tag:spaceghostyons.com,2005:/blogs/the-uneducated-rapperThe Uneducated Rapper2021-10-17T22:46:26-04:00spaceghostyonsfalsetag:spaceghostyons.com,2005:Post/67790172021-10-17T22:46:26-04:002023-10-16T11:00:28-04:00What’s Up With This Generation?<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="683" data-orig-width="1024"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/da4aeab0f698b13a4642b40c2793d650/630ac259868faecc-06/s540x810/3ebac1fc0d3621d63a67d62c65b47e0f9b4fbbd5.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></figure><p>Don’t let these new beliefs, movements, pop culture, social media, etc fool you, many young adults are depressed, battling anxiety, addictions, etc just coping through websites and streaming services. Hanging on with incredible strength. What you may see as weird behavior are defense mechanisms as what was purported to protect them, provide them peace, happiness and meaning failed. Yet none of their elders want to admit that. They don’t need judgement, they need patience, willingness to understand and love. They inherited a world nobody really took good care of, that was hoisted up by half truths and wishful thinking, they breathe industrial age air, maneuver through space age waste and become paralyzed by information age options. They bear the trauma of every generation before them. They don’t need anyone to bash them, they need the older generations to say we’re sorry, and we’re listening, because everything hinges upon what this generation does. <br></p>spaceghostyonstag:spaceghostyons.com,2005:Post/67672092021-10-05T18:15:09-04:002021-10-05T21:00:08-04:00All Critics Matter<p>Often when i criticize something people take it as me saying it’s ‘bad’ or shouldn’t be liked/enjoyed/etc. People don’t read fully what I’m saying. A popular saying nowadays is “let people enjoy things”. I and agree with that but I never criticize anything that I don’t find any redeeming qualities or interest in–that I don’t enjoy or was looking to enjoy. I’m just being thorough in my analysis of it. You can use sports as an example, I may like Lamelo Ball as a player, but I’m not going to put him in the same category as Steph Curry or Lebron or even Trae Young or Luka at this point. Part of my fandom is acknowledging his flaws and weaknesses with the hopes that he will work on them and get even better. A lot of people as of late like something because it personally entertains them, then overrate it, or overlook its flaws. This kind of culture is why it seems were flooded with mediocre and/or shallow content nowadays and lack very many truly great masterpieces in the mainstream. To get masterpieces you need a really rigorous refining process and a high standard. If most people just take anything as long as they have something to occasionally look up at from their phones or play in the background, just something to keep them distracted in between other distractions, not something to attract them to a greater appreciation or understanding of art, craft, beauty, virtues, knowledge, and humanity we’re not building or cultivating anything special as a culture or society, we’re just pointlessly existing. It’s not about bringing anyone or their art down, it’s about bringing all of us up. Excellence. <br></p>spaceghostyonstag:spaceghostyons.com,2005:Post/67535192021-09-21T22:17:04-04:002021-09-21T22:45:03-04:00Local Music Scene Dos and Donts<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="563" data-orig-width="1000"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/e6288d56eefea7c73c144884608402b6/45b5e3650cfee946-cd/s540x810/abbb3748fc18d64c5bcf68eb15d42fdbd2e7d05e.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></figure><p>DO make music. Don’t just talk about making music (and make do’s and don’t lists) on facebook posts, subtweet other artists, promoters, etc and make instagram posts about how this year is going to be your year. Write some mf songs and record them bitches. Then upload them shits to your digital streaming platform of choice. Keep doing that. Damn. <br><br>DO enjoy yourself. Complaining about the local scene or lack of support, etc all the time just gets stale really fast. Have fun. sell a few shirts. Make some memories. <br><br>DON’T let the bad experiences and people who DO all the DONT’s on this list get you burnt out and jaded about being an artist/creative. <br><br>DON’T think you’re better than the local music scene then expect support from the local music scene. LOL come on </p><p>DO support other local artists. </p><p>DON’T be fake and support art you don’t like just to get support back or be seen as ‘supportive’. You’ll just end up asking a guy “whats your name again?” at his album release show.</p><p>DO be inclusive. You don’t want to clique your way out of having more fans. Or maybe you do. But why not welcome everyone with your art. The only real opp is poverty caused by corrupt capitalism and *Youtube ad interrupts*</p><p>But </p><p>
DON’T expect everyone to be cool and be friends. There’s always going to be the competitive angle to art. But find ways to turn that tension into fair skill sharpening competition or collaboration. Likewise there will also be people and aspects of culture that aren’t as compatible with others. Sometimes there’s touchy history or politics or personal conflict. Be mindful of that when planning events, booking acts, reaching out to collaborate, separation isn’t always bad, just be thorough in knowing the vibes and finding the points where people can connect, there’s usually some point at which they can. <br><br>DO go out to see other local talent (if you don’t have kids, or have a cool ass baby mama/daddy)</p><p>DON’T say you’re going to put the city or scene on the map. Unless you’re actually going to fucking do it, and even then i highly recommend to just wait until you do it to be safe. </p><p>DO support genres outside your own. A healthy music scene isn’t just one thriving genre. </p><p>Its ok to look to bigger city scenes or the mainstream industry for inspiration but DO think of ways to highlight the uniqueness of your city and its sounds. </p><p>DON’T shit on the local scene. You live here, its yours, be real about the issues, but not dismissive. <br><br>To be continued…maybe</p>spaceghostyonstag:spaceghostyons.com,2005:Post/67459992021-09-14T17:15:17-04:002021-09-14T18:45:18-04:00Do You Need Expensive Music Gear?