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BESTNESS IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER - by Mr Biffo

25/2/2016

15 Comments

 
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If you were squatted atop Twitter last night you'll know I was watching The Brit Awards.

Quite why this ceremony is given such blanket coverage - two and a half hours on primetime TV, national newspaper headlines, the BBC news - is baffling, given that it's an industry-voted exercise in keeping its biggest stars sweet.

There's no actual meaning to The Brits. Y'know, Adele won the "Global Success Award", for - presumably - most global success.

Surely, global success is a reward in itself, along with the millions of monies she'll be getting? Why would you need a shiny ornament too, least of all weep when receiving it?

​Unless the people giving it to her want to keep her happy and compliant, of course. It's like giving a kid positive affirmation, so that they're more likely to clean their room. 

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THANK YOU!
We all like a bit of encouragement, right?

​But when you get these big stars, who have millions of people voting with their wallets and applause, why should an award chosen by a committee of industry chiefs be considered more valuable than the opinions of all the people buying their records? 

Presumably, because of the above example: the people giving the award are the parent in that situation. It's positive affirmation. A sweetener.

"You're a good girl. You always help mummy."

See, we've all got a thing called a locus of evaluation. An internal locus of evaluation is the best sort: it basically means that you are confident in who you are, you don't seek outside approval, etc. etc.

When things go wrong, and people are needy or insecure, or have low self-esteem, it is said they have an external locus of evaluation - that they look outside of themselves for worth, for affirmation, etc.

It's not a fixed point - it can float back and forth between the two states, and nobody's locus is definitively one thing and not another. We all like a bit of praise, and to know we're doing a good job. There's no getting around that: we're human. 

Yet it's the difference between, say, me writing this article and thinking it's good, and simply enjoying the writing of it... and me writing this article and asking my mum if it's good, or going into spasms of depression if it fails to get shared online.

But anyway. I'm not really here to rant about The Brits. It just got me thinking about this need to label something the best something or another. Like... what's the best game ever? Not "What's your favourite game ever?" - but really... what's the best game ever? Or the best game in any particular year?

​Anyone who thinks they can give a decisive answer to that is a stumpy cretin.


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FRIENDSSSS
I've got a mate who I've probably had more arguments with than any other person on earth. We've just got one of those relationships where buttons get pushed, in a mostly good-natured fashion.

One of our favourite recurring rows is to do with this very subject: how do you define the "bestness" of a thing, specifically when that thing is an artistic or creative endeavour? When it's something that you can't quantify with statistics, or by being the fastest sprinter, or the tallest goat?

His theory is that it can only be defined by sales: the bigger selling a song or an album, the more people like it, the better it must be. And that if he doesn't like a million-selling song... then there must be something wrong with him.

He has a point, albeit a stupid one, but I counter this by stating that most of those big albums are backed by huge marketing budgets and media coverage. That there are other songs and albums that individuals might consider better, but which they'll never get to hear. 

That's the debate at its most basic. There are other nuances, but we can go back and forth on this for hours, before eventually trying to strangle one another.

​And yet there's a third thing, which I have been known to introduce into the discussion: "bestness" is in the eye, ear, or thumb of the beholder.

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I actually don't know what I'd consider to be the best game ever. I wouldn't know where to begin.

How do you quantify it? Should it be something like Space War or Pong, because they were among the first?

The one I've got the greatest emotional attachment to (Skool Daze, or Super Mario World, or Dark Forces)... Or a game that I deem - from an entirely logical, detached perspective - to be objectively the best in all areas. Like a Zelda or a Half-Life 2. 

Of course, it shouldn't be any of those things: the only way to actually say what the best game is, is to say it from the gut. What feels like the best game to you? When it comes down to that, we'll all have a different answer. Or a different reason for giving that answer.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter. The only people who really should care about the best game, film, song... are the people who want it to sell. Who want it to reach the biggest audience. "Best Thing" is too often mistaken for the quality of the thing, when all it really is is an exercise in marketing, and a way for the people who made the thing to feel a bit nice about themselves. Oh, and for certain celebs to get their photo taken on the red carpet, because they need the affirmation that they matter.

And there's nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't really matter. All that matters is what you like. I actually quite liked the song Justin Bieber sung at The Brits, but I'm under no illusion that it hasn't been precision manufactured like a product, right even down to its public relations message ("Sorry" indeed). See also Far Cry Primal.

At its best, an award might motivate people to do their best. At its worst, it might contribute to a society where we only do things to get something in return. I know I'd rather people create the sorts of things they want to make, that they want to listen to, watch or play - not something that they think will sell more, or win the most awards. 

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
10 OF THE BEST CANCELLED VIDEO GAMES
I WAS A BAFTA GAMES JUDGE BY MR BIFFO
10 WAYS TO KILL BUBSY THE BOBCAT USING ELECTRICITY


15 Comments
Stumpy Cretin Kelvin Green link
25/2/2016 11:33:19 am

The best game ever is Turrican on the C64. Obviously.

