So, I'm slowly but surely starting to get it, why the indie elite are so careful about keeping their timeline free of "clutter," why an executive at the head of Epic games says he "doesn't talk to losers," and why an executive at Microsoft's "reputation is too important" to help someone like me.
"The Master"
It's not enough to make art that is good. I win that argument: my stuff is good, people who see it are usually extremely positive about it. My XBOX game has close to fifty positive reviews on its store page, mostly because I personally hand-picked who played the thing. But also because the game has merit.
"Jester"
And that gets right to it: Art, and what is cool, is inherently about elitism. "Only very smart people will like this Art" is a technique used to sell all kinds of crap to people who are, in one way or another, insecure. You see: the art itself isn't what is being sold, what people buy is belonging, an identity.
"Music in the Corner Apartment"
And that is why no one really likes my art. My art is not cool. It is dorky, it is lame, it is nerdy... my art is loser art. And that's where I get defiant, and why I do think I'm a bit of a rebel: I like making art that follows all the rules but isn't snooty. And that is how I rebel. My art, by all objective measures, is of high enough quality to make it. But I am not going to fancy parties with the indie elite. I am not stomping on people who behave in ways I don't like. I am not policing who likes my art and how.
"Vista"
Jon Blow had to comment on every blog that talked about his art, thus making talking about his art even more fun. Will Blow like my comment? Am I a winner or a loser? Am I in the club of people who are smart enough to understand how cool this is? All I have to say to someone who talks about my art, even in a negative way that doesn't understand what I'm doing, is "thank you." And there it is. Jon Blow is cooler than me, you can be wrong about his art, and thus some people are in the club and some people aren't.
"Morning Routine"
What would a club be if everyone could join... Why would anyone want to? The point is that the club has the "right people" in it.
That's where I make my mistake, that art is like a building that will either stand on its own or not. Art only works when people buy into it. You can't build this great tower of theory and then create art that follows that framework and expect that to be art.
"Backtalk"
Art is "I want that!" Art is "If I had that I would get laid!" Art is "I would be the coolest person in my neighborhood if I had that thing!" And I admit, my art does not give people that feeling.
Here's the bad guy for my franchise, an out of touch control freak who sits in his lava lamp tower and watches the rest of the world, sometimes taking over people's computers from afar and causing chaos trying to rewrite the universe. ME_IRL.
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