What does well designed mean?

[gizmo33]

Hmm...sounds like the Steven Colbert school of music criticism:

"It is truthy that Linkin Park is the most awesome band ever. Period. End of story."

All you do, AFAICT is switch the nouns around (switch Mozart for Linkin Park), but the reasoning remains exactly the same. Of course you could define a set of criteria subjectively to support your opinion, and that is subjective but more useful - there's more variety in Mozart than in Linkin Park. Then again, I think Linkin Park's lyrics are better and more relevant to people. I also think Linkin Park is more innovative in terms of it's instruments and sounds. I think trumpets and flutes can get old after a few hundred years. Otherwise explain why I'm much more likely to know someone that listens to Linkin Park than Mozart? I strongly suspect that some elitism is lurking around here and I expect sooner or later I'll hear it rustling about.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I strongly suspect that some elitism is lurking around here and I expect sooner or later I'll hear it rustling about.

Ahem. I have posted.

 

[gizmo33]

Ahem. I have posted.

Yea, I read over your posts twice just in case, but so far nothing. Sorry. I haven't give up hope - I just don't think the heirophants are going to pass up the "Linkin Park vs. Mozart" thing.

Seriously though - I agree with what (AFAICT) you're saying. Decide on some commonly held subjective criteria on which to judge modules. That's useful because then we can all talk about our opinions in ways that are more comprehensible to others. I guess I'm repeating myself now - knowing that it's just a matter of time before another poster butchers the definitions of objective and subjective in order to lend uneeded validity to their opinions, I'm just going to have to let it go. (Will save roll commencing...)

 

[Raven Crowking]

Yea, I read over your posts twice just in case, but so far nothing.

No....I meant that I was the rustling spectre of elitism.....

I've been accused of it often enough.

 

[TwinBahamut]

Who cares if this "Linkin Park" is better than Mozart or not? It is a flawed analogy to our discussion, and is useless for said discussion. Please, gizmo33, stop trying to frame those of us arguing for objective standards as "art heirophant elitists". It is not winning you any arguments.

But, if we are discussing music as a comparison... Imagine that we are creating guidelines for choosing a song to fit a certain scene in a movie or something. I argue that there you can't just pick a song at random from a playlist, and get an equally good result regardless.

Say, we are picking music for an epic battle scene in a historical war movie. Unless you want to be doing something really wierd with the movie (like Kubrick's use of romance music in the opening plane-refuleing scene in Dr. Strangelove), then you want to use certain kinds of music. Lullabies, children's songs, or well known songs from broadway musicals will probably not work. Electric guitar riffs or powerful classical music would probably work better, all depending on the goal of the director.

As perhaps a different music analogy, imagine a musician going to to create a new heavy death metal album. Which would be a better choice: electric guitars and drums, or flutes and clarinets? Which would he chose if he was trying to make an accurate performance of a Mozart piece? A full orchestra or a bunch of guys with banjos?

These are totally subjective choices, but I don't care about subjectivity or objectivity. Some things work, and others don't.