<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="1915" data-orig-width="3404"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/cdd8dd107b6aa3bdf36c9a1d2e734073/acc0a9f1c63046cd-59/s540x810/91108e2ab35ae7226cbd2091e1ea2c2b9f99d7ae.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></figure><p>you don’t need expensive music gear to make great music. The only reason many pros have expensive gear is so they can work faster and more efficiently for business purposes. I can dial in a good attack and release setting for a drum sound with stock Logic or Ableton or Pro Tools plugins but something like Transient Master by NI shaves off a few extra minutes and in the context of a session or mix that can keep everything moving smoothly. The expensive stuff is mostly for quality of life stuff, you can use 12 stock plugins or 1 one really good 3rd party plugin. Spend hours tweaking a software synth and adding saturation etc to make it sound more analog or just having an alanog synth that just sounds like what you want already with the twist of a few knobs. A focusrite and a universal audio interface don’t really sound all that much different, especially if the source youre recording is great, the UAD interface is just made better so if you’re with a special client, you don’t want to have something that craps out on you or doesn’t have enough I/O or a cheap headphone jack or no alternate outputs, or latency issues, or a faulty usb jack, etc. In most cases you get what you pay for, and that doesn’t necessarily mean in terms of sound, just quality of parts and functionality. So whether or not you should invest in high end gear depends on what you’re doing. If you’re working alone and only working on your own music or a few friends/collaborators, use what you have. But if you’re running a business and want to keep things moving, invest in gear you can depend on that is versatile and handle many different sources well, with good quality components, from reputable companies with great customer service that stand by their name and products. <br></p>spaceghostyonstag:spaceghostyons.com,2005:Post/67390742021-09-07T15:14:37-04:002021-09-07T19:30:09-04:00Why I’m a Christian But Not Really<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="366" data-orig-width="768"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/29665771d976a2a3ea9d4c668787859b/beb28a972d8300b1-58/s540x810/4ce1647436148897570929a31820b536a72c1fd3.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></figure><p>
I used to feel I couldn’t consider myself a Christian because I didn’t fully agree with any of the major denominations and there were/are so many connotations when it comes to calling one a ‘Christian’. So for a while I just told people I was atheist or agnostic. But I pray. I like reading the bible at times. I like a lot of what smart and thoughtful Christians like C.S. Lewis has to say. Being raised Christian, there are aspects of it that are a part of me, who I am. Many say you can’t “pick and choose which scriptures you like”, but thats essentially what the founders of the denominations did. So much of theology and church practice, etc evolved over the centuries. None of them fully agree with each other. Are Catholics Christians? Black Hebrew Israelites? Oneness Pentecostals? Many consider others heretical for allowing women as pastors. Many say you must pay tithes or God won’t bless you, others say tithes is not required. Some say you must take everything in the bible literally, so they believe the earth is 6,000 years old, others say its all allegorical. And when people take issue with all these various contradictions amongst Christianity, what do they do? They start a new church! It starts out rejected by the other denominations but as it grows and more people join, it may eventually become recognized as at least within the ‘Apostles Creed’. Or not, they may still be rejected by the ‘orthodoxy’ (which is just a fancy word for popular, dominant, politically influential Christian denominations) then those people would consider themselves the ‘true Christians’. Then this church itself begins to have its own issues tying its various interpretations together. I’d just rather practice what makes sense to me and leave the church thing alone though I do see the value in it for others (who don’t feel pressured to go out of a belief that they’re going to hell or outside of God’s will if they don’t). Its just not for me. But for a few reasons, I still like considering myself a Christian these days. When you were raised Christian, it can be awkward at gatherings during the prayer or spiritual conversations for people who aren’t ‘in the fold’, so I’d like to redefine what that means. Its about tradition, culture and not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Its my love for people and accepting of who I am why I desire to be called a Christian and be amongst those broadening what that means. I don’t the like the militant atheist or snarky agnostic approach to handling philosophical differences. I think we can all agree there’s a huge aspect of our lives that just looms over us, the unknown, its very humble to acknowledge it and try to find some connection to it or explanation of it, and even work our way through explanations of it enough to figure out what our next steps should be. I think we can still love each other while having different methods and ‘revelations’ in regards to the unknown. I think one can be respectful of the bible and specific religious practices as it pertains to those who value them deeply while also rejecting the aspects we find harmful, nonsensical, or arbitrary. <br></p>spaceghostyonstag:spaceghostyons.com,2005:Post/67379472021-09-06T12:53:00-04:002021-09-06T14:00:25-04:00Lil Nas X Is The Most Gangsta Rapper in 2021<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="422" data-orig-width="750"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/6ea909ead6df07ad8cd3e668ad9e7619/bb1281d10d3bfef2-5a/s540x810/dbc43d83e487823bafc12d72a313721aa746eb60.