I read this article and truly laughed out loud.
I kind of see things this way although not quite to this extreme. 
Anyway, see what you think.
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I hate that website. They block adblockâprobably because they have some of the most intrusive ads Iâve seen on a web page.
I think heâs right in the most reductionist way possible.
Realistically, of course, he isnât right at all. Games are defined by mechanics (and context, I think), and the range of mechanics out there is enormous. Playing Command and Conquer Generals was nothing like playing Sim City 4, which was nothing like playing Hammer and Sickle, which was nothing like playing Mass Effect, which was nothing like playing Oblivion, which was nothing like playingâŚetc.
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Well if you think abstractly enough and look past the âillusionsâ of how these games have different âformsâ but are essentially the same basic activities taking place, then yes he has a point. Most games focus on changing appearances and creating different-looking environments and stuff while still having the same basic concepts playing out. Also unfortunately when someone is first exposed to a new kind of game they create this imprint in their mind and then when they go to create a similar game they donât even realize that they have just accepted all kinds of aspects of that game as âfixedâ like theyâre inside the box, so they either directly or indirectly end up copying the basic âformulaâ and hey presto, 100âs of clones. Itâs harder for people to think abstractly then to stay inside the box and dwell on appearances.
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By this (the forbes) definition those donât exist 
"Me: Looks at Doom. Letâs skip this one." This was actually pretty funny.
Why do you use adblock? Let the people making the material get paid. If a site is spammy then just dont visit it
I use adblock because I donât want ads slowing my computer to a crawl, hijacking it and preventing me from reading the page until the ads have loaded and started playing audio and video.
I rarely go to sites with ads anyway, outside of a few gaming sites.
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Because often youâre getting more than just the advertisement. Ads have become a popular way to bundle malware and they require no action on the part of the user getting infected nor do they exploit any vulnerabilities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malvertising
Before you make the statement that this is just the work of some websites that are less than scrupulous you may want to do your homework. A number of reputable organizations - including Forbes, MSN and Yahoo - were caught serving the malware laced advertisements.
According to the security researcher the advertisment was coming through a legitimate company that accidentally allowed someone to post an advertisement injected with the malware.
Hundreds of millions of impressions with that ad now means hundreds of millions of infected systems.
https://www.engadget.com/2016/01/08/you-say-advertising-i-say-block-that-malware/
http://www.networkworld.com/article/3021113/security/forbes-malware-ad-blocker-advertisements.html
Going back to the original question we use the adblockers because they donât simply stop the ads. They stop the malware too.
http://lifehacker.com/5649025/why-you-should-use-adblock-plus-even-if-you-dont-block-ads
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Well ads and malware certainly werenât the intention for the post. Crazy that Forbes would have that happen but theyâre only human. Too bad there are so many a-holes out there making the crap to begin with.
I also use an ad blocker just because I am so tired of all of the ads everywhere. Many websites now have an option where I can donate to support them that way. They all should.
I didnât mind i when it was text ads or even small image ads but then the banner image madness began and then video ads⌠I canât stand those. Even on YT if a video starts with an ad that doesnât have the Skip in 5 second option I just return to search results and find another video.
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You can certainly protect yourself from malware and viruses etc. My point is that you should not be going on sites that use a ton of advertisements if you have a problem watching or seeing them. If people stop visiting sites with a ton of ads the owner will have to make some adjustments. I always watch youtube ads and dont think it is right for you to skip them outside of the option to skip of course. It is selfish in my eyes, if you are going to consume information you should at least be able to watch or see a advertisement. Im simply stating my opinion so no one should get butt hurt over this.
Yeah sometimes I do the same thing, and just dont watch the video. But most of the time for me anyway, it is rewarding to watch a 30 second ad to view the information. I also agree, there are so many people making viruses and things of that nature and it is sad.
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Iâm about 100% sure no oneâs getting âbutthurtâ over this.
Amusingly, my first reply was almost âI refuse to go to Forbes because of their intrusive ads. Can you summarize the article?â but I figured that would sound childish so I went myself.
