Indie Game the Movie features Jonathan Blow's Braid. In one section, Blow talks about Braid's popular reception. The music swells with a melancholy tone as Soulja Boy Provides His Thoughts in the background. It seems that Jonathan Blow doesn't really agree with peoples' perceptions of the game. Watching the video, there is a degree of "laughter and incredulity" type of enjoyment over a more "academic" or "articulate" enjoyment.
After our discussions about procedural and experiential analysis, this feels like a satisfying example where the two types of analyses can really diverge. Procedurally, Braid is a game about a world where, although you can time travel, things can be permanently changed. The main character chases after something that, even with time travel, can never be his the way he wants it and might not even exist in the first place. The storybooks before every stage weave a narrative about an almost delusional hope the main character has, leaving behind a significant other for someone who might not even exist. In the end, we see that the Princess he chases after doesn't even want to be with him. The final sequence contrasts both of these ideas. The time reversal mechanic serves as a transition between two views: going forward, the main character works together with his princess; in reverse, the princess is actually running away from him.
Experientially, Soulja Boy showcases one level where the time reversal mechanic takes the character back up a big pit. He's laughing and repeatedly holding shift over and over again. To me, the time reversal mechanic is so incredibly satisfying that I just walked along and held shift to watch the entire game go in reverse. In pursuit of the story, I didn't try to get any puzzle pieces either. I just walked through every room.
It's interesting to look back at developers as their games come out. I imagine that when a mystery novelist finally publishes, they nervously wait for results: is it a good mystery novel, or just a bad mystery novel? Outside of ironically bad novels, there isn't really any room for some kind of "they enjoy it, but not the way I wanted them to enjoy it" reaction. How did Jonathan Blow feel, I wonder, when he finally finished pouring his soul into a story of obsession, loss, and (I imagine) very fiddly time-travel programming only to have Soulja Boy observe how his character looks like "Mario in a suit" ?