non fiction books. So I believe that it can change too.

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Hope Love Live

Commented 2 months ago - 23rd March 2013 - 05:16am

I agree with Ryan on this one completely.

I used to hate reading because I only ever picked up a book in school and they were stories that didn't grab my attention, but reading things like The Hunger Games, etc. is amazing and I don't often admit to this, but I tend to find the films slightly disappointing because it doesn't match your imagination.

Books are awesome! I do love a good movie marathon and a concert now and then, though. Ed Sheeran is amazing.