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></figure><p>A lot of dudes in hiphop culture don’t have a problem with lil Nas X—until they get around the homies, or the barbershop or on the block, nobody wants to show any sign of weakness or vulnerability. Its not even homophobia for real (though homophobia is part of it), because hiphop has always accepted gay women from queen latifah,to snoop from The Wire, girl on girl porn, etc dudes always either liked the sight of two women together or accepted women that act just like the men. Its really the concept of masculinity and what a man is supposed to be and HAS to be in society. You come off as too soft in the wrong crowds and you can get robbed, killed, etc. Or to a lesser extent, not respected or given a voice. You are seen as weak. It likely won’t change anytime soon because most women don’t want a man that can be seen as weak, submissive or carries feminine traits. So you really have a lot of dudes that are softer and more open minded inside but have to pretend to be ignorant and hard for survival. The irony is, that the hardest and most brave dudes are gay men like Lil Nas X that aren’t afraid of challenging all of that. <br></p>spaceghostyonstag:spaceghostyons.com,2005:Post/66914532021-07-18T11:03:20-04:002021-07-18T12:45:10-04:00Space Jam Too Much<figure data-orig-height="273" data-orig-width="184"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/d49aed096ff81843715c6c2223c09a8a/049beb9be1d74514-6d/s540x810/d13fe8211fe060c45e0a924b9c4b1353b0aca385.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></figure><p>Its ok to like space jam 2.<br> Its ok to criticize it. <br>I think many have this idea that because something is a “kids movie” it should be critic proof and I don’t understand it because it was made by adults, who are professionals. If it was made by kids I’d understand that logic. But for a movie with Game of Thrones and The Matrix references, I think its safe to say they knew kids wouldn’t be watching it alone. <br>My issue with Space Jam 2 is I notice something unfortunate happening in the entertainment industry (been happening for decades but now REALLY getting out of hand) where big media corporations are investing much more into owning legacy IPs and marketing than actual writing and creative talent for new ideas, stories and characters. Putting a Matrix sequence in Space Jam 2 isn’t great writing, (like it was in Shrek 20 years ago before every other movie started doing it ) its stunt referencing brand recognition marketing posing as a sight gag. Super Bowl commercial stuff. <br>Many critics criticized Ready Player One for that however I feel they overlooked the good storytelling and action setpieces in that film that earned, say, its King Kong cameo. The King Kong appearance in Space Jam 2 felt forced and thats before it evoked Denzel’s infamous rant in Training Day.<br>It just all felt like none of these references made any sense outside of the fact that there are new Matrix movies on the horizon, new Game of Thrones spin-offs, and perhaps more King Kong blockbusters awaiting us as well as an overall streaming service where we can catch all the ‘classics’ referenced for only $15 a month! <br>Now to be fair, you can say Space Jam 2 itself was inherently predestined to be a feature length commercial being a reboot sequel of what amounted to the unofficial original “most ambitious crossover event in film history” decades before the MCU’s Infinity War. However I think it crosses a line of replacing coherent storytelling with the spectacle of brand recognition in ways the original Space Jam nor the Marvel films never approached. <br>The final basketball game in A new Legacy is a great example of that. Whereas in the original film, the writers used basic pacing, banter between the characters and the mechanics of basketball (like any good sports film would) to build some tension and stakes. In the sequel there’s just random introductions of some new familiar character or icon or using existing characters to reference something else in pop culture (Porky Pig is the Notorious PIG, because kids would get that) to push the action of the game along. it’s all supposed to be funny or entertaining because, well, you know, we ‘get that reference’. It drags on with this seemingly for twice as long as the game in the original. It doesn’t help that the game is much further away in space from actual basketball than computer processors in 1996 could handle. It all amounts to a narrative mess, that admittedly does keep attention spans due to the sheer amount of things happening at once. Multi-core processors being pushed to the max for the multi-tasking generation who will be watching with a phone and tablet in their lap with multiple tabs open. <br>Its not without its charms however. Lebron is amiable, playing a somewhat more serious version of his persona he employs for Nike ads. His acting is about on par with Michael Jordan’s, thought this script would’ve exposed Michael Jordans lack of real acting talent as well. The cgi is beautiful to watch throughout, though one can expect that from any blockbuster nowadays, but it does help that they had the tried and true character designs of the Looney Tunes to prop up the overall aesthetics. Kids will definitely enjoy this movie for the most part, however that should be no excuse to overlook its glaring flaws, as kids aren’t hard to please. These entertainment juggernauts know that, which is why it seems they are working overtime to keep us as indiscriminate and wide eyed about all our favorite characters (and icons) and brands as