| Title | This is how a war photographer views The Last of Us |
| Author | Nick Diamon |
| Posted in | News |
| When | September 16, 2014 |
TIME's conflict photographer, Ashley Gilbertson, used The Last of Us Remastered's photo mode to capture still images from the game..
Read the full articleLooks like you agree with his apt summary: gamers are desensitized zombies; more or less the spiritual equivalent of the walking dead, who will bum rush you in blind rage if you try to point this out to them. But the question is this: do you *realize* that you agree with it?
Pieces like this are the appropriate antidote to the "can games be art?" nonsense. The answer is no, and it's not because the content is juvenile obsession with everything that human beings should neither do nor contemplate. The content of games reflects their form, which reflects their function: killing time, numbing all higher faculties with full spectrum sensuality, and scraping your soul with a rusty knife until, in a horrifying self-inflicted hell, you come to like it and want more of it.
Like all serious spiritual diseases, and just exactly like zombies, the victim is completely unaware of their own condition. It is only apparent to those who are not zombies. The only thing that zombies understand is that not everyone is a zombie. But they don't know why.
I've never understood the value of a war photographer. It seems so much simpler to put a camera on a soldier's gun then waste time and soldier's lives protecting someone who main reason for being their is the adrenalin rush and a paycheck for exploiting the suffering of others.
You can rant all your want about getting the real story out and all that. It smells the same to me as cops and some school districts having a need for military weapons of war for safety reasons. The right words can dress up the biggest pile of bullshit as a juicy steak. However, none of those words can change the fact that it is still bullshit.
Mr. Gibertson's article helps to emphasize my point. He spends so much time apart from the world around him he can't operate in any professional capacity until he got someone else to do the dirty work for him. If he had bothered to think about it he might have realized that his reaction was a bit more complex than he thinks.
1. The camera requires you not to care. If he did he would put the camera down and help. Take a look at how badly paparazzi behave to see how badly the camera can desensitize you.
2. The game forced him into an active role. He failed to realize that it was giving him a slight taste of what its like to be a refugee trying to survive in a world that fell apart. The fact that its zombie and not ISIL or any other fighting in the real world changes nothing. He got a taste of what its like and could not handle it.
You go through life, you think you've seen some silly things in comments, but "I've never understood the value of a war photographer" is right up there with the all time greats.
It's a really interesting article. Loved reading about his process and thoughts for how he shoots, and how the photo mode in TLOU alters that. Unfortunately, I'm afraid Mr. Gilbertson is going to find out what happens when you poke the emotionally stunted hornet's nest of pedantic gamers with some of his observations.
I enjoyed that piece a great deal, just as its written. Thanks for sharing it.
"Games can't be art because they move people too deeply."
Ok, yeah, sure.
I love the hypocrisy on display here. You deride games for destroying the ability to empathize but then go on to explain how the group you have deemed 'other,' gamers, is made up of emotionless zombies who therefor can't be empathized with.
Right on, go read the comments after the story if you need any affirmation that you nailed it.
You mean like real zombies? Wow.
Emotionally stunted what? Pretentious progressive code red right there. I read the article, the guy doesn't get games, it's obvious, he'd rather snap shots of other's doing the dirty work then profiting of of it all. I too have never really understood people like him either. Soldiers are out there defending our interests and putting themselves in harms way to do so, babysitting some photographer so he can then come back and write up some progressive drivel for Time or the Huff Post is imo an insult to begin with.
Are you friggin serious? War photography is vital to informing our decisions about what happens when we enter into conflict or whether we should at all. It cuts both ways too. You seem like a hawkish kinda bro, would we be responding to ISIL without the photographic provocations?
I would take anything this guy says about emotions with a massive grain of salt. I can't imagine anybody who makes a living taking pictures of war scenes is at all emotionally stable himself or has any right to blanket statement the emotional state of an entire group of people based on something he doesn't understand or connect with, and even has an extremely abnormal reaction to.
He shows signs of major problems himself in the article by saying he "breaks down" after playing the game for thirty minutes. That is not at all a normal response to video games.
He also doesn't seem to understand games, nor simple concepts like characterization, setting, etc. He seems disappointed that the characters aren't visibly distressed, but what he doesn't realize is that the situation in the game is their life. It has always been like that for them. It is normal.
Still an interesting read, but I can't help but feel sorry for him.
As someone who self-identifies as a gamer, I think that I'm well-equipped to spot the stunted emotional development of a portion of this demographic. I would say that if you take offense to that description of a portion of the gamer demographic, you may now speculate freely on whether I think you fall within it. I would also add that when I read someone in a comment section refer to another poster as "pretentious" ("elitist" is another good word), to me these are codewords given by the writer as a substitute for "I'm a halfwit."
I love the notion that "War photographers R Idiotz" expressed in a couple of these comments. War photographers--going back to Matthew Brady's iconic photos of the Civil War--are some of the most important journalists and chroniclers that we have, from both a historical and societal point of view.
Instead of getting pissed because this guy didn't love TLOU enough, instead appreciate that this person is stepping out of his own comfort zone and willing to try something completely out of his own frame of reference. He's clearly impressed by things he sees in the game, and struggling to find purchase with others. That this is his process isn't a reason for gnashing of teeth and terse dismissal. It's just an interesting point of view from someone whose orbit doesn't seem to intersect mine very much, and as such is something worth being curious about.
but, but, but... TLOU is the art, and because of that it helps me find personal justification in what I chose to do with my free time. All who disagree are wrong, and a tard.... and probably gay.
What do you think all the satellites we use for recon are for? I'm not saying it can't be useful sure, necessary? Prolly not.
You wouldn't happen to tend to vote liberal would you? Would explain quite a bit.
I don't think it was so much he didn't love TLOU, hell I didn't love TLOU to begin with, I think it was more the fact that it seemed to even be torture for the guy to play it. That isn't normal and screams of PTSD or something along those lines.
It's a great piece by the guy. I love his perspective on how he feels the game doesn't truly convey suffering. For all the variety of emotions this game was capable of invoking, I don't think capturing the true senselessness in the loss of innocence in the world, was one of them. Great article.
Hey dumbass. It takes 'art' to make games meaning that games are art. What do you think graphic design is? What do you think concept art is? What do you think animation is? All of this is art.
