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temporarily, and are thus rewarded. The row disappears and the player's score increases. Or rather is transferred from a physical state to an abstract representation via the act of deposit. The metaphor here being that the score box is a bank. High score means bank statement. The local arcade's 'AAA' is Bill Gates. This setup makes the geometric figures themselves capital commodities (see previous image); that when managed effectively increase our account savings. What were once complete horizontal rows, that is different squares from different shapes, have turned into numerical rankings. Simply put, vertical.
Which brings us to the paradox inherit with this system – avoid producing inefficient physical vertical stacks (game over), and in turn gain abstract vertical stacks (high score). In this sense playing Tetris is similar to playing within capitalism itself, namely increasing bombardments and fear of failure as a means of motivation. The side effects being of course stress, stress, and pointless competition. The game is not as we play it, quick response spatial organization, but rather a complete allegory for capitalism. To make money (abstract) make stacks (physical). Thank you Tetris for this clear demonstration. katamari (piles) Fast forward to the twenty-first century. Exponential growth, expanding disparities, hyper-realized potentials – the post-apocalyptic world of tomorrow seeming as inescapable as the world itself. Let us at least enjoy the chaos. Let us play Katamari. |
Being such a visual based phenomenon, any mere verbal description would simply be a poor promotion. This is not to say that you must have experienced the game first hand to comprehend this section – merely the disclaimer of an author who only obtains words and MS Paint images to depict a series of moving images. Nevertheless, the basic premise (since most users skip the over-arching plot's dialog between a king and prince, so will we) is to assimilate a heterogeneous mobile pile via snowball mechanics. That is, the player begins by collecting very small objects that can easily be piled together, such as fruit, flowers and baseballs. Continual addition of similar hand-sized items creates pile expansion, and one can now include larger objects – such as plants, chairs, and small animals. And so on, until your wobbling mass of mess can include people, cars, even buildings.
This method of accumulation highlights two crucial aspects pertaining to pile dichotomy: size and variety. Rather, what is officially known as the Mass/ Heterogeneity Scale (see following graph); which states that the greater degree to which each of these variables exists (mass and heterogeneity) the more accepting the pile in questions becomes of foreign objects. Abstract perhaps, but let us incorporate three examples to expound upon. Let us imagine 120 or so wooden toothpicks lying together on the ground. This is pile example one. Positioned on the Mass/ Heterogeneity Scale our toothpicks would hover very close to the |
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