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Videogames as Art
Philip Kollar writes "AllRPG has just posted Games As Art, Part 2.
In this article, I attempt to create a viable list of things that come together to make a videogame art, rather than just entertainment. I also explore how these three concepts (writing, design, and interactivity) have been used in other forms of media and how they're being further explored in the world of gaming."
Let's go way back now, and be honest: what's the first videogame that you remember that had a plot worth remembering? I mean something that wasn't just throw-away. My answer (big surprise here) would be Final Fantasy VI.
Yeah, it's pretty hard to forget that big collapse in storytelling about halfway through.
As for me, the first videogame with a real plot that I can remember was Ninja Gaiden. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a PC game that I'm forgetting earlier than that. I guess it depends on your definition of "throw-away."
Rob
Usualy when I see the words Videogame and Art together, someone is talking about art that is inspired by video games (like the Paper Rad comics or the Brick Attack fashion stuff). So its nice to see art being attributed to the source.
There was a magazine in Japan years back that was basicly applying art and film theory to video games. Does anyone know what this was called?
we're just marketing. marketing our bad attitudes.
I think ICO is the best argument for video gaming as art to date, but Rez is another excellent example.
Rob
The original Zork had barely anything to do with plot, but I did forget about A Mind Forever Voyaging.
Rob
One of my house mates works in an art library and one of the trade journals had UT2K4 characters on the front as someone had done sculptures of them, i will try and upload scans if i can get him to bring it home again.
You might think video games are art, but once you've seen how they're developed then you'll change your mind. Video games are more like TV sitcoms: a bunch of marketing people and executives making calls on what they think will sell. There's almost no "do the right thing" aspect to it. There's zero interest in innovating or following a distinct vision. The popular myth is that video games have the equivalent of a director, like Spielberg or Peter Jackson, but they really don't. The designer is just a pawn. The writers are just pawns. There are a few game designers with well-known names, like Will Wright and Sid Meier and Shigeru Miyamoto, but realize that these guys are just executive producers. Miyamoto hasn't done any art or level design or game design in a decade. He just supervises a dozen projects at once and makes a fuss when one is going off track. He's a manager.
IMO, few games can truly be considered as having reached the level of "Art". Most games rely on too much of the same thing with merely different graphics, and there is rarely any deep story telling or distinctive style to them. However it is the least favored genre of games that do the most to promote artistry in games: Adventure Games.
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Admittedly, even many adventure games have similar game mechanics (in the same way a side scroller, FPS, and other game genres do), but they have the advantage of being more focused on both story-telling and the graphical settings for these stories, that they truly can be considered a work of art in both a literary and visual sense.
In the visual sense, the effort and creativity put into giving an adventure game is closer to painting where every detail is unique and carefully 'crafted', than is, for example, a 3D game's use of textures put together to form an entire wall or the grassy/rocky/sandy ground. In a way, it's about "Style". How many games have you seen that look like The Longest Journey, Grim Fandango, or Syberia? These 3 adventure games are arguably the best pieces of 'video game' art I've ever seen, and each one is incredibly unique in style. And yes, Myst and its sequels are also impressive, though several games have tried (poorly) to copy them and thus have diluted their visual uniqueness a little.
In the literary (or story-telling, if you prefer) sense, again it is games like The Longest Journey, Grim Fandango, Syberia, and (to a lesser degree) Myst(+sequels) that have gone far beyond most any other video game in terms of story immersiveness. You get drawn into these worlds through the richness of detail and depth of the story as it unfolds, in a way similar to reading a good book, whereas other games may still immerse you, but through non-artistic methods such as "Pay Attention or Else" (FPS's, Sports, Fighting games, RTS's, etc), or "Look at all the places you can go and all character building options you have!" ([MMO]RPG's), or "Wow, just a few more goals met and I can do such-and-such!" (aka: "just one more turn!" = Civ, Sim games).
If Hollywood would get its collective head out of its butt and stop trying to make movies from games with little to no story that rely simply on the game's previous popularity and a bunch of random action and 'sexy' stars thrown in to attract an audience, and instead start telling a *real story* that has a solid foundation already (and not have to "patch" one together to force-fit the "theme" of the game that had no real story to begin with) then we might actually get some GOOD movies based on games.
Thus, I recommend that if Hollywood is going to make a movie out of a game, that they try using an Adventure Game (and do it justice you bastards!) to actually tell a story the way a good movie SHOULD.
Links
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The Longest Journey:
http://www.longestjourney.com/
Grim Fandango:
http://www.lucasarts.com/products/grim
Syberia:
http://www.adventurecompanygames.com/
http://www.syberia2.info/english/
Myst:
http://www.riven.com/ (Myst & Riven)
http://www.myst3.com/html/exile.html (Myst 3)
http://uru.ubi.com/us/ (Uru, Uru: to D'ni, Myst 4: Revelation)