I want to play this game obviously, since Blow is a very good videogame designer. I'm conflicted on the morality of paying for it though. Maybe I'll get it from, uh, long distance friends.
I want to play this game obviously, since Blow is a very good videogame designer. I'm conflicted on the morality of paying for it though. Maybe I'll get it from, uh, long distance friends.
Can you elaborate on what you mean? It doesn't say that he is financing any specific group. He just seems to have bad takes on politics. For example I found this video where he doesn't seem happy...
Exemplary
Can you elaborate on what you mean? It doesn't say that he is financing any specific group. He just seems to have bad takes on politics. For example I found this video where he doesn't seem happy about either political party: https://youtu.be/-tdp2peI2gY. He is more of a naysayer. If we're going off random Tweets, he has this which is more recent than the Tweet sources in the Wikipedia article: https://xcancel.com/Jonathan_Blow/status/1939982295936782396
Anyway, I don't think we need to agree with everything an artist does or have some sort of purity contest. Jonathan Blow looks like a pretty complex person and summarizing his philosophy off random things that he says feels weird.
Also I think his art doesn't lean one way or another and generally helps with critical thinking.
Edit: This topic got me curious so I looked a bit more and found this video from 4 months ago, though I'm not sure when the interview was (edit looks like it was 2 years ago). Here's one quote that I found interesting (3:09):
And that's one of the lies, right? One of the lies is that this dude [Trump (or maybe he meant Biden? That was 2 years ago)] is making decisions that are meaningful as opposed to just getting up...
I mean, do you remember when Obama was president, how many speeches that dude did and how coherent and intelligent he was even [host cuts here so I can't make out what he said]. Like compared to that, there's no president, there's no anything. And we all know this except for the people who are really checked out of reality.
There's this later in the video which is rather meta:
Literally every time I say stuff like this I get a bunch of crap for it, right? And I think the thing is, and you know, this has been true even before the internet you would always have people just saying the talking points and not wanting to generate controversy by going off script or whatever, but we kind of have to deal with it like it definitely became worse with the internet because there's just so much more talking. And if I'm gonna have a long-term vision again, we have to somehow just figure out how to deal with this as humanity. Like how do you deal with the fact that a bunch of people can just say a bunch of crap about you anytime they want and you can see it and everybody else can see it? And I think the only sane response is to just ignore that stuff or filter it out or something. But like we have to culturally iterate till we get there and maybe if not enough people speak honestly we instead develop a culture or just being afraid to talk and so I don't think we should be afraid to talk. I would not feel, I would not have full self-respect if I felt like I was afraid to talk. It's just part of my personality right? And so I think it would be very advantageous to all of us if we can find a way to steer the culture to a place where people are not afraid to talk. I think that is a danger, like the USA I grew up in, the kind of reticence that you're talking about was mostly reserved for, you know, politicians or CEOs of big companies or whatever, right? But as the internet exploded, I think it's now a thing that's felt by everybody. Everybody feels this pressure that if they say the wrong thing it could be very bad. And that's true, but I feel like it's also just destructive to the soul to live that way. It's like you live behind the iron curtain again all of the sudden. So we have to just not do that. I would like to not do that. I would like to live in a USA where people are as free to express themselves as they were when I grew up. Some people might say some stuff that you think is repugnant, but that's part of the constant struggle that we have to refine our society and make it better. That's just life. I prefer letting us live life rather than like I'm scared the whole time. So that's why I Tweet Bidenomics exclamation point is because I just don't want to see us keep going the direction that that stuff's been going. [...] Talking is how you figure out what you actually think.
[Host] : It's well said. I mean, I've often said that, not to get too political, but this has come up in the past in different contexts, when I went to college, which I went to in 2002, I was pro-life, and by the time I left college, I was pro-choice specifically by just listening to people's arguments for really the first time ever and being like "oh yeah, okay this resonates with me". You have to be malleable. I was also deeply neoconservative at that era and I'm like completely anti-war now. I found the errors in my own ways from my perspective by listening to people.
Where does this "scared to speak my mind" horseshit come from? The only time I ever feel intimidated to speak my mind is when someone higher than me in the corporate totem pole gets enamored of an...
Exemplary
Where does this "scared to speak my mind" horseshit come from? The only time I ever feel intimidated to speak my mind is when someone higher than me in the corporate totem pole gets enamored of an obviously dumb idea, and then the "fear" only drives me to rephrase my impulsive ridicule into something more politic (to mixed success).
