Braid's marketing rubs me the wrong way, I understand why it is necessary, I understand exactly what it is. Still it makes me feel icky, all I'm doing here is attempting to put my finger on exactly why.
Mr blow is well known for the opinion that World of Warcraft is an evil drug-like substance and Braid is presumably intended not to be an evil drug-like substance.
However, things are often not that simple. When dealing with a large complex system such as a group of people, strange results are the norm.
Warcraft has a social game, it is a "What is the fastest way of grinding?", "What is the best way to get this super drop?". All simple questions that give complex answers.
Braid also includes an intended social game of sorts, it's a "What the fuck is this pseudo intellectual emo fag story?". This is intended to increase the reach of the game by encouraging discussion. We all know that the emo fags (many are useless games journalists) sure do like to talk.
There is some evidence that suggests that braids social game encourages superstition and WOWs social game actually encourages science.
Braids design encourages people to look at say the list of control keys and believe that they are being shown an important secret that will unlock the meaning of the universe. Construct elaborate theories that fit all the "facts" perfectly and therefore must be true. Then to launch on a religious crusade, demanding that people understand that their interpretation of an intentionally vague text is the right one and that all heretics must die.
OK, a little extreme but really, braids meta game is intended to produce the start of that behavior. Once that ball is rolling its hard to get it to stop.
WOW on the other hand is a godless grind, but, it is still primarily a game, part of braid is also a game, I have no problem with that part. It is the other part that irks me. The meta game of WOW is largely comprised with building up scientific data about the underlying game and then attempting to use this data to gain a better understanding of the hidden mechanics of the game world, experimenting and learning. This is called the scientific method.
Which puts us in an interesting place, WOW may be an evil grind but is superstition really a better thing to encourage than science?
Superstition holds us back far more than peoples addiction to grinding video games. Again I feel that there is a failing to understand exactly how dumb the audience is and that we have here an actual net gain from WOW and a net loss from braid.
Even you tube comments are a step up from watching daytime TV.
Any game, with any complex challenge encourages this sort of smart behavior. Games that distance themselves from being games and smother themselves in bullshit, well I for one am certain that they are the greater problem.
