Now we’ve got the same problem with music genres. Progressive rock, which started out as an extension—a progression, if you will—of rock (in various directions); taking rock and making it moreso; is now a stagnated, strictly defined niche sub-genre. If you want to be considered “progressive” nowadays, you have to sound exactly like certain bands from 50 years ago. And the list goes on. I’ve seen Velvet Underground labeled both a “proto-punk” band and a “post-rock” band (although they pre-date the term post-rock by about 30 years). Ironic, since punk itself evolved as an extension and/or rejection of rock (but in different directions than progressive rock); a post-rock that is much different than the, er, modern (canonical) post-rock. Then we have post-punk, an extension and/or rejection of punk, also pre-dating post-rock by about 15 years, which I suppose could be considered proto-post-rock. Sooner or later, someone will come up with a web app diagramming the relationships of all the rock sub-genres that begin with a prefix that begins with ‘p’. Now with bands like Isis and Pelican, we have “post-metal”. I downloaded some Cult of Luna tracks recently and found them labeled, hilariously and somewhat fittingly, as “post-crust”. Aaaand I haven’t even gotten to “alternative” rock…

Post-Script: http://www.qwantz.com/archive/000502.html

Hello world, indeed. I am guessing that if you are reading this, I happen to know you personally, so there is not much point in introducing myself. But maybe you have happened upon this site through a method other than me directly telling you about it, and you are reading through the archives, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. If you couldn’t guess from the URL, my name is Alex Kerfoot. I make games. Or, in most cases, I help make games. I have worked on games in an academic environment; at a small, independent studio; and at a large corporate studio/publisher; each of which have given me the opportunity to work with a lot of really bright people from different walks of life who have all significantly influenced my perspective and thought process. So, there should be no perception that the ideas put forth on this site are entirely of my own devise. Everything we see and everyone we talk to influences our ideas.

I have had a lot of inspiration this last month, not the least of which was the Game Developers Conference. I saw a lot of cool, innovative games and game ideas, and I got to hear a lot of smart people talk about what makes good and bad games. On Friday, the last day of the conference, there weren’t any sessions that I really wanted to see, so I spent some time sitting on a little, black cube on the second floor of the Moscone Center, watching all the people and traffic pass by below, and thought about games. I wouldn’t call it “meditating”, since that usually involves concentrating on one specific thing. It was more like “reflection”–reflecting on all the things I had seen, heard, and experienced over the last week.

It occurred to me that we (myself at least, and the majority of people I know and interact with) often don’t get the chance to reflect in this modern society. We are constantly bombarded by information and stimulus–from the internet, email, television, radio, advertising, various mobile communication devices. We run around, packing as much into the day as possible, in order to be the most productive we can, while still trying to maintain our social relationships, and our sleep schedules (or lack thereof). We react to stimulus, writing an immediate reply to an email, or posting a knee-jerk response as a blog comment, but we tend not to add anything new to the discussion; either repeating already-stated views or giving our existing opinions without fully considering what others have to say. When we do find “free” time, we tend to spend it on activities such as television, video games, consumption of alcohol, or “just chillin’”, with the intent of clearing our minds–forgetting all the stress and stimuli up to that point. In the words of the oft-quoted shampoo bottle, “Lather, Rinse, Repeat.” But that becomes a problem, we spend all this effort to forget them, but we so rarely take the time to reflect on our past experiences, mull them over, and find the connections between them.

To that end, I hope this to become a place where I can write up my ideas about games, art, music, culture, society, and whatever else; and you can comment on them, critique them, let me know which ones are uninteresting, and which have some merit that warrants further discussion. As Ursula K. Le Guin wrote:

“It is of the nature of an idea to be communicated: written, spoken, done. The idea is like grass. It craves light, like crowds, thrives on cross-breeding, grows better for being stepped on.”