dtrack wrote:After discussing this in another topic recently, a side note on this mainstream thing:
just browsed the offtopic section (yes i have too much freetime in my work:) and found people watching movies like Batman, Superman, Star Trek and stuff like this. mainstream american movies in general. I am not going to generalize but seems like a community is diverging from the mainstream in one thing then almost necessarily level out in the others.
Maybe this is a misunderstanding based on biases as i won't recommend Erich Rohmer or Marco Ferreri movies because i suspect they are out of interest - and maybe not while others think the same. And it makes sense since i don't recommend Saturn shmups to my friends who read contemporary russian novels and watching French New Wave and thinks gaming is for age 12-.
But it raises the question why am i used to go to theatre, contemporary exhibitions, listening to experimental electronica, watching french newwave and playing SAT shmups and going to parties at once while this combo is almost impossible based on my experiences. These are not opposites or not exclusives -it is the opposite by logic. They are going hand in hand for me.
However i don't despise no one for not living that wide range - just better to have not only one common with someone or a community.
I think there is a different issue at play though, that somehow we cannot enjoy both the mainstream and the niche. For example, I've seen the films you pointed to as American mainstream, but I've also watched a large mix of French New Wave (Jean-Pierre Melville is probably my favorite director associated with the movement, with L' Armée des ombres being my favorite of his films), chanbara and Japanese gangster films, silent film, Chinese cinema from the last 40 years, exploitation cinema, both pro- and anti-war cinema, documentaries, biopics, giallo thrillers, B-grade science fiction, so on and so forth. I watch a mixture of these things because the artistry which can be displayed in film, the action and experience, the representation or dismissal of ideas, the conveyance of emotion, appeals to me. So in my search to examine and experience, I have integrated both the mainstream and the lesser appreciated in an attempt to become more well-rounded. For the record, my favorite films include a German silent horror film, a 1980s fantasy action film both applauded and derided for its suspected right-wing mentality based entirely on the writing of a poor pulp novelist who shot himself in the 1930s, and a gangster film based on a comic based on a popular Japanese chanbara series. My favorite director has released a musical, two childrens films, a plethora of Japanese gangster movies, horror films, romances, several chanbara pieces, and a slew of gore films, including one famous for its torture sequence.
I'd say games are th same way. If you want to really get to know the format, you'll have to play both the mainstream and the niche to enjoy the variety of experiences that an interactive format can present. Some will come across as childish. Some won't. And learning about the fights and foibles of the medium attempting to overcome its problems with various forms of thinking and its perceived position make for more fun.
