Koki on 21/2/2012 at 09:50
Quote Posted by demagogue
(1) It's a book of the Bible. It used to be common knowledge in the West, but I grant that it isn't now. If you had called Moses some Buddhist guy, no way that could pass. But Esther... take anyone off the street, ok, who the hell is that... That's fine.
We had Bible covered in high school and I spent most of my life attending church every sunday and I never, ever heard about Estera(polish version).
Quote Posted by demagogue
(2) But I was referring to the fact that you specifically researched it and clearly lifted the picture from the wiki page and *still* fucked it up.
By "fucked it up" do you refer to the quite obvious joke of me calling her an "islam princess"?
Quote:
Every Polish person I've actually met IRL I end up liking and want to hug. Like a pony.
Pony Homocounter: 4, duly noted. That, and the fact it seems your entire "joke" was based on a personal story nobody could possibly know about and get but you aside, I doubt you had contact with many poles. Unless DC in your Location field means "Durszlaki Ciemne". A lovely village, that.
demagogue on 21/2/2012 at 10:06
Quote Posted by Koki
By "fucked it up" do you refer to the quite obvious joke of me calling her an "islam princess"?
Yes, obvious joke met with obvious joke.
Quote:
Pony Homocounter: 4, duly noted. That, and the fact it seems your entire "joke" was based on a personal story nobody could possibly know about and get but you aside, I doubt you had contact with many poles. Unless DC in your Location field means "Durszlaki Ciemne". A lovely village, that.
It's not like just this one guy. If you hang around kosher delis, they're all making cracks like that (edit: above a certain age & from certain background anyway). It's like this understood thing, this kind of casual hyperparanoia that I always found bizarre, sad, funny, and everywhere (hence the "joke" and the "cliched to death" part). I have no doubt it has nothing to do with any actual contact they've had with Poles though, which is what makes it cheap. As for my own contact, I mean I research international law... I probably have more contact with Europeans than Americans anymore. I would like to travel there.
SubJeff on 21/2/2012 at 11:10
Well I've had a go now, got to the caves, and it gets a thumbs up from me. It's even more haunting now that it's so beautiful. God Damn the Source engine is good at doing desolation.
Harvester on 21/2/2012 at 11:28
Quote Posted by Koki
We had Bible covered in high school and I spent most of my life attending church every sunday and I never, ever heard about Estera(polish version).
Really? You should read it, it's pretty violent and gruesome and has lots of hot chicks in it, I think you would like it. :p If they made a movie out of it, it would be rated R. Maybe it could be a project for Mel Gibson.
jay pettitt on 21/2/2012 at 12:06
Quote:
pretentious bullshit
Esther is not pretentious. Its goal is not to impress by being waffley and flowery in its language. Its goal is to be ambiguous by being waffley and flowery. Not the same thing.
Everything about Esther is designed to be as ambiguous as possible: from the player movement to the narration to the motifs in the landscape.
Its ambiguity is a deliberate mechanic for leveraging immersion - the idea being that Player is involved by being asked to join the dots (some random and ill-fitting) on a subconscious level, rather than have a full set of ideas specifically set out for you.
It's not intended as artsy commentary on anything - other than perhaps that First Person Video Games are locked in to an overly formulaic formula. Which isn't exactly contentious, is it?
Thirith on 21/2/2012 at 12:39
At least in internet discussion I find the term "pretentious" to be one of the least useful words there is, because the majority of people are quick to apply the label to anything that has artistic, stylistic or intellectual ambitions, tries to make people think or evoke an emotional reaction or isn't 100% literal. There is such a thing as pretentiousness, obviously, but the term is used in such an inflationary way, purporting to describe everything from Tarkovsky's Stalker to the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men, or from Limbo to Dear Esther.
Koki on 21/2/2012 at 14:24
Quote Posted by Harvester
Really? You should read it, it's pretty violent and gruesome and has lots of hot chicks in it
Pffft, what in the Old Testament doesn't
ZylonBane on 21/2/2012 at 18:50
Quote Posted by jay pettitt
Everything about Esther is designed to be as ambiguous as possible
And that's why it can fuck off. Artists who populate their works with random nonsense and then pat themselves on the back because "it makes you think" are in dire need of a cockpunch.