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Every game and every game mechanic is just a binary choice. When developers often slag off hidden object games I usually retort by saying that every game is a point and click, point the mouse click the button to shoot the monster. At machine level C# is reduced to a binary choice, when one understands this one realises that one can make any game or any software because it all comes down to do this or do that. Might not be pretty, might not run that fast because all the algorithms for faster searches are removed etc, and a 1001 other caveats, nevertheless at a fundamental level every piece of software reduces down to a yes or no decision. So every game is pong. I remember reading a Dilbert cartoon where Dilbert states that every human is just âfish plus timeâ, and every game is just âpong plus hardware improvementsâ.
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In the same way that To Kill a Mockingbird and Enderâs Game are the same because you just read a bunch of words until you run out of pages. Even the author is making the point that it goes past reductionism to absurdity.
I cut things with knives in my kitchen, therefore itâs the same as Wolfenstein 3D. 
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You reminded me, I really need to read that sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird.
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Itâs called being a philistine. To only be able to understand art by itâs component elements, without any ability to understand how and why the use of those elements might change their purpose, might just be a sign that they arenât actually human. Like they might still be more neanderthal than homo sapien.
Every story is just Romeo and Juliet because it has romance and drama and politics and action. Clearly no story could possibly have some element that isnât found in it, but letâs just ignore why any story would use those elements for any reason that isnât to create a tragedy.
Just imagine if every wooden construction was only ever called a wooden construction. You now never have to call a building a house, a shed, an office, a factory, or a fort specifically, because instead itâs all just a thing built out of a material. How confusing of a world are we living in when we donât know what the fuck anything is used for.
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The articles kind of pointless. Honestly, if Wolfeinstien3D hadnât been built, the game market would still be virtually identical to how it is today. Same goes for Doom or Quake. The precursors for a FPS game existed, and someone would have built one soon enough.
The article isnât even a good example of reductionist thinking. Why not go all the way back to Pong? The same principles apply.
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Every food is a piece of bread.
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This. The precursor for the FPS genre is from 1974. Thatâs 18 years older than Wolfenstein 3D.
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Well my point with it was some game humor. I enjoyed the exchange between the two. Some lighthearted fun.
Some of the precursors for the FPS genre existed, but the current market really did depend on those games and the developers behind them to create the gaming market (especially for the PC) that we see today. It is no coincidence that Wolfeinstien3D (1992), Doom (1993), and Quake (1996) were built by the same small team of extremely competent developers.
For a while, Doom was even the most useful software for PC, not just the most played game. Doom helped people see that the PC could be a viable gaming platform. Doom invented the âDealthmatchâ play style that is still widely popular. In many cases, it drove people to get a faster PC with a VGA card and a mouse.
In the early to mid 1990s, Doom was more influential than Windows. Much of the vast gaming support currently built into Windows was literally implemented in response to Doom for DOS. Microsoft realized that Doom spawned a revolution for the PC ecosystem, and DirectX was Microsoftâs attempt to remain relevant.
And of course, very few people thought the PC needed a 3D capable graphics card until Carmack decided that Quake 2 would require that. Because of Quake 2, a lot of people immediately bought a 3D video card, and that paved the way for more games to use 3D video cards. Prior to Quake 2, there were some games with optional 3D card support (Descent 2, Quake, Tomb Raider), but Quake 2 was the first game that required a 3D card.
It is also important to remember that many games were built on the engines used in Doom and Quake. Those capable engines enabled game developers to build many of the FPS games of that era.
It is possible that the FPS games we play today would have been built eventually anyway, but the gaming ecosystem we take for granted today was definitely built on top of Wolfeinstien3D (1992), Doom (1993), and Quake (1996).
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You are correct. Those guys are legends, and the games are critical points in the history of todayâs market.
Iâm simply saying if not Doom and Carmak, it would have been someone else. Worst case scenario the gaming industry would be a couple of years behind its present sate.
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