children. <br><br></p>spaceghostyonstag:spaceghostyons.com,2005:Post/66597062021-06-15T00:02:36-04:002021-06-15T02:30:14-04:00Some Random Thoughts on Friendship<p>A great way to tell if someone is truly a friend is pay attention to how they respond when you share some good news with them. A true friend won’t immediately think about what the news means for them or your relationship with them. A true friend won’t immediately downplay something you’re excited about even if they feel it’s not that great. They will trust your judgement–if they don’t trust your judgement, its likely because they have predatory intentions with you and rely on what they perceive as your lack of judgement to manipulate you. A true friend wouldn’t be your friend if they felt they couldn’t trust your decision-making enough to be excited with you during such a moment. A true friend is someone that will do what they can to help you win and not be afraid to take an L with you. </p>spaceghostyonstag:spaceghostyons.com,2005:Post/66597072021-06-14T23:55:40-04:002021-06-15T02:30:14-04:00Some Random Thoughts on Friendship<p>A great way to tell if someone is truly a friend is pay attention to how they respond when you share some good news with them. A true friend won’t immediately think about what the news means for them or your relationship with them. A true friend won’t immediately downplay something you’re excited about even if they feel it’s not that great. They will trust your judgement–if they don’t trust your judgement, its likely because they have predatory intentions with you and rely on what they perceive as your lack of judgement to manipulate you. A true friend wouldn’t be your friend if they felt they couldn’t trust your decision-making. A true friend is someone that will do what they can to help you win and not be afraid to take an L with you. </p>spaceghostyonstag:spaceghostyons.com,2005:Post/66034562021-04-13T22:21:04-04:002021-04-13T22:32:20-04:00What Does It Mean To Be An Artist?<p>Stop worrying about success or failure. I tell myself. But its difficult not to once you’ve released a project you’ve poured a great deal of your lower middle class income into specifically to give your project a good chance of reaching a larger audience. Much of it going towards aspects of your project that have little to nothing to do with the actual creation itself. But on polish, packaging, and promotion so that people might actually care about your project a little bit more than they care about the projects thousands of other artists are pleading them to check out. <br>It feels shameless and shallow to have to resort to gimmicks and make your actual art take the backseat to instagram pics, and clout co-signs. But such is the game. </p><p>Or is it? </p><p>What if you just didn’t care. Just made art, and put it out however and didn’t worry about the results? Well I know quite a few artists that do exactly this. But with a few exceptions the vast majority are able to do so out of privilege, they have careers in other fields that can support making high quality art or they simply do not make high quality art or they end up still unsatisfied with their work not getting attention and stop creating art altogether out of bitterness OR they attempt to forego the industry and marketing side of art only to be lured or forced back in by industry interest in their quiet yet very public work.</p><p>I’ve found that if you’re a really good artist its almost impossible to release work you’re passionate about and not have to deal with industry. Somebody’s going to want you to perform, feature, etc. your passion and talent will attract the industry. Along with it comes pressure to ‘do things the right way’, ‘not waste your talent’, ‘be professional’, and my favorite ‘level up’. <br><br>But I don’t think its healthy or productive for artists to cede to that pressure. It will more often than not keep artists from releasing music as they feel its not ‘professional’ enough. They feel they need a certain level of mixing, mastering, promotion, etc or they will be wasting all the effort they put into their music. But the reality is that itss much better to put out low quality art than to put out nothing. If an artist can’t afford to make an industry campaign they shouldn’t feel they need to quit. The percentage of artists that will go on to be ‘successful’ in the industry is so small it makes no sense for that to be what music culture is centered around, especially as far as local scenes go. There are so many other ways to make money from being an artist that aren’t being encouraged or centered, theres so much more to being a great artist than billboard charts or awards shows, but in far too many circles its all about the industry lottery. </p><p>I don’t think ‘industry’ is bad or pursuing a label signing, etc is bad, or caring about image or followers, etc is necessarily bad but for far too many artists it becomes a negative, toxic experience that makes them lose focus on why they began creating in the first place. <br><br>Put out your art, join an art community, genuinely enjoy and support other art without doing so just because some marketing guy told you thats how to build engagement. Don’t be too hard on yourself, if you can’t put your art out with the same high end rollouts as major or signed indie artists, thats ok. Its about connecting with people and expressing yourself, thats what being an artist is about. If everybody around you isn’t pushing your art, thats ok, cherish the few that do connect with it, keep creating for them, keep creating for YOU, that’s what it means to be an artist. </p>spaceghostyonstag:spaceghostyons.com,2005:Post/66034572020-09-09T13:08:29-04:002021-04-13T22:32:20-04:00Why I Don’t Make Songs Anymore<p>I do make songs still. I just needed an exaggerated click-baity headline to compete for attention in this unpredictable economy. But I don’t make songs at nearly the rate I used to and not nearly the same way. Instead I’ve been mostly making short videos of half-songs, song ideas to sell to others, and