Spectacle Vs Substance

[Felicity]

Aight, summary sentence. The titular choice, spectacle vs substance?

 

This goes through all forms of mediums, films, games, TV, anime, books, comics, whatever you think you gravitate to. Do you like the fantastic western blended with the sci-fi action of star wars that kicked off the blockbuster trend or are you one to dive into the thought provoking topics posed by things like Ghost in the shell or the frank representations within shows like Orange Is The New Black?

 

Obviously a veritable shit-ton of examples will have overlap between the two, many talented people have managed to combine the two aspects quite well, a feat that is damned admirable, but I ask you to think on what your favourite pieces of media, what catches your interest when browsing for new things to consume, and see what you find. It's interesting to me to see if people are as indoctrinated by blockbuster as my film course suggests.

 

Of course enjoying one doesn't mean you can't enjoy the other or that one is superior. 's just something i thought was interesting.

[DemICE]

It depends on various factors,  like the mood,  and the people (if they exist) that i will engage in that activity (usually a movie) with.

Generally if im gonna watch a movie, especially in the cinema, i want to see a spectacle.  If i wanna indulge in deep stuff that makes me contemplate on things, i figured that a book works better for me. 

Games are a different story.  I like my game to have substance, and not caring much about graphics.  Dont ask me why i play pokemon tho. I don't know, it just happens. 

[Luppolo]

I'm pretty split over the subject. 

I usually prefer those medias which focus more on content rather than "spectacular" effects, especially for what concerns  books ant TV series. 

I usually prefer stuff which makes me reflect, from which I can learn something concrete. As an example, my favorite show is Law&Order SVU: despite it isn't a show so full of action as different others, each episode makes me reflect on the gap that exist among right and wrong under legal and ethical views. Each time I'm left thinking about what can be done different and how. 

However, when it comes about animation the "learning stuff" often gets shifted at the back of my head, making me more prone to accept even poorer content ... 

 

I am not sure if I made my point... I hope I got the question right... 

 

[5hift]

Yeah I gotta agree with the others here.

 

It really depends on what kind of mood I'm in. Like if I just need something to binge or listen to as I play a video game I'll just throw on some Marvel movie. Not saying they're bad movies that require no effort to watch but you certainly don't need to be paying super close attention to the plot in order to understand it.

 

The really thought-provoking movies/shows will demand a second, third or even fourth time watching. I remember when I first saw Inception I had no clue what the fuck was going on but then after like the third time I watched the movie I think I finally figured out the plot and thought it was amazing.

 

Now there are stuff that I won't touch like ecchi anime that appeal to the lowest level of fan-service. I'm just going to come out and say it: Why not just go the extra mile and just watch some actual porn instead? The plot probably isn't any better and at least they don't cocktease you throughout the entire show.

 

With that out of the way, when it comes to games I would like there to be a fair balance between gameplay and story.

 

Series like Metal Gear and Persona really excel at melding the two together although to be fair, Metal Gear Solid V: TPP really botched the story aspect of the game with that half-assed ending.

 

Of course, you can have games like Telltale's The Walking Dead where its a lot more narrative driven and still be fun as hell and on the other side of the spectrum, games like Starbound where you can just explore the universe while building huge crazy bases and killing shit without the story holding your hand along the way.

 

It just has to be good at one thing or the other or in the best case scenario, be great at both.

Edited May 19, 2017 by 5hift