“The World's Best Mayor Asks: Do I Exist? [Philosophy]” plus 1 more |
The World's Best Mayor Asks: Do I Exist? [Philosophy] Posted: 16 Aug 2010 06:47 PM PDT
Like fellow Nordic thinker Kierkegaard, Gnarr is grappling with the question and nature of existence. Unlike Kierkegaard, Gnarr is grappling with those questions in a brief essay entitled, "Welcome to Reykjavík" published in the opinion page of the local English-language biweekly, The Grapevine (PDF). It is, nonetheless, a formidable text, every bit the equal to Kierkegaard's famous Fear and Trembling. Or, I assume it is, given that I've never read Fear and Trembling. (You can read the whole thing below.) In the essay, Gnarr moves from Aristotelian questions of potentiality like "Did I exist in any form before I was born?" to, uh, other qestions, like "Why did Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler not bear any children?" He later finds solace in his belief in "elves and trolls," specifically, the Moomins, the hippopotamus-like characters from Tove Jannson's beloved children's books. In fact, he has solicited political advice from Moominpapa, the leader of the clan, about joining the European Union (Says Moominpapa: "Life in Moominvalley was much better after Finland joined the EU.") Gnarr besides being Reykjavík's funniest mayor ever, is a former (well, current) comedian and actor. He founded his own political party, the Best Party, in 2009, and won control of Reykjavík's mayorship in June of 2010. Here is a campaign video for the Best Party: "I hope these thoughts shed some light on the history of Reykjavík and its culture," concludes Gnarr. Indeed, they do.
[The Grapevine via Reddit] Send an email to Max Read, the author of this post, at max@gawker.com. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
Limbo sells 300k, design philosophy discussed by Playdead Posted: 16 Aug 2010 06:53 PM PDT According to Gamasutra, Limbo – which kicked off the Xbox Live Arcade Summer of Arcade last month – has sold over 300,000 units. The outlet spoke to Jeppe Carlsen, level designer for Limbo, who discussed some of the design philosophy behind the game. Carlsen noted that the team had a few goals that Limbo had to adhere to from the beginning, including the overall mood and the decision that it would contain no tutorial text whatsoever. With many of the game's puzzles punishing a player at the slightest misstep, Carlsen stated that "it's important that you also treat him nicely." In other words, while death is frequent, it's also entertaining and educational. Ideally, players learn something about the puzzle with each death. Another philosophy: Make sure the correct solution is "fairly easy to execute" and that incorrect solutions are obviously wrong. Making incorrect solutions obvious aids players in discarding them from other possible solutions, nudging them toward the correct one. After all, there's no better motivator than grisly death. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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