in-studio edits of the making-of variety. And I’ve been finding that far more enjoyable than making actual songs. Not because its easier, it can be, but recording and editing video can be its own art and thus pita. But mostly because the online fan engagement on these short videos along with the short time it takes to make them really makes it difficult to put the hundreds of hours and dollars I typically have spent in the past producing and marketing a full song just to not see half the engagement I get on a short home video. </p><p>Why is that? Well there can be many factors. I think the most obvious ones are video content is king today with video being incorporated into every major platform and attention spans are shorter. In order for someone to listen to a full song, they usually have to leave the social media platform they’re on and thats just an eternity in internet time. Then there are less obvious factors like are my short videos just better than the full songs I’ve released? I don’t think so but I’m open to the idea. Like don’t get me wrong there are countless artists still making full songs and doing well. They’ve just managed to find the right marketing angle with music that connects with the current large listening demographics and streaming playlist curators more, which can be very hard to do even if you make music that many people find great as there are successful artists that complain about not fitting onto curated playlists (read Sango’s recent tweets). I like to think i make great music but maybe my music is more accessible to this generation presented in non-traditional ways like being broken down into short videos. I also think with the increasing prevalence of online and digital savvy, having slick visuals and highly processed content just doesn’t stand out like it used to. In 2015 a high-end music video uploaded to Facebook would immediately gain hundreds of views within an hour regardless of how good the music was, it was just rare, now with quality cameras being cheaper and editing software being more accessible anyone with a few free afternoons can get great visuals so now I’m seeing really great music videos get less plays than someone recording live violin samples into their drum machine on a smartphone. There’s something raw and personal (even if its arguably manufactured) about video shot semi-professionally at home with an iphone or decent dslr, its why Tiktok users that make millions are still talking directly into their smartphones from their room, even if it is in mansion, even if they do have a $350 gimbal attached to it and $3000 worth of lighting equipment outside the shot. <br> </p><p>In a way this way of releasing content has reinvigorated me as an artist. After years of putting so much into songs only to be low-key heartbroken over and over trying to get people around to listen and support, knowing you have a much larger fanbase, you just need a push to reach them but being drowned out before you can. Being sidetracked by people that want to help that see your talent but have their own ideas for it, putting on great shows but not having enough people come out to support, getting good local press but it not meaning much in a city that doesn’t really have a thriving music economy/scene, being confused by marketing advice that doesn’t really apply to an artist looking to challenge the market, etc. I struggled to trust my writing, I struggled to trust my instincts with music, I second-guessed myself, my friends would joke about how many times I edited music and changed things over and over. Its because there was so much riding on the one song I could afford to release professionally a year. I’ve never considered myself a hobbyist and don’t really approach music as such, though I respect those who do. I want to earn money as a musical artist, I’ve invested thousands of dollars into equipment and growing my skills, I’ve put years into my work and artistry. I want to be as organic and free as possible but if theres no audience for my work I really want to invest my creative energy elsewhere. I have little passion to write, let alone release what I write professionally if there aren’t enough people in the world that find it interesting enough to pay me to do it for a living. Maybe that means I’m not a ‘real’ artist, I don’t know, but thats just my motivation, connecting with people, expressing myself fully-but inspiring others in the process and based upon the small yet fervent real support I get I have good evidence to believe that I do have an audience if I could only break through past the waves of people that find me ‘interesting’ or talented yet aren’t really fans, you know the ones that ask for features, beats, performances, etc that acknowledge my talent and potential and want to use it but don’t really consistently look for, listen to or support my music that kill the social media algorithms for me. </p><p><br>So I’ve found new life as an artist outside of releasing songs traditionally. I’ve gotten more into sample packs, music licensing, and am now making short videos. All low cost investments that can yield big gains and engagement while allowing me to make the music I personally want to make, just in a different format. I still see value in creating full songs, spending big bucks on quality mixing, mastering, high quality videos, and releasing in industry standard ways and will likely get back to that once I’ve built my audience where I want it to be. </p><p>But I think it says something when artists that have done all that and struggled to get where they want to be are able to get exponentially greater results just uploading a video of their artistic expression in its rawest form. I think the internet and social media have really shaken things up and as artists it’d be wise to see how we can use it to our advantage and remain as independent as possible. </p>spaceghostyonstag:spaceghostyons.com,2005:Post/66034582020-09-07T12:13:51-04:002021-04-13T22:32:20-04:00TikTok Is (Small) Business<p>As much