Pushing through to the realm of the radical is often thwarted by the constrictive boundaries of realistic limitations.
Sometimes it’s just a freaking tornado
A lot of what happens on ATE acts within a grander consideration to gaming as a whole, my relation to it, etc. I’m always thinking about what that means, how to convey a message, entertain and or inform. A lot of me is always ponderous on just what constitutes value in that regard. In relation to my opening sentiment, it does bring into question how to cover everyday events in gaming, whether it be represented by a news story, a critique of the industry, or something like a preview of sorts. Maybe the delivery mechanism only matters to a certain point, and maybe the voice delivering it only matters in the same vein, dependent on time and place? Perhaps it’s a standard, this weirdly inherent quality that makes a video game a video game, and a write up of a video game just as much so if it possesses those kind of unspoken values that are part and parcel what make up the entity in question.
Insert obvious Ship of Theseus reference
This is all relative to the task at hand on a couple of levels, speaking to an approach of writing, to the kind of game Echoes of Wisdom is, to the idea of previews in relation to a recent look back at my article involving The Plucky Squire. It’s possible this all could be just me grappling with the very depths of morbid curiosity, or the wild throws of existential dread involving taking for granted the reality of knowledge acquired vs the mode of transfer and the transitive properties there after, or feeling just in general restless at the idea of writing a preview, inspite of liking the new Zelda game.
It is Zelda afterall…well within possession of that very “-ishness”
it should to claim such an inference
To wit; I did write a preview for The Plucky Squire, and it seemed to come out as one would expect for a video game preview. The article explains the mechanics, showcases visuals to get the vibe of the game in focus, provides some humor and insight to relay what could be considered obscured points of interest on some level. Though, it does beg the question: was there value inherent there? Did it serve a greater purpose than selfishness in it’s creation? Can a single preview move the needle that much based on it’s merits alone? The old adage “every drop fills the bucket” springs to mind, which bears relevancy, but in the horrifying regard of realizing that no single drop matters, but the volume of the container wouldn’t be the same without all of them, so there is some sense of deconstructionism involved with the value and purpose intertwined with individuality vs the majority.
How many Zeldas (or Links for that matter) are required to
make the composite idea of what that character represents?
There’s of course Echoes of Wisdom itself. It’s a traditional 2D Zelda game in most regards. Yes, you play as Zelda, and yes you utilize magic to duplicate objects and manipulate the terrain around you, which is out of the ordinary for traditional Zelda games which are mostly predicated on simplistic battling with the occasional puzzle thrown in, but could Echoes of Wisdom really buck the trend of the Zelda formula too much before it became unrecognizable? Very much like the “-ishness” I refer to when understanding the inherent qualities of what makes up a game preview, could Echoes of Wisdom truly be so derivative before being accused of not being Zelda at all? Where would be the line? How non-Zelda like could it be before it started to really lose fans, and how many Zelda fans would read a preview of the game without mostly having their minds made up on the issue of whether or not they were going to play it?
The divining line that marks the “-ishness” of Zelda
enough
Then of course there is the approach to writing. just how *much* information does the regular reader derive from a single article anymore, and how many read beyond the first three seconds of any given piece before making up their minds in general? Have the lot mostly moved on to content consumption equivalent to binging junk ala memes, shorter video based content, or just social media in general? If my preview of Echoes of Wisdom was a Tik Tok video of me making loud noises to some warped version of the Zelda theme while showing jarring footage of the game, would that somehow be more or less culturally relevant in my coverage then this article? Or if I made this whole thing a single line and said “Play Zelda” and gave it 10 sexy elves out of 10, would that generate more hype than any number of countless words that follow? Do we conflate informative shares with entertainment to the point of the idea that what’s boring isn’t relevant? In the court of public opinion, it’s usually a race to the bottom of the hole of irrationality, and the last one there is an unpopular rotten egg.
…or more like a “dubious food”, just to keep the metaphors
inline with the whole idea of maintaining Zelda “-ishness”
Much like I pointed out The Plucky Squire would be a rarity in being a preview for a video game on launch day on ATE, I suppose this is kind of the counter-point to the very idea of previews for Echoes of Wisdom, as I am left curious as to how radically different a Zelda game could be within those limitations. If a new Zelda game is out, how much do you really need to know about it to make up your mind? How much of a preview is genuine information for a title that is such a known known, and how much of a boundary breaker can a preview be in it’s own approach before it’s too befuddled with abstraction that it ceases being relevant?
I’m not quite sure.
~Pashford
Active Time Event 