Honestly, I think there is proper Art in the deep exploration of gameplay mechanics through repetition.
There are so many games that explore this in unique and interesting ways. The exploration of the game mechanic itself is beautiful to me. Examples include Celeste, Braid, Hades, Baba is You, The Witness, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Super Meat Boy, Outer Wilds, Against the Storm… I could go on.
Agreed. To me, this blog post felt like a elevated rant. There’s not much meaningful analysis or substantive criticism of actual games or game design. There’s some comparative insight that is worth thinking through, but in the post it’s all wrapped up in rants about how one side of the comparison is bad and doesn’t really hone in on the nuances of the comparisons.
Notably, the discussion of game length (a key point of this post) is thin, especially when discussing the comparison to film and music.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course. Overall, for the comparative insight, it’s probably worth reading for people who like to think about these things, despite the issues within.
They’re not beholden to public investors. If they go public or sell to a public company it will change.