If I get the feeling that what I think is not going to be received well, my first instinct is to ask myself, "is my thinking on this subject sound? Am I failing to see this from another perspective? Am I just full of shit?" It doesn't intimidate me, it drives me to examine my conceptions to see if I'm taking cognitive shortcuts. Those who piss and moan about cancellation just strike me as cognitively lazy assholes bitching that society expects them to put in mental effort before they fart out the first half-baked, malformed thought that flits through their minds. My reserves of tolerance for that bullshit are exhausted.
Isn't that just proving his point though? I think it's good to be able to express your ideas and get a reality check. It doesn't have to be a negative experience. Everything doesn't have to be a...
Isn't that just proving his point though? I think it's good to be able to express your ideas and get a reality check. It doesn't have to be a negative experience. Everything doesn't have to be a confrontation. Usually you do that in a safe space. Like there are things I've told my parents that once I've said it, I was glad it was said to them and not somewhere else. Then I changed my thinking. My parents are great people though but not everyone is as fortunate. Where do you go if you don't have an outlet? Or maybe I can call it a "social safety net". Is it not allowed to fail? Is there no recovery once you've failed publicly? That's how I read what he means by "develop a culture where people aren't afraid to talk".
Is all that progress only allowed to exist within our own minds and never be expressed externally?
Yes, and that's my point. I've yet to come up against a subject that couldn't be discussed provided I took the time and effort to develop cogent, well-reasoned things to say about it. My suspicion...
Everything doesn't have to be a confrontation.
Yes, and that's my point. I've yet to come up against a subject that couldn't be discussed provided I took the time and effort to develop cogent, well-reasoned things to say about it. My suspicion is that people who complain about this stuff like it's ubiquitous just can't be assed to put in that effort. It's not surprising to me that Twitter seems to be the epicenter of this, since the whole platform encourages knee-jerk emotional responses and nothing else.
I wasn't going to respond since you come off as overly defensive, but apparently this is actually an exemplary take, so let's see. OK. If this matters, where do you draw the line? Do I have to see...
I wasn't going to respond since you come off as overly defensive, but apparently this is actually an exemplary take, so let's see.
financing any specific group
OK. If this matters, where do you draw the line? Do I have to see his bank statements before I'm allowed to not want to support him financially?
some sort of purity contest
What are you even talking about? There is no contest. I pointed out there are things he has said that make me uncomfortable with supporting him. I can only control my own actions, and I have a moral duty to try to make choices I think are right and to think inconvenient thoughts like how a famous videogame designer using his platform to say things that might convince even a small proportion of his audience not to vaccinate might compromise herd immunity and indirectly result in an increased number of deaths somewhere.
Can I live with that? I'll think about it. If you can, that's up to you, and no one implied otherwise. I'm not saying the man is Satan incarnate. He's a videogame designer who suffers from that problem where people who are really smart in a certain way sometimes overestimate themselves and neglect to think about the consequences of their actions.
And yes, he's the type who's "just asking questions". He frames these things as questions, and says these things about "talk," but he's not really having a real conversation, is he? He's soapboxing to a lot of followers while apparently (judging by the quote you edited in) "filtering out" any pushback.
his art doesn't lean one way or another and generally helps with critical thinking
If only he engaged with it himself
Jokes aside, as I've already said, I enjoy his games. I play a lot of puzzle games, I'm good at them. I'm not entirely sure I'd say they helped with my critical thinking, but they certainly exercise the brain. If I found Blow's videogame work repugnant I would not engage with it; I agree it's apolitical. But my reticence to contribute to his profit has nothing to do with any of that.
That's my bad I guess but it's because the same kind of discussions always spawns from posting something about Jonathan Blow online. And I wish the comments would be more about the game itself,...
I wasn't going to respond since you come off as overly defensive.
That's my bad I guess but it's because the same kind of discussions always spawns from posting something about Jonathan Blow online. And I wish the comments would be more about the game itself, not that it's bad. Reflects more on my thinking than on you. It's my pet peeve (The collapsed comment thread).
The reason I got exemplary wasn't because of the quality of my comment but because I took time to find videos and write the transcripts of the parts I found interesting.
I disagree that he is the type to just ask questions. He is really opinionated. snip1, snip2. He has a talk on Preventing the Collapse of Civilization. While I don't agree most of the time, I appreciate that there's a community reposting what he says with discussions from people agreeing with him or disagreeing. I see him as a modern day philosopher more than just a gamedev. But there's also a weird side where what he says gets amplified further than what he intended for example you can see his comment on this video"
Look, when I stream this kind of thing late at night and am grumpy about the game, it's not meant to be something to be rebroadcast to a large audience, because that makes it into something different that is much more negative than it was meant to be. This was also a significant factor in why I was streaming without a camera for a while, because it decreased the number of these kinds of clips that people were doing. If people are going to keep clipping this kind of stuff it mostly means I can't play games on stream and have honest reactions, which is sad.