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Damon link
25/2/2016 12:26:06 pm

You know I've been asked to pick a best game ever before.

I just responded that the game I've probably played the longest and bought the most individual times is Hexen. Surely a game I feel the need to buy on multiple platforms, and have purchased for friends and am still playing 15 years later can't be that terrible or flawed, right?

But, again I explain my metric, A game I feel the need to keep going back to and have purchased multiple times,

Sometimes I'll say something like "Recently I've been playing a lot of xxx" if they want something newer. I can't say 15 years ago I would have thought I'd still be playing it all these years later, and there's no telling what I'll be playing 15 years from now .

I mean, I have an emergency stockpile of floppies despite trashing all my legacy machines when I moved (none were particularly interesting or rare). For some reason the 10 for $10 boxes of floppies had to come with me. I still have a yellow floppy disc sitting on my bookshelf with pornography I saved when I was far too young to legally look at it (did you know the computer has no way to know if you lie about your age?). Maybe it's a Momento Mori to my old self. Or maybe I'm too sentimental. Or an episode of Hoarders waiting to happen.

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Doctor Stranger
25/2/2016 01:11:44 pm

Being mildly cretinous I actually do have a best game ever. It's not a best game actually, just a best moment. It's the end of Portal 2.

SPOILER alert for the solitary reader who hasn't played the game.

You look up at the moon. You think, wouldn't it be amazing if you could create a portal to the moon. But that would never happen. It's too imaginative. It's too good. But you try it anyway. And you make a portal to the moon.

I have never before or since felt the imaginative power and freedom of a game than that moment. I can't really remember much of the game to be honest, but that moment is totally amazing. Nobody tells you it's possible. There are no instructions. But you consider it, vainly, thinking it ridiculous. Never in a game has my child-like imagination or curiosity been rewarded better than in that moment. God, Valve were great in their prime.

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T-Wigs
25/2/2016 01:21:03 pm

Hate to burst your bubble but it is mentioned that the white paint you use throughout the game for creating portals is made from "moon dust" or something along those lines.Therefore, the way the moon is presented at that moment you speak of, its the next logical step.Still a cool part though.

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RG
25/2/2016 01:57:03 pm

I was about to say similar, but it is still a very good moment - especially as you are in a panicked rush. Notice the moon, think "what if...", remember the white paint, mental gear clicks into place, bish, bash, bosh - world saved!

colincidence link
25/2/2016 03:32:25 pm

The moment does also involve exposing the human player character the moon's atmosphere and poor gravity...

CdrJameson
25/2/2016 01:26:39 pm

I made a mod for XCom 2 last night called 'Everyone's A Wally'.

It changes the names of all the new characters to some variant on A. Wally.

I am convinced it is the clearly the best mod ever, eventhough I fully expect hardly anybody to notice it and exactly nobody to use it.

Perhaps there is such a thing as too internal a locus of evaluation.

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Panda
25/2/2016 01:30:11 pm

It's because it appeals to the individual's - and therefore the public's - most primitive and shallow traits. Best: an umbrella term with about as much use to a critic, consumer, reader or viewer as "most unpainful" or "safest". How about valuablest, influentialest, interestingest, riskiest? These all demand thoughts and appraisals more complex than a vacant, mouth-breathing husk can manage. The problem is that most of us aren't the latter but "they" have made it so easy to settle into that completely manufactured demographic by default. Best is a reinforcement and vindication of our opinions, which wouldn't be that much of an issue if, as Biffo suggests, our opinions hadn't been sold to us.

In some ways, though, "best" can be the product that can straddle the boundary between proper depth and real accessibility with very little effort. An intelligent blockbuster, a compelling documentary, a Paul Simon song :) Something that somehow manages to "penetrate" the mass markets by actually deserving it. And without first demanding that people struggle through a mire of shallow Cowell-pop as a crash course.

Unless you agree with me that Dark Souls is the best... Not the best game. Just the best.

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Picston Shottle
25/2/2016 01:46:43 pm

Is this article a thinly veiled justification for your love of Marillion, Biffus?

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Mr Biffo
25/2/2016 02:02:14 pm

Jesus. How did I write it and not even consider mentioning them? I'm letting things slide...

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colincidence link
25/2/2016 03:33:36 pm

But what's the best award?

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Wicked Eric
25/2/2016 03:54:04 pm

Spelunky is the best game ever, lads. Pack it up here.

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Hamptonoid
25/2/2016 07:09:53 pm

Best article ever!

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Mr Biffo
25/2/2016 09:05:28 pm

Them's mighty big words, Hamptonoid.

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Shoggz link
26/2/2016 11:18:42 pm

I've said it before and I'll no doubt (boringly!) say it again.

Sonic is the best game ever.

(For me. :)

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