as capitalists harp on about small businesses being important etc there is actually a bit of a bias against small businesses in this country. We make fun of and criticize individuals that behave like corporations (hate for Tiktok marketers, influencers, youtubers, etc). We let big corporations come into our cities and put local businesses out. We prefer the convenience they allow us and take little thought of exploitation and greed. We don’t think much of art until it gets an industry stamp of approval then everyone comes out to congratulate for winning a major industry award. Entrepreneurs are seen as dreamers and told to get real jobs (working for big businesses or the government). When you think of why we tend to lean towards big corporations for products and services and when you think about marketing it actually suggests socialism is what people want. A big business moving to our city means jobs for everyone, thats what gets celebrated. Its not about the product or services being offered at all ha, its about the economic power it’ll provide the community. Its not that the best ideas are rising to the top, ideas are being selected by the ones on the top, sometimes they’re the best, other times they are just the ones that can be mass produced the best. Throw in businesses being able to lobby and be bailed out by the government, how is that a free market? <br></p>spaceghostyonstag:spaceghostyons.com,2005:Post/66034592020-08-02T00:35:14-04:002021-04-13T22:32:20-04:00Closed Worlds : A Discussion and Critique of Open World Action RPGs<figure data-orig-width="1280" data-orig-height="720" class="tmblr-full"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/957dd4dd2350768afe99b08994e5321f/33b37ea9d8242f9e-21/s540x810/2abf4c322f7aa0b6f9cb5f61da8f85b41e63f708.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="image" /></figure><p>I love open world video games. Or should I say I love the idea of open world games. My experience with them, however, has been a bit of a mixed bag. While I always appreciate what they’re trying to do and the spirit of them, I find myself often not being able to ignore what they can’t do. I feel the games that really end up winning me over are the ones that accept and sometimes even embrace the limitations of the genre, technology and the human willingness to engage virtual realities. </p><p>My experience with open world games started back in the early 2000s with Grand Theft Auto 2. I think the top-down isometric nature of that game really reigned in the developer, Rockstar, and forced them to pack a lot of punch into the sandbox elements and core gameplay, giving it a simple yet deep re-playable gameplay loop. Fast forward a few years to the sequels GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas and the latest GTA 5 and I think there are a few issues that more or less permeate these games as they ventured increasingly more into 3 dimensional game engine physics, realistic graphics, large maps and detailed interaction over the years influencing just about every other open world game in the process due to the wild success of these games. The general conceit of Grand Theft Auto wore thin with me shortly after San Andreas and while the games still interested me, I felt I’d never really feel like there were many, let alone infinite, possibilities. I wanted to walk in a random house and find something new. I wanted to recruit someone off the street to be my partner. The huge open world with all the seeming thousands of people walking the streets and entering detailed buildings invited those ideas but couldn’t possibly live up to them. I felt Rockstar was making linear games within unnecessarily large game worlds filled with unnecessary details that weren’t integral to game-play. It ends up feeling like going to a major theme park as a kid, at first you’re like wow, everything seems so big and immersive but the longer you stay, the more you see things like characters taking their costumes off or many buildings just being props, nobody really lives there, when the lights go off, everyone goes home. I liked what they were attempting and still believe them to be great games, but dare I say, not great open world games. I almost gave up on the genre and single-player rpg games in general, for various reasons, almost missing an entire generation of gaming to focus on you know, real life. But toward the end of the PS3 cycle I heard tell of a game that might have taken the open world genre to new heights while I’d been gone. A game where you can walk into every house (you might get arrested) and recruit random people to be your partner. I took my Christmas money and headed to Gamestop to buy a PS3, this game, Skyrim, and two other games I missed that everyone had raved about, Red Dead Redemption, and The Last of Us. I’d been so late to the party that I only spent about $250 for all that. </p><p>Skyrim immediately impressed me with its approach to open world design. You could pick up just about every item in the game. This is a sandbox element that adds to gameplay as many of these items can be sold or used to craft or simply placed in other places indefinitely to decorate or mark game areas for whatever reason you might have. Its an aspect that has very little to do with graphical details that adds much more to make the game world feel like a real space. It also doesn’t hurt that in Skyrim you can create your own character. Character creation alone adds a level of immersion for an open world game that fixed character games have a hard time reaching, especially when the character creation options are as deep as Skyrim. You add all the classes, spells, weapons, enchantments and how they can all be used in various ways and it quite literally makes for endless possibilities, which is why many players have sunk hundreds of hours into the game and can fire up a new play through almost a decade after launch. I was convinced Bethesda, with Skyrim, had the blueprint for open world design. But after getting midway through Skyrim’s