With the uploader responding this:
Thank you for sharing this, Jon. I genuinely respect your work and that was never my intention to change the nature of what you were doing or make you feel constrained on stream. I'll stop this series going forward. The channel exists because I find your ideas and critique valuable, not to work against you.
Anyway, my comments tend to be dry and transactional I think. Don't read too much into it.
Edit: Oh I forgot to reply to this part:
I'm not entirely sure I'd say they helped with my critical thinking.
His games tend to have many layers. For example, Braid is about saving the princess, but you can read deeper into it from many angles. Braid Deconstructed - A Retrospective
Jonathan Blow (Braid, The Witness) has been working on this game for a few years now. It's a sokoban game. I used to follow his development streams a few years ago. The tech for this game was...
Jonathan Blow (Braid, The Witness) has been working on this game for a few years now. It's a sokoban game. I used to follow his development streams a few years ago. The tech for this game was really interesting. It's using his Jai language.
I played the demo during Steam Next Fest, and it's incredibly good. The blending of different puzzle elements creates some very novel and surprising gameplay. It also seems quite challenging. I'm...
I played the demo during Steam Next Fest, and it's incredibly good. The blending of different puzzle elements creates some very novel and surprising gameplay.
It also seems quite challenging. I'm expecting that, much like The Witness, immersing myself into this game will colour how I see shapes and symbols for weeks to come.
Played the demo it's an epic game if you are into puzzles. There's suppose to be hundreds of levels. On top of it all its written in Jai the language JB is making and the entire game compiles...
Played the demo it's an epic game if you are into puzzles. There's suppose to be hundreds of levels. On top of it all its written in Jai the language JB is making and the entire game compiles under 2 seconds. How many games can you say do that?
I won't be surprised to see comments criticizing John's politics or beliefs. I'm here to say I could not care less. I don't follow politics and while its rational to not support people who doesn't share your most fundamental beliefs, I just don't look at a game or programming language as core extensions of developer's value system. If its a fun and great puzzle game and it doesn't go out of its way to force me to a certain belief or value, then I'll enjoy it.
I want to play this game obviously, since Blow is a very good videogame designer. I'm conflicted on the morality of paying for it though. Maybe I'll get it from, uh, long distance friends.
Can you elaborate on what you mean? It doesn't say that he is financing any specific group. He just seems to have bad takes on politics. For example I found this video where he doesn't seem happy about either political party: https://youtu.be/-tdp2peI2gY. He is more of a naysayer. If we're going off random Tweets, he has this which is more recent than the Tweet sources in the Wikipedia article: https://xcancel.com/Jonathan_Blow/status/1939982295936782396
Anyway, I don't think we need to agree with everything an artist does or have some sort of purity contest. Jonathan Blow looks like a pretty complex person and summarizing his philosophy off random things that he says feels weird.
Also I think his art doesn't lean one way or another and generally helps with critical thinking.
Edit: This topic got me curious so I looked a bit more and found this video from 4 months ago, though I'm not sure when the interview was (edit looks like it was 2 years ago). Here's one quote that I found interesting (3:09):
There's this later in the video which is rather meta:
Where does this "scared to speak my mind" horseshit come from? The only time I ever feel intimidated to speak my mind is when someone higher than me in the corporate totem pole gets enamored of an obviously dumb idea, and then the "fear" only drives me to rephrase my impulsive ridicule into something more politic (to mixed success).
If I get the feeling that what I think is not going to be received well, my first instinct is to ask myself, "is my thinking on this subject sound? Am I failing to see this from another perspective? Am I just full of shit?" It doesn't intimidate me, it drives me to examine my conceptions to see if I'm taking cognitive shortcuts. Those who piss and moan about cancellation just strike me as cognitively lazy assholes bitching that society expects them to put in mental effort before they fart out the first half-baked, malformed thought that flits through their minds. My reserves of tolerance for that bullshit are exhausted.
Isn't that just proving his point though? I think it's good to be able to express your ideas and get a reality check. It doesn't have to be a negative experience. Everything doesn't have to be a confrontation. Usually you do that in a safe space. Like there are things I've told my parents that once I've said it, I was glad it was said to them and not somewhere else. Then I changed my thinking. My parents are great people though but not everyone is as fortunate. Where do you go if you don't have an outlet? Or maybe I can call it a "social safety net". Is it not allowed to fail? Is there no recovery once you've failed publicly? That's how I read what he means by "develop a culture where people aren't afraid to talk".
