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Artistic Sunday Timewaster: Honorarium
Posted by Maggie Greene at 4:30 AM on August 18, 2008
Ian Bogost sent along this link to his latest little title, this one called Honorarium: "An autobiographical art game. Assemble lectures to present. If you do well enough, you can unlock invitations to travel and speak". I've spent a bit of time with it — I guess I can sympathise with aspects of the game, since I'm the poster child for 'inability to balance life and work — wait, work IS my life.' Just as interesting, however, is his discussion of the way he created the game through Sims Carnival. EA invited Ian to create a game using the tools available through the site. And, as he points out:
Much of the rhetoric surrounding these game creation and distribution sites relies on accessibility: they are supposed to make game development easy. But the truth is, simplified creation tools don't necessarily make creativity easier or harder, they just impose different constraints.
Honourarium [Sims Carnival via Ian Bogost]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Fangeh
Posted 5:18 AM 18/8/08
I'm not seeing what's artistic or entertaining here.
Fangeh
imaria
Posted 5:09 AM 18/8/08
I can respect Ian Bogost's work normally, but this was... impressively tedious, and poorly explained. What was the point of this? Did the student asking "questions" have any relevance?
I tried to care enough to go through it, but it is slow and hampered by bad control: half the time I'd give a tile to the student, and the screen would take it as well and give me a red square.
imaria
Faint
Posted 5:04 AM 18/8/08
I think constraints imposed by toolsets probably have more of a positive effect on creativity in games. When something seems impossible, that's when truly creative people find a new way to get the outcome they want. Constraints only help these people shine.
Faint
walkman1022
Posted 4:52 AM 18/8/08
NO MORE IAN BOGOST! This isn't artistic, this is just whats commonly known as bullshit. Common facts of life that everyone already knows shoved into some boring little piece of shit game that takes six seconds to get boring.
walkman1022
kickass solo
Posted 4:51 AM 18/8/08
i dont really get it
kickass solo
Suda51
Posted 4:45 AM 18/8/08
So its a puzzle game where you put together lectures to present?
Sounds to much like actual work to me...
Suda51
Jorw
Posted 5:41 AM 18/8/08
I don't get it. What am I supposed to do?
Jorw
LlamaNL
Posted 5:38 AM 18/8/08
this game is total bullshit. after 5 minutes of trying i still haven't figured out what I'm supposed to do.
LlamaNL
AcidCrownie
Posted 5:33 AM 18/8/08
It's like a little 8-bit Crecente...
AcidCrownie
Anarchist_Gamer
Posted 5:33 AM 18/8/08
Thanks for the link, Greene.
Can't get it to work on my ibook, though. Then again, I'm feeling awfully drowsy and inept currently.
Anarchist_Gamer
bigman88zz
Posted 6:02 AM 18/8/08
@dowingba: ive been doing that. ive been able to successfully pick up some of the pieces, but others just refuse to be picked up no matter where i stand, no matter how many times i press the space bar
bigman88zz
Dragoonkin
Posted 6:01 AM 18/8/08
It was interesting for about negative five seconds. I played the first round, then I quit.
Dragoonkin
dowingba
Posted 5:46 AM 18/8/08
@bigman88zz: Use the arrow keys to move, and the space bar to pick up pieces.
There are instructions on the site.
dowingba
bigman88zz
Posted 5:45 AM 18/8/08
for some reason, when i try to pic up some of the pieces, they refused to be picked up. im playing this in firefox. anyone else having the same problem?
bigman88zz
dowingba
Posted 5:45 AM 18/8/08
@everyone:
It shows you a shape on the screen, you move over to the corresponding shape, pick it up, and bring it to the screen. Repeat. Forever.
dowingba
tomassetti13
Posted 6:14 AM 18/8/08
How the hell is this art in any way or form?
"I will say that it's subtle, and autobiographical, and its themes include work, colleagues, family, distraction, longing, goals, and regret."
No, Ian. It isn't any of that. It's walking back and forth, picking up objects, and placing them on a board. Nothing more.
tomassetti13
Ghar
Posted 6:55 AM 18/8/08
@bigman88zz: Yes, I've seen two apparent bugs, one where I couldn't pick up anything, the other where I could pick up every piece except the one I needed. Overall, this "game" sucks.
Ghar
Ad-hominem
Posted 7:26 AM 18/8/08
Well, this is kind of boring. I mean, I expected more from Bogost.
Oh well. I guess it just proves that Sims Carnival sucks.
Ad-hominem
P-Flute
Posted 8:08 AM 18/8/08
Though this game is kinda lame, and doesn't seem to evoke just about anything except for maybe the extreme tedium of 'work,'
Why post it on Kotaku? Or anything claiming to be artistic, whether it is or not? Don't you know your audience here? Pearls, swine, etc.
P-Flute
Bokusatsu_Tenshi
Posted 2:29 PM 18/8/08
Lamest game ever... even more lame than "Shit Game" or "You Have to Burn the Rope" in therms of creativity and trying to present something different.
I do understand that he's trying to pass some idea through the game, but really? I don't think he quite made it. Don't waste your time people, there are plenty of lessons to be learned with games out there, and this doesn't seem to be one of them.
Bokusatsu_Tenshi
somarix
Posted 5:55 PM 18/8/08
*ugh* !
somarix
L_K_M
Posted 11:34 PM 19/8/08
@Bokusatsu_Tenshi: Shit Game and You Have to Burn the Rope were awesome. This... isn't.
L_K_M