Customer Reviews

Will Wright and Brian Eno: Playing with Time

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a big fan of Brian Eno, but this DVD was a bit disappointing. There was too much of Will Wright and not enough of Brian Eno. This is just a video of a lecture, and while the video is good for a lecture, I expected more since Brian Eno was a part of it. Will Wright does give a demo of Spore on this DVD, and he does most of the talking, occasionally asking for input from Brian Eno. Certainly there is some insight into Brian Eno's work, but I expected more.

This is also a very minimal DVD, it is just the video of the lecture, that is it, no extras.

Comfortable and effective delivery of very heady, thought provoking ideas by two well established professionals in their fields. Educational, entertaining, and humorous at times, this moves along at a very nice pace. It is so refreshing to see folks expanding their art forms, producing results that are easily digested and enjoyed. Very cool. I wouldn't call this a lecture exactly, but it is easily the most interesting presentation or lecture I have ever witnessed.

Yes, it is a big ad for the game Spore. However, it is also Brian Eno talking about deep stuff. Two very smart, albeit eccentric, creative types talk to each other(indeed, at times it seems the audience is nonexistent). You will gain insight into things like applying Chaos theory to video games and understanding how Eno makes his music.
It is also an interesting character study of Eno in his later life. He's obviously a big fan of Spore's creator, but in the way that Andy Warhol was interested in Basquiat: one is obviously the visionary and one is the brilliant coat-tail rider. Eno being the cross platform visionary, and Will, just another programming genius lucky enough to have his games liked by the fickle video game buyers of the world, absent any charisma or real world life experience. He's just using Eno's name to generate publicity for his special generative algorithms because nobody remembers he designed Sims. You can tell how little he understands Eno or his work by some of the lame questions he poses.
The format is a casual lecture, with Eno playing sounds from his laptop(that we really only hear in the background, which is ironic, because that is what Eno is famous for) while the game designer verbally masturbates about his creation.
I gave it four stars because the packaging and description are misleading.

It's an interesting lecture that belongs in anyone's collection of Eno memorabilia.