http:\/\/c.brightcove.com\/services\/viewer\/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1<\/p>\n
theatlantic<\/a>:<\/p>\n The Most Dangerous Gamer<\/a><\/strong>:In a multibillion-dollar industry addicted to laser guns and carnivorous aliens, can true art finally flourish?<\/em><\/p>\n Like many wealthy\u00a0people, Jonathan Blow vividly remembers the moment he became rich. At the time, in late 2008, he was $40,000 in debt and living in a modest San Francisco apartment, having just spent more than three years meticulously refining his video game,\u00a0Braid<\/em>\u2014an innovative time-warping platformer (think\u00a0Super Mario Bros.<\/em>\u00a0meets Borges), whose $200,000 development Blow funded himself. Although\u00a0Braid<\/em>\u00a0had been released, to lavish praise from the video-game press, on Microsoft\u2019s Xbox Live Arcade service that August, Blow didn\u2019t see a cent from the game until one autumn day when he sat down at a caf\u00e9 in the city\u2019s Mission district. \u201cI opened up my Web browser and\u00a0Holy fuck, I\u2019m rich now<\/em>,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThere were a lot of zeros in my bank account.\u201d [\u2026]<\/p>\n Blow has decided to use his money\u2014nearly all of it\u2014to finance what may be the most intellectually ambitious video game in history, one that he hopes will radically expand the limitations of his chosen field. Although video games long ago blossomed into full commercial maturity (the adrenaline-soaked military shooter\u00a0Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3<\/em>, for example, racked up $400 million in sales during its first 24 hours in stores last fall), the form remains an artistic backwater, plagued by cartoonish murderfests and endless revenue-friendly sequels. Blow intends to shake up this juvenile hegemony with\u00a0The Witness<\/em>, a single-player exploration-puzzle game set on a mysterious abandoned island. In a medium still awaiting its quantum intellectual leap, Blow aims to make\u00a0The Witness<\/em>\u00a0a groundbreaking piece of interactive art\u2014a sort of\u00a0Citizen Kane<\/em>\u00a0of video games.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a characteristically audacious plan for a man who has earned a reputation not just as the video-game industry\u2019s most cerebral developer, but also as its most incisive and polarizing internal critic. To Blow, being labeled the most intellectual man in video games is a little like being called the most chaste woman in a brothel: not exactly something to crow about to Mom and Dad. \u201cI think the mainstream game industry is a fucked-up den of mediocrity,\u201d he told me. \u201cThere are some smart people wallowing in there, but the environment discourages creativity and strength and rigor, so what you get is mostly atrophy.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Braid<\/em> is so, so great. Do yourself a favor and try it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
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