Art and gaming (kinda long af)

[Deleted]

In this I just kinda ramble and digress: in case you care to read and respond, I advise you to do the same.
Sorry for typo's, I did my best to correct everyhing (this is a lie but I did try). I also want to apologise for the way I structure my sentences, they might be very difficult to read at times.

Art is a controversial topic so let me clarify what I mean with it.
Art to me is practically everything life brings forth. I've accepted how vague it was anyway but the term is slightly reminiscent of love; we all know what we mean with it but it's almost as difficult and indirect to describe as it is to describe colours. Some others might completely disagree. Even that can be argued to be art for some think that all we interpret and thus give meaning is art. In this way, everything is art, and existance becomes kinda lonely considering everything is what you think it is. A self-drawing hand: you interpet, based on what it is; the latter already being an interpretation of what it is. Your view is just an interpretation.
I see every person being their own masterpiece. To forever become 'more', change, basically all for it's own sake (l'art pour l'art) because when we die, all we are and were and all we have felt kinda gets nullified (even though at a certain moment it meant everything to a certain person, which is an infinity of awesomeness for the individual; practically what life's about. You once again do all this alone; you feel what you feel, noone else). To go through a proces of death and rebirth, as an artwork never to be finished, is how I see being human, whether you die and get reborn 30 times a day, a year, a month or an age.
Art once was something that enlightened the people. We might now laugh at the notion and it became very edgy to love or hate art. But I seriously am wondering what the value of 'art' and 'products' is right now. I say this because I see this in huge areas of pop culture (movies, music, gaming): producers try to commercialise everything about whatever they make and it sucks. Yes it's nice to watch some mind-numbing cgi while stuffing your face with popcorn, it's almost good for you, therapeutic (I can adress the cycle of laziness and depression one could theoretically spiral into but it's too easy to over-analyse everything (some people would find this a huge point)). However, this mass-production for mass-consumption (in art), it's almost a glitch in our system. Potatoes were an amazing invention, Thonet's chairs were too (wtf am I saying); both with the goal of mass-production for mass-consumption. But not everything works that way. Not everything turns out to be what we thought it would become. Passion sometimes just sells more, even if it shouldn't on paper. I guess the world isn't what we expected it to be and become with the idealistic theories of religion, liberalism and socialism. Clarification: our art shapes a huge part of our view on the world, it can teach us alot about general things and the very act of teaching and learning itself. The art has to sell because everything has to sell #liberalism. We come up with ''what's easy to sell, what would people buy and buy and buy over and over again?''. You can put heroin in it, or just dumb it down to a simple level until nobody understands 'the enlightening/good art' anymore (kind of a weird example, but it displays the downwards spiral: a selffulfilling prophechy of ''they're dumb so we can't make them smarter'': 'art' dying/not being art anymore, just a way to waste your time, to keep you off drugs and criminality (kinda ironic because good art should guide you to the truth which guides you to the right way of living)). The goal will be overshadowed by the mean: we need to make an amazing product. We will be guided and stimulated by the competition between everything reaching this goal. To get to the top, we have to let go of baggage. Usually people let go of what would make them deserve a place at the top.
I could go on about art but I should specifically aim this at WoW/gaming (kinda too late, I digressed loads already). To what extend is the story behind a game art, to what extend is the game itself art (the music, the scenery, the classes and the way they work)? Should it and does it enlighten us? I ask this because art usually suffers under liberalism/commercialism. I'm by no means extremely leftist/anti-capitalism, I accept that it's pretty much our best shot for now (freedom yo), but I see alot of things including art (which should be very valuable to us) suffering under commercial pressure. The game should be a very honest expression of it's creators and right now it feels like ''I'm getting paid for doing what I'm told to do''. And maybe even more importantly: I feel like this should, counter-intuitively to alot of people, sell more. People feel that the soulless shit that's being handed to us isn't like the shit we used to play, with surprising stories and original characters.
I stopped playing as much as I used to in MoP and seriously quit shortly before WoD (I have tried it and it isn't for me). The storytelling in vanilla and BC was shit but I liked the shitty narrative - having to read someone's shitty explanation of why you have to do some shitty stuff on the other side of the world - and the morals (which both are something personal). Some of the stories, for instance the Sholomance story were quite gripping and made you want to act in this, even-less-meaningful-than-life virtual reality. The story behind WoW is solid, it's an insane amount of information and it's legitimately interesting but since WotLK it felt less and less powerful and more like a movie (where in 2 hours hero becomes hero, almost dies, then fucks his crush). It's Mcdonalds art. It sells, we enjoy it for a while, in a way it's very powerful even as just a statement but it's not that statement, it's not a gift that keeps on giving, it won't move us towards what we need after that, sadly. Especially the last point is kind of interesting: alot of movements respond to eachother and that way become these little islands we swim to. Now we're drifting in between the islands. Maybe that will trigger a huge artistic response, maybe the response to the artistic response will not be enough and we'll have failed at another front of us defending what we gained from the Enlightenment.
