Down on the farm
Last week, I wrote about how Farmville wasn’t a game. Some time between hearing the Chatterbox hosts talk about it and finally hitting the Publish button, my thinking had evolved. I wasn’t going for any academic definitions, but rather how to define it for people that might be considered casual or non-gamers.
Some interesting observations grew out of my post’s Buzz conversation. Erik, correctly, noted that I’ve pretty much stacked the deck in my favor, definition wise. How lame is that? It’s true, but it’s why I’d altered my intent, even as I kept an outdated post title. Oh well. The pace of blogging strikes again.
On the following episode of Chatterbox, the hosts mentioned one of my malformed thoughts, specifically that you have to be able to lose. Alon added that there are plenty of classic games where you can’t actually win. I’ve played my share; has anyone ever won Robotron? Anyway, it’s a very good point, and thanks, Alon, for the blog mention. It was kind.
Taking it all into account, I’d revise my thinking to be the following (again, only for newbie-explanatory purposes): Farmville is a sandbox-game, one in which you cannot win or lose. This is in contrast with conventional games wherein it is possible to win or lose the game (or both).
This is feeling more tenuous all the time. Time to switch gears.
Shaun the Sheep
The one thing that I was unequivocally correct about, with relation to farms, was that Shaun the Sheep is adorable. My family has seen the thing listed in NetFlix for the last week. Since we’re fans of Aardman Animations and Wallace and Gromit, we knew it was only a matter of time before we watched it.
Instead of going out the evening of my wife’s birthday, we stayed home, drank wine, and watched the first three episodes of this alleged children’s show. Okay, it is a children’s show. In fact, NetFlix puts the ages at 5-7. But it’s only for kids in the way a Pixar or old Warner Bros cartoon is.
Let me put it this way: an early episode finds Shaun reclaiming a discarded record player and throwing a rave for the rest of the farm animals. During one quick moment, three obviously female sheep are half-eyed and dancing alone, purses at their feet. Yes, all the hippest elementary school children can appreciate the finer points of late-night dance-club etiquette.
Each 20 minute show is composed of three quick episodes. With few exceptions, the writing is superb. The fact that there’s no dialogue makes this particularly impressive. I have little more to say, except that if you liked anything Aardman’s done before, you will love it. Go watch.
