You see, you ARE actually offending someone. Those who say "you're not cultured enough unless you see its artistic value" are basically making the same mistake of those who say "you see its artistic value because you're biased and you want videogames to be artsy/considered art at any cost".
As I see it the thing is much more simple: the experience resonated or not resonated with you. I'm not calling people uncool or uncultured for not appreciating this game, I just think they seek different stuff in things, but I don't want to be considered biased and non-objective for appreciating it either thank you very much.
Yo, I'm not saying it's impossible for someone to honestly be touched by this game, but from what I've personally seen, there's much less of that, and much more "artsy hype" going on. People who are jumping on the bandwagon of emotion.
It doesn't bother me what people say, how they want to be presented, or if something really affects them - I think if someone gets an ultra-powerful experience from this game, that's fantastic and good for them. But I saw this same shit happen with flower, and plenty of other artsy games. There's a huge amount of wank near the release of the title, and as many people hop on that bandwagon as possible. Then it peters out, and no one will ever talk about the experience again.
Seriously, people had these same spiritual encounters and feelings of total zen and self-immersion when Flower came out. There were posts about how it made people cry, and that how gaming had hit a peak, etc.
Journey is cool, but nothing it does is ultra original or particularly excellent, in the literal term of the word. Games have looked abstractly beautiful before. Games have been given soundtracks that are manufactured to inspire emotion through use of dramatic symphonic style. We've had main characters with vague lives, goals, histories, etc. that we've had to abstractly piece together along the way. In some way or another, these tools have all been used before.
But that's not my problem. I'm fine with that. What irks me is that the one department they chose not to do jack shit in is actual gameplay. You know, that thing that every single video game must have. The gameplay in Journey is walk walk walk walk hold O float walk walk walk maybe jump/float or whatever then walk more. Oh yeah, and there are spotlights so I guess don't get seen by those, or whatever.
If there was some challenge, some depth, something that inspired fear in the player, something that made the player feel accomplished and triumphant, THEN we'd have a pretty sweet game. (Then we'd have something like Shadows of the Collosus.)
But we don't. They ignore the most important category of gaming either to make a statement, or because they're lazy, or (most realistically) because they're just not great gameplay designers.
Because of that, it ends up being a shallow, mediocre experience with some breathtaking set pieces and a dramatic (albeit generic) orchestrated soundtrack.
So it's because of those reasons I say that most people getting their wank off to this are merely following suit for one reason or another. I'm not even saying it on purpose - the subconscious mind is a powerful thing.
Someone said earlier in the thread after he beat Journey, "this is why I play video games." I don't know about you, but after I beat Mega Man 2, I said "this is why I play video games."