Is all that progress only allowed to exist within our own minds and never be expressed externally?
Yes, and that's my point. I've yet to come up against a subject that couldn't be discussed provided I took the time and effort to develop cogent, well-reasoned things to say about it. My suspicion is that people who complain about this stuff like it's ubiquitous just can't be assed to put in that effort. It's not surprising to me that Twitter seems to be the epicenter of this, since the whole platform encourages knee-jerk emotional responses and nothing else.
I agree with you there. I'm not sure I have such a generous reading of Blow's opinions as you do, and I think that's essentially the difference here.
I wasn't going to respond since you come off as overly defensive, but apparently this is actually an exemplary take, so let's see.
OK. If this matters, where do you draw the line? Do I have to see his bank statements before I'm allowed to not want to support him financially?
What are you even talking about? There is no contest. I pointed out there are things he has said that make me uncomfortable with supporting him. I can only control my own actions, and I have a moral duty to try to make choices I think are right and to think inconvenient thoughts like how a famous videogame designer using his platform to say things that might convince even a small proportion of his audience not to vaccinate might compromise herd immunity and indirectly result in an increased number of deaths somewhere.
Can I live with that? I'll think about it. If you can, that's up to you, and no one implied otherwise. I'm not saying the man is Satan incarnate. He's a videogame designer who suffers from that problem where people who are really smart in a certain way sometimes overestimate themselves and neglect to think about the consequences of their actions.
And yes, he's the type who's "just asking questions". He frames these things as questions, and says these things about "talk," but he's not really having a real conversation, is he? He's soapboxing to a lot of followers while apparently (judging by the quote you edited in) "filtering out" any pushback.
If only he engaged with it himself
Jokes aside, as I've already said, I enjoy his games. I play a lot of puzzle games, I'm good at them. I'm not entirely sure I'd say they helped with my critical thinking, but they certainly exercise the brain. If I found Blow's videogame work repugnant I would not engage with it; I agree it's apolitical. But my reticence to contribute to his profit has nothing to do with any of that.
That's my bad I guess but it's because the same kind of discussions always spawns from posting something about Jonathan Blow online. And I wish the comments would be more about the game itself, not that it's bad. Reflects more on my thinking than on you. It's my pet peeve (The collapsed comment thread).
The reason I got exemplary wasn't because of the quality of my comment but because I took time to find videos and write the transcripts of the parts I found interesting.
I disagree that he is the type to just ask questions. He is really opinionated. snip1, snip2. He has a talk on Preventing the Collapse of Civilization. While I don't agree most of the time, I appreciate that there's a community reposting what he says with discussions from people agreeing with him or disagreeing. I see him as a modern day philosopher more than just a gamedev. But there's also a weird side where what he says gets amplified further than what he intended for example you can see his comment on this video"
With the uploader responding this:
Anyway, my comments tend to be dry and transactional I think. Don't read too much into it.
Edit: Oh I forgot to reply to this part:
His games tend to have many layers. For example, Braid is about saving the princess, but you can read deeper into it from many angles. Braid Deconstructed - A Retrospective
There are analyses for The Witness too. A Deconstructive Reading of Jonathan Blow and Thekla’s The Witness
I didn't care too much about The Witness but I liked other people's reactions to it. The Cracking the Cryptic playthrough was pretty awesome.
You know, you're right. I've been trying to be less negative about random stuff lately but sometimes I forget.
God damnit, I was blissful unaware until now that he went MAGA.
Jonathan Blow (Braid, The Witness) has been working on this game for a few years now. It's a sokoban game. I used to follow his development streams a few years ago. The tech for this game was really interesting. It's using his Jai language.
Edit: The date is October 8, 2026.
I played the demo during Steam Next Fest, and it's incredibly good. The blending of different puzzle elements creates some very novel and surprising gameplay.
It also seems quite challenging. I'm expecting that, much like The Witness, immersing myself into this game will colour how I see shapes and symbols for weeks to come.
Played the demo it's an epic game if you are into puzzles. There's suppose to be hundreds of levels. On top of it all its written in Jai the language JB is making and the entire game compiles under 2 seconds. How many games can you say do that?
I won't be surprised to see comments criticizing John's politics or beliefs. I'm here to say I could not care less. I don't follow politics and while its rational to not support people who doesn't share your most fundamental beliefs, I just don't look at a game or programming language as core extensions of developer's value system. If its a fun and great puzzle game and it doesn't go out of its way to force me to a certain belief or value, then I'll enjoy it.