EPTThe following is the result of a person who thinks way too much, and sees symbols everywhere. Read if you're very bored only
The game "Music Catch" was recently posted in the general forum. You can play it here.
A lot of people commented that the music was beautiful, but
the game was boring. I'd like to argue that the entire game was a work of art.
When you first start the game, the music is slow, and the number of shapes to collect are few. This is comparable to the calm before a storm, or a lull in the hecticity (can I make up words?) of life. Every little shape you collect is like the random little things you have to do in life. Not particularly emotional things, but making coffee, tying your shoes, getting dressed, eating breakfast; simple things.
Then you notice the yellow shapes. When you collect these, you feel happy. Your cursor gets a little bigger, the game congratulates you. You feel good. These are the random emotional events that pick you up during your day and make you feel happy. An attractive girl smiles at you, you get a nice e-mail, you write something brilliant; everything that makes life worth living.
But perhaps you accidentally collect a red shape. When you collect these, you feel annoyed or frustrated. Your cursor size halves, and all the little things you need to collect get harder to do. But the game encourages you not to take it too hard. "Shucks," or "bummer," it tells you. You shake it off, and you think "it's not so bad, I can just collect some more yellow things and be happy." So although it felt like a huge loss, and it hurt a lot, you keep going. The music is still nice, and it makes you think that if only you reacted this way in real life, things wouldn't upset you so much. The first philosophical lesson of the game.
As things move along, the music gets faster. More shapes begin appearing, and everything gets very intense. In fact, there's so many shapes to collect, you can't possibly get them all. Like in life, when there's so many things to do, and literally not enough time to do them. But the music keeps playing, and you remain calm. What if you were like this in real life? What if all the things you couldn't do didn't bother you. You could try your best to get them all, and then not feel bad for the ones you missed. Philosophical lesson number two: weathering the storm.
The game proceeds, and you enter yet another lull of activity. Suddenly there aren't so many shapes to collect. Maybe it feels a bit too quiet. But the music keeps playing, and you still feel happy. You learn to enjoy the calmness as you'd enjoyed the intensity. What if in life you could always be enjoying the current conditions? Not merely accepting them as reality, but embracing them as beautiful and wonderful parts of life. Philosophical lesson number three: being grateful for all life gives you.
And so the game comes full circle. Both literally on the screen, and figuratively in its stages. Your score appears, and it makes you feel happy. You want more. You want to see if you can do better next time. So you start the game again.
Things are different this round though. Maybe there were more yellow shapes last time. But it doesn't bother you. The music still makes you feel good, and you still try your best. Not stoic, not emotionless and indifferent, but contented and happy. Life has thrown a new set of challenges at you, in a completely random difficulty. Philosophical lesson number four: It doesn't matter what life throws at you, how unfair it may be, it can still be enjoyable. You can still be happy.
It's the music that makes you realise this. The music, like your heart-beat, is unending. Unchanging. It gets faster, or it gets slower, but it always stays in rhythm. It's that beautiful thing you can always count on to be there. Your security blanket in bad times, your partner in good.
Life will always have it's challenges. There will always be good things and bad things. Why worry about just how many good things and bad things there are, or in what proportion they are of each other? Why not just enjoy life for what it is?
:o
