Watch Tarkovski: A post about art and labor (A positive response to Vinny's "art should be free")

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fantasticasm89

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I reflect on Vinny's point that art should be free to access and he's correct.

IMO, there are two sides of the coin about a marketplace for art: on one side the market homogenizes and colonizes creativity; on the other side, critical interest fosters competition for some. Unfortunately, society is subject to wage slavery, so any justifications for an art marketplace go out the window until people no longer have to work to live.

On that note, it's worth mentioning that supporting indie developers is one way that we can participate in creating a better marketplace. Also, the movements to unionize within the games industry strengthen the relationship between artist and audience as far as I'm concerned. The only hope is that more worker-owned and cooperative studios like Motion Twin crop up.

Art is one of the bastions for cooperative industry. It's an often-overlooked strength and shelter. Art can only flourish from health, and it's an indicator of resistance to exploitive power structures that crop up and dominate any space they can.

Take Hello Games and No Man',s Sky for example. My understanding is that Sony granted them funding to make the game and forced them to publish it before it was ready. Then when the backlash hit, Sony stepped to the side and let Hello Games take all the heat. There were literally death threats made to the developer, who instead of giving up, recommitted themselves to their art.

Not less than one year later, No Man's Sky Next comes out, and everybody is praising it. Released not just for free, but with a 50% discount and no micro-transactions, the game is still being updated significantly.

It reminds me of this movie I just discovered. According to my math professor, it's about sacrifices made for the sake of art and the suffering of the artist.

Andrei Rublev

Even though we have celebrity artists, much of art is thankless, and I think this is sad. Not everyone will be a monk who works purely for the sake of their soul, and even if they did, some jerk would find a way to exploit them for earthly gain.

Games have a unique place in the art world and have come into it quite suddenly. They command the market share and are a capable medium. So what are we gaymers supposed to do about it?

Already, I mentioned 3 options which all had to do with supporting the developers that we like, you know, that treat their workers right and so on. However, my more general response, is, actually, not much. Why? Because there's not much an individual person can do to keep themselves safe against the perils of society.

If you're privileged enough to enjoy games, I don't think it matters that much whether you beat yourself up over playing "games from only the ethical indie developer that's out there" or whether you just buy games because you like them.

I am privileged enough to enjoy games, and I've also been beating my brow a lot over doing the right thing all the time: it's exhausting and if it's doing anybody else any good it's hardly noticeable. At this point, I'm inclined to believe that spending too much energy thinking like this is actually counter-productive. And, thinking that my particular politics are clear from this essay, want to take the moment to highlight that I think placing these types of demands on individuals has done nothing but strengthen reactionary responses among Gamers by making them feel more helpless.

I've abstracted a lot of the material realities in order to analyze them, but I still haven't answered what I think should be done about it. The truth is that I'm posting on Giant Bomb because I kind of think that's the best way to respond that I can think of. These issues, which are too difficult to deal with as an individual are the sort of thing that makes Giant Bomb necessary. The site and it's community have given voice to so many important topics within games, and I think in the face of it all it's easy to say "Yeah well like how much good are we actually doing?" A lot, certainly much more than would be capable on our own, and it's perhaps the best that can be done right now.

And, I don't think that Giant Bomb necessarily becomes this site focused on critical theory and all that stuff, I don't think that's the point. I just happen to be doing that here because I just drank my first coffee in 2 weeks and spent all weekend with my neighbors. Like seriously, I probably got a lot of stuff wrong with me if you don't like what I have to say.

For any devs out there reading this right now, I want to extend you all the same critical support. I love and appreciate the art that you make, and want you to keep doing it and loving it. I'm going to keep trying to support your work, but also the point that you have my same comradely love and support just the same just because you are something that matters and have ideas that matter more than they're often recognized for.

Really, I hope this little essay reaches anyone who feels like they're just spinning their wheels or someone who can't enjoy the fruits of their labor: it's not your fault and you're not alone, but together we can find ways to take responsibility for making it better.

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north6

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What is the context for this? Did Vinny say this on a beastcast?