main story quest, I found its problem. Its main story and overall lore was a bit weak and generic. And it had to be. In order for the player character to run off and create his own stories, the main story had to be as general as possible. You can’t have the highly detailed backstory needed for a compelling narrative with a character creation menu that allows the player to choose from six different races and both genders. In order for Skyrim to give the player choice and agency, it had to take away depth and detail within the world. I’m still not sure if thats is necessarily a bad thing, as the modding community on PC have taken advantage of Skyrim’s open-ended nature to craft quests and add-on content that gives the game more depth, I don’t think that can necessarily be considered as part of an honest critique on the base game. I was convinced however that linear stories didn’t work well with open world games. Until I played Red Dead Redemption. </p><p>Red Dead Redemption seemed to have gotten it all right when it comes to how to make a linear game and balance that against open world elements. I enjoyed traversing through the western setting via horse. Knowing that a cougar could pounce on me at any moment while I’m skinning a rabbit kept me on edge. The gun play was fun. It was a simple game play loop. Rockstar, as I’ve read, were reaching the limitations of the game engine they were using at the time and just were not able to pile on details as they were with Red Dead Redemption 2 and I think the former was better for it. Red Dead Redemption 2 is the most realistic game I’ve ever played and I just remember being overwhelmed with the controls, the tedium of what I felt were unnecessary options in the game, having to take care of my horse just felt a lot more simplified in the first game. Red Dead Redemption 2 featured weapons repair and cleaning and you’d think with all that attention to detail when it came to the guns that the basic shooting mechanics would be as tight and focused and they just weren’t. I feel the shooting mechanics were better in the first game. I recall the lock-on targeting shooting feature, called Dead Eye, being really fun and engaging in the first game but in Red Dead Redemption 2 it ended up being yet another thing to remember in the long list of tasks this game seemed to give me and it just felt clunky and tacked on. I feel Red Dead 2′s attention to graphical detail and story would have made it a great linear game, with no need for a huge open world, similar to The Last of Us. I don’t have a problem with games giving you a lot of different things to do, I just think those things shouldn’t require lots of menu diving and heavy memorization. It should be intuitive and always fun. That is good game design. Throwing a ton of money at an engine and stacking a development team to increase the file size of a game isn’t necessarily good design. I feel the same way about the universally acclaimed game from Polish developer CD-Projekt Red, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. </p><p>I hadn’t played the previous games in The Witcher series prior to Wild Hunt or even knew much about the IP. I had just caught on, along with most of the gaming world, after promotional game play footage was revealed at E3 about a year prior to its release. Capitalizing on the industry’s appetite for another medieval fantasy open world adventure post-Skyrim, CD Projekt Red had everyone’s attention. Fresh off playing Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption, and The Last of Us, I was ready for the next-gen take on the Open World concept that also would have a strong story, being based on a known low-fantasy book series in Poland. With HBO’s Game of Thrones being all the rage at the time, it was just a perfect storm in the gaming world. I pre-ordered a special edition of the game and picked it up day one, it came with a poster and a figurine, neither of which I still have. There was a lot I enjoyed about the game, the story and side quests were engaging, the graphics were beautiful but I never felt the locales were ‘living and breathing’ as many reviews and fanboys implied. The focus on details over truly interactive aspects that effect game play just made me notice what I couldn’t move, which doors I couldn’t open and that characters were just ‘reading a script’. The combat was particularly uninspiring, which was truly unfortunate because the game centered around it. I think if more effort was put into giving the game combat that rivaled Batman Arkham Asylum than it was creating a huge open world, I really feel it would’ve been a better more re-playable game. Its tough to make that argument since the game has broken records and received so many perfect scores but I think its because the game had a lot of other things going for it in regards to strong story and it definitely broke enough new ground for the open world genre as far as fantasy rpgs are concerned to fill the void for those long-awaiting the next Elder Scrolls installment after Skyrim. But I felt for all its strengths for those that were drawn in by the story and atmosphere it was equally a turn off for those that just wanted a true open world experience where there was at least some element that facilitated the actuality or even just the illusion of endless possibilities. And also more or less just wanted a genre game that was fun with tight and intuitive mechanics. </p><p>Since The Witcher 3 there have been many open world games released. Entire franchises have shifted to the open world format such as Assassins Creed. There’s Far Cry, Watchdogs, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Bethesda’ s other major IP, Fallout. All fine games and game series, some better than others, but for me, they all mostly fall into the open world game problems of not knowing how to make a great base game play loop within an open world while also prioritizing pushing the envelope of processing power. In many of these games level design, combat