Ramblings
So, over the weekend I queued up a few audiobook versions of some H.P. Lovecraft stories to listen to. It was rather happenstance that one ended up catching my eye and me reflecting on how all my Mythos knowledge is from secondary sources.
The most striking things about the experience were perhaps the most mundane. I found myself thinking about the flowery, archaic language used and how that represents the very different time in which the stories were written. The stories themselves make a strong case for there being things that man is better off not knowing, but many of the elements lack punch in my view. That may be because I've lived on a diet of the fantastical and science fiction, or it may be because the rise of information technologies has made the world feel smaller.
I mean, The Doom That Came to Sarnath sort of sets itself up as a tale of how the people of Sarnath messed with ancient non-humans and got punished for it. A vast majority of the story, however, is about how Sarnath was a shining star of humanity for a thousand years - and that's pretty damned good for a civilization, much less a city. The Colour Out of Space would, a few decades later, have made more a sci-fi story of a radioactive meteorite than some eldritch mystery that boggles the mind. Pickman's Model follows a pretty predictable horror story path with a narrator who gets a little hard to take seriously after relating how uncanny artwork has driven him to cry out frightfully several times.
But, I can see how these stories may very well have been far more unique in their day - and that is a window that's intriguing to look at.
Recent gaming industry events have led to me thinking about business in a general sense and it's disheartening. Some point really aren't that obfuscated when you look at it. At a low level, producing something customers want is good business because it generates more sales. But successful businesses build up to a point (or are bought out by someone bigger) at which the making of the money because a greater focus than the product that brings in the money. Pleasing customers takes a back seat to pleasing investors.
And at that point, investors and administrators are more focused on growth than profit. Selling millions of units may not be enough. And you have companies doing things like saying Destiny 2 hasn't drawn in enough money, so they'll look for more ways to monitize it (over improving it or drawing in more players). You get Blizzard pitching Diablo Immortal in association with a mobile developer (which isn't a terrible thing itself, but the timing and venue of that announcement was a PR disaster).
I used to wonder why cool, beloved development studios getting bought by larger companies seemed to nosedive in product quality. More resources should mean the ability to produce bigger and better things, right? But looking at that back-end business-side transition makes it clearer.
And yeah, that's kind of depressing.
The most striking things about the experience were perhaps the most mundane. I found myself thinking about the flowery, archaic language used and how that represents the very different time in which the stories were written. The stories themselves make a strong case for there being things that man is better off not knowing, but many of the elements lack punch in my view. That may be because I've lived on a diet of the fantastical and science fiction, or it may be because the rise of information technologies has made the world feel smaller.
I mean, The Doom That Came to Sarnath sort of sets itself up as a tale of how the people of Sarnath messed with ancient non-humans and got punished for it. A vast majority of the story, however, is about how Sarnath was a shining star of humanity for a thousand years - and that's pretty damned good for a civilization, much less a city. The Colour Out of Space would, a few decades later, have made more a sci-fi story of a radioactive meteorite than some eldritch mystery that boggles the mind. Pickman's Model follows a pretty predictable horror story path with a narrator who gets a little hard to take seriously after relating how uncanny artwork has driven him to cry out frightfully several times.
But, I can see how these stories may very well have been far more unique in their day - and that is a window that's intriguing to look at.
Recent gaming industry events have led to me thinking about business in a general sense and it's disheartening. Some point really aren't that obfuscated when you look at it. At a low level, producing something customers want is good business because it generates more sales. But successful businesses build up to a point (or are bought out by someone bigger) at which the making of the money because a greater focus than the product that brings in the money. Pleasing customers takes a back seat to pleasing investors.
And at that point, investors and administrators are more focused on growth than profit. Selling millions of units may not be enough. And you have companies doing things like saying Destiny 2 hasn't drawn in enough money, so they'll look for more ways to monitize it (over improving it or drawing in more players). You get Blizzard pitching Diablo Immortal in association with a mobile developer (which isn't a terrible thing itself, but the timing and venue of that announcement was a PR disaster).
I used to wonder why cool, beloved development studios getting bought by larger companies seemed to nosedive in product quality. More resources should mean the ability to produce bigger and better things, right? But looking at that back-end business-side transition makes it clearer.
And yeah, that's kind of depressing.
I think Coulor out of Space may well have inspired the creators of The Blob.
ReplyDeleteIt very, very much made the think of a segment in Creepshow, which in turn was based on a Stephen King story, Weeds (which I never read). And in that story, according to Wikipedia, "Some aspects ... are loosely based on The Colour Out of Space."
DeleteThus, we come full circle.