Maybe activision illumati zionists forced blizzard, a passionate company, to give up on their passion to just produce for the sake of selling, not for the sake of 'consumption'. A simple example of a recurring theme of nihilism and irony.
I don't mean that all games should have some strong, moving and layered philosophical message. I just want them to be honest expressions of the creators. Whether it's some idiot who loves guns and blood or someone who feels like she/he's watching a dying world, crippled and blinded by their own ways, blaming others for the bleeding knees. A braindead game can be very therapeutic but caring about the characters and their development (even if it's a shallow and superficial), having interesting themes and symbolism (even if they're unintended; when you look at art, you are the artist; you interpret, you give it meaning) is pretty important too. I feel like if so many people put so much time into these games (creating and playing), they might as well have some more value than they have right now, especially some of the newer overly commercialised games and even movies (those games you cannot not know because you're almost forced to play them once you look outside). That's some more irony: it seems like producers pump more money into you wanting to buy the product than it actually being worth having the product. I'd figure that if the product is good af, it would sell right? If only people would finish their game and start with some strong sense of love for the subject matter... If it's idiots loving boobs and guns or idiots loving to express their existential despair: I feel like alot of games could capitalise on this huge black hole in the market: something powerful, raw and honest. I'd like people to just express how they feel about movies, games, WoW specifically, contemporary art in general (it's difficult to discuss contemporary art without involving history but whatever). I know this might hurt for some small producers/artists as they feel like they already do this but don't get recognised... So, sorry
I have to say that there's alot of good stuff being put out there. Alot of music and graphic detail in shitt games is amazing. Not every person goes full retard and just accepts the way things are going (aiming ofcourse at the people who can influence the way things are going). I, however, feel like the relationship between 'artists'/visionaries and bussinessmen should change. It still feels like a fucking joke sometimes, as if some creators are just wondering what the fuck their audience will take until they lynch them. I can't see whose fault it is, but I do see it happens everywhere (so maybe it is done by the zionists?)
To me, we are the artists when we are exposed to art. We try to figure out what was meant, and in a story we feel what we feel based on the words and what we have attached to those words (once again, very personal). Maybe a certain character uses words someone you knew used to use, then it means something very different to you than it would mean for anyone else. And when I say tree, I see a different tree than the one you see. Back to the gaming point: I feel like gaming (alot of the media/art in general) is and can be very valuable to alot of people but it can be quite alot more valuable and enriching but that alot of the products are just suffering under certain criteria that should empower the product. The means becoming the end: we take completely insane steps to go somewhere because we forgot why and just call what we are doing 'changing with the times'.
The music and scenery in for instance WoW is definitely artistically very rich. You could take a taxi, watch your computer screen with the music on and it would be pretty heavy, especially if you let your mind go over everything that happened in the WoW universe up until Wotlk/cata (because it seriously become some weird bs during those 2 xpacts). I have had incredibly nice experiences, making a few rough weeks easier to live through or even learning some serious things that will stick to me forever. Most of all, WoW is meeting you little artistic masterpieces, trashtalking you and making friends (this might just be the most important thing about gaming).
I hope I'm not the only one concerned about the degeneration of art (it would be a nice confirmation that I'm not going full schizo; which would be pretty bad because I'll get convinced I'm the only sane person left). I'm pretty sure Justin Bieber and Gods of Egpyt could unintentionally be immensely meaningful to me if I dropped some acid but WoW's story, along with some other way more ridiculous games would still just make me wonder ''Why did anyone who read this before this was publicised and think this was a good idea? How did everyone just allow this to happen?''.
This specifically feels kinda sad in WoW's case because I feel like from Lost Vikings/blizzard's founding up until BC the whole team was super passionate about what was going on. Talented, free, inspired. Now I would believe you if you told me the new IP was being created somewhere on the western shore of China, by people who have no internal bullshit filter or that Mike Morhaime just lets his children write some parts (does he even have kids...?). I would empathise with this: after months of ceaseless crying, any way to find your kids to shut up feels like scoring a fix after heroin withdrawal. Let them write your game and you'll have peace and tranquillity for at least a few hours. Until your subscribers stop playing your game because it fucking sucks and garissons aren't as great as they could have been.

