Jason Nelson
May 5th, 2008 mstarkey
Jason Nelson’s countergames were ascetically very interesting, but the visual aspects of the games overshadowed the games and their messages. I was wondering how successful his games actually were? How many people actually completed the games the first time they tried? How many people played for discovering his cryptic messages within the random poetry and flashing words? For me, the games took more concentration to look away from the flash animation and crude drawings then it took to complete the levels of Game, Game, Game and Again Game. The nature of Nelson’s countergames was to combine poetry and simple games to portray messages to the player. Not being a huge poetry fan, and one who plays short online games to pass time for a few minutes, I do not see a majority of people playing his games for the messages. I assume that most people play these games once or twice, showing a friend the cool animation and the morbid nature of some of his games like Bomar Gene or Death Spin. I do not see most people saying ‘look at this cool game that shows how people are constantly changing their belief systems’ when showing a friend Game, Game, Game, and Again Gamein their office cubicle. Surly there are those in the art world that appreciate Nelson’s work as a unique art form, but for the majority surfing I-AM-Bored.com, how many are looking for games that express societal qualms through revised poetry scribbled over with flash animation? His games are very personal and that is why I feel that only those who spend time to analyze his personal messages about today’s world are the ones that would truly understand his games. For the average gamer, these games, or countergames would be very unsuccessful in transcribing his messages. The playability of the games is very easy to understand and to operate, which would not deter people from playing, but the strange messages, music and animation that accompany seem to separate his games from the normal videogame genre.
Entry Filed under: Game Log