mechanics, narrative, etc suffer and in games where it doesn’t, where there are great mechanics and great story, Horizon Zero Dawn, for example, the open world is largely unnecessary. There really isn’t much if anything in that game that couldn’t have been in a much better linear game. But open worlds are a huge draw, its that teasing of no boundaries and full immersion. I think for many people these games satisfy that itch but for me and others it doesn’t but I think there’s a way to satisfy us all. I think focusing on realism over design and basic mechanics to create immersion is backwards. I don’t think graphical quality really matters all that much when it comes to immersion, especially since graphics become outdated really fast. For a while it seemed developers would continue pushing the boundaries of system processors and game engines with promises of even bigger worlds, even greater graphics, and that would be their way of advancing the open world genre, instead of just making great game play. Until Nintendo decided to reboot its Zelda series. </p><p>The Legend of Zelda; Breath of The Wild is quite possibly my favorite open world video game ever. Nintendo seems to have learned from the mistakes of other developers and focused more on game engine physics as they pertain to game play, not just graphics. When other developers were spending E3 presentations talking about ambient occlusion and anti-aliasing, Nintendo focused on making the world for BOTW immersive by going back to the basics of gaming : fun. It wasn’t content on just tossing tons of items into its game world. It focused on making those items truly interactive with the game world in ways that give the player real choice and freedom. There’s so many different ways to take down a camp of enemies in the game, it doesn’t quite get old. The story may not be as strong as previous Zelda games, but it cleverly used those old stories, in a way only open world games could, to build a world that was believable and immersive. Having a less tightly focused narrative is a welcome trade-off when characters and environment can be interacted with to such extent. </p><p>I hoped developers would learn from Breath of the Wild, being the critical and commercial success that it was. But with game after game being released afterward that shifted the focus back to non-game-play aspects, I figured it must be easier to hire 100 more design students to work on grass than it is to find 1 creative genius of game design. I didn’t give up on open world games, I still play Skyrim on PC, I am looking forward to playing the DLC for Zelda I’ve yet to download, but I did stop looking for new IPs and other developers to wow me. During my gaming hiatus I heard that respected developer Sucker Punch was working on an open world Samurai game based in feudal Japan. I thought to myself, oh yeah, it’ll likely be another Assassins Creed-like game, yet another game company looking to milk the open world genre. Skip. The press releases and early promotional footage seemed to confirm my suspicions. Beautiful open world, wide landscapes, talks about lighting and foliage. I kept it on my radar but I wasn’t expecting much. Man was i wrong about this game, Ghost of Tsushima. </p><p>Upon release of the game, I actually had another game on pre-order, The Last of Us 2, which i was exponentially more excited about. But after bad user reviews and story leaks for the Last of Us 2 and such great early reviews for GOT, as well as in-game footage that was rocking the gaming community, I transferred my pre-order funds to GOT. Within an hour of playing the game it was apparent that this game not only took visual and design inspiration from Breath of The Wild but it also built on the philosophy that Breath of The Wild established for its take on open world design. Keep core game play simple and intuitive. Ensure that the core game play loop is one of, if not the most compelling things about the game. For GOT its the combat. The deep combat system is one that I will be playing for a while and can see myself coming back to. I’m not fighting bad guys to level up my character or to find a certain weapon or unlock a bit of story, I’m fighting bad guys because its fun as fuck. Sucker Punch seems to understand that its not enough to make a game visually impressive from a graphics standpoint, if you’re going to focus on visuals make it beautiful from an art standpoint. The photo mode in this game, how color works, how the foliage and building design was done not to just exhibit the highest texture quality my console could handle but more to balance the visual canvas at all times, create such a stimulating experience for the eyes that is more akin to looking at an art exhibit than it is to watching a CGI action movie set piece. How GOT of handles story, side quests, exploring the world is impressive as I never feel I have to do anything I don’t want to do. It proves that an open world game can have fleshed out characters and deep stories while also allowing the character to roam free, giving incentive to follow the main story quest instead of making it a chore. It, along with Breath of The Wild challenged my belief that open world games should allow character creation and not have much of a mandatory central plot. It also proved that a game with a linear story could fit wonderfully within an open world, if the open world was utilized for game play effectively and the story was cleverly tied to those game play aspects. </p><p>I am about halfway through Ghost of Tsushima and I am very optimistic that it will end satisfactorily for me because it has already exceeded my expectations,and I am also optimistic about the future of open world games. GOT looks to be a runaway success, selling out in many places. I do hope that other developers take note and realize they need not put so much pressure on themselves to break technical barriers, what makes great open world games, is the same thing that makes great games in general, great core game-play. </p>spaceghostyons