*Bullshit*
I don't mind if people here rant about how MMORPG's have stopped being MMORPG's. This might sound weird coming from a pvp'er (as I'm used to just getting a toon to max, flying around in a capital until the arena queue pops; playing WoW like an online arena... so why should I care?) but I find this related and also concerning. A huge part of the character of the game (emphasized in vanilla) is being sent around, experiencing the world, interacting with people who have serious problems (including other players: some interaction that goes beyond:, thx for smooth run/cya), zone conclusions feeling special and like serious achievements. I don't really mind how this became in cataclysm, it became very engaging for new players, alot less daunting than having to eat after every mob. But buying lvl 100 or getting it within 5 hours (like sodapoppin showed us to do) completely defies the point of an MMO. It might be nice if battle.net accounts upgraded based on how long you've played which game, making it possible for arena players like me or serious raiders to just buy a 100 character or get all the exp potions, RaF and heirlooms but the emotional attachment to a character, the process of leveling, learning, questing, is literally what an MMORPG was about. It would be better to remove the option completely, even though the freedom to not have to level the same class all the time feels quite good. I'm pretty sure alot of people have made hourlong videos discussing this point and more, which is understandable since Blizzard didn't want us to be able to skip Outland or Northrend previously but suddenly start milking this game. I wonder if anyone noticed that the more it becomes a moneymachine, the less money it makes. I respect the marketing strategies, but I don't respect the company.
Maybe the zionists really are planning to create a generation of adderall/ritalin pumped up kids with little to no questions to ask. A generation of supersoldiers, a lost generation thrown on a catapult, fired away into the void, together with the current world order and the huge USA debt. By first creating quality games they tricked us into believing that god did love us. I guess god didn't think we deserved this and now god's selffulfilling prophecy has left us so bitter and disgusted we're voting for Trump, giving up on love, like 2 losers would get a divorce when after 2 years they seem to be struggling and unable to communicate thus losing their almost-guaranteed sex on demand. Giving up is not an option. Even though giving up is sometimes the most determined thing to do, giving up now is like erasing a painting you put hours of work into. Even if you changed so much that you don't want to finish it, what you did will always be part of you. It takes mere seconds to take that away, as it takes seconds to say what takes a lifetime of therapy sessions to overcome.

[Deleted]

This will take some time to read, I would have divided it further for easier reading, text are huge chunks to swallow.

[Halicia]

[B]
Maybe the zionists really are planning to create a generation of adderall/ritalin pumped up kids with little to no questions to ask.

I was skimming the post and trying to catch the gist of it when I came across this line, and lost all interest in reading any of this.

[apples]

Dear diary,

[Shadowferal]

Actually the word "zionist" I believe is being used for the sake of hyperbole...kinda funny that way.

The whole of it seems a rant (justifiably) against what Blizzard is doing...or has done to WoW.

[Deleted]

I was skimming the post and trying to catch the gist of it when I came across this line, and lost all interest in reading any of this.

Not my problem, that wasn't meant to be taken seriously at all