Hi vpetite. You're spot on with the observation about interactivity, but I wanted to ask you about this,
"Walter Benjamin wrote that photographs could not be considered art, because they were reproductions of the work, and no longer had the "aura" that true art contained."
That's certainly true about the aura of authenticity, but I'm not sure that he said they couldn't be considered art. I thought he was rather saying that the notion of art had to be revised,
"The nineteenth-century dispute as to the artistic value of painting versus photography today seems devious and confused. This does not diminish its importance, however; if anything, it underlines it. The dispute was in fact the symptom of a historical transformation the universal impact of which was not realized by either of the rivals. When the age of mechanical reproduction separated art from its basis in cult, the semblance of its autonomy disappeared forever. The resulting change in the function of art transcended the perspective of the century; for a long time it even escaped that of the twentieth century, which experienced the development of the film. Earlier much futile thought had been devoted to the question of whether photography is an art. The primary question - whether the very invention of photography had not transformed the entire nature of art - was not raised. Soon the film theoreticians asked the same ill-considered question with regard to the film. But the difficulties which photography caused traditional aesthetics were mere child's play as compared to those raised by the film."
This is Benjamin's seminal - and highly referenced - piece, and well worth a read still now over 70 years later.
As far as I'm concerned there's no question about whether games can be art or not. For my taste, however, most games aren't in a similar way that most pop music and most Hollywood movies aren't.
I contend that the difficulties which film caused traditional aesthetics are mere child's play as compared to those raised by games.
(For the record, I've been professionally coding games for 7 years, and am currently a Master of Arts student, writing on game studies in the School of Cultural Studies at the University of the West of England, and my dissertation is (preliminarily) called The Aesthetics of Embodiment in Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. I sometimes blog about games and culture. See also the Digital Games Research Association for extensive research on video games.)
kripkenstein asked,
"If being blond is indeed a factor that makes women more attractive, why is it not more prevalent? In fact, why isn't it ubiquitous?" The BBC have an article which suggests answers to your questions,
"The problem is that blonde hair is caused by a recessive gene."
"They suggest that dyed-blondes are more attractive to men who choose them as partners over true blondes."
"I forget where, but there was a wonderful british study recently that found the suspension of disbelief was harmed by playing a videogame compared to watching a movie."
The BBFC are the British organisation that refused to give a rating to Manhunt 2 in the UK. They are also the organisation that commissioned the survey you're thinking of,
"The comparison many gamers want to make is with films; they ask themselves if violence in games should be regarded as in some way worse than violence in films. The first point many make, especially young gamers, is that violence in games does not look anything like as real as the violence in films. Films have actors who are, and look, real, whereas in games the people are, despite improvements in graphics, clearly distinguishable from real."
"The argument is that violence in video games is not as affecting as violence in films because it looks much less real. Gamers believe that film versions of game action would be intolerable; it would be more frightening and upsetting because more real."
"Not many are articulate about this, but the majority of gamers seem to feel that the greater realism of film violence (and the strength of the characterisation and narrative) makes it much more upsetting than video game violence. This difference is usually taken to transcend whatever effect interactivity has on levels of involvement in, and ownership of, violence in games."
Bear in mind that this is a survey of attitudes, not a scientific report that proves anything. It does raise a lot of subtle and complex issues though so I'd recommend you review the following sections in detail,
Slashdot Mirror
"Smart electrical outlets could tell us things like increased current use over time for appliances like your fridge or pc etc."
My research lab has done some preliminary work in that area,
http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/research/groups/interact/kuckuck.htm
I don't think it's ongoing, though I'm sure we haven't heard the last of this idea.
That's certainly true about the aura of authenticity, but I'm not sure that he said they couldn't be considered art. I thought he was rather saying that the notion of art had to be revised,
Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philoso
This is Benjamin's seminal - and highly referenced - piece, and well worth a read still now over 70 years later.
As far as I'm concerned there's no question about whether games can be art or not. For my taste, however, most games aren't in a similar way that most pop music and most Hollywood movies aren't.
I contend that the difficulties which film caused traditional aesthetics are mere child's play as compared to those raised by games.
(For the record, I've been professionally coding games for 7 years, and am currently a Master of Arts student, writing on game studies in the School of Cultural Studies at the University of the West of England, and my dissertation is (preliminarily) called The Aesthetics of Embodiment in Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. I sometimes blog about games and culture. See also the Digital Games Research Association for extensive research on video games.)
"I forget where, but there was a wonderful british study recently that found the suspension of disbelief was harmed by playing a videogame compared to watching a movie."
The BBFC are the British organisation that refused to give a rating to Manhunt 2 in the UK. They are also the organisation that commissioned the survey you're thinking of,
"Video Games Research to improve understanding of what players enjoy about video games, and to explain their preferences for particular games" (PDF)
Bear in mind that this is a survey of attitudes, not a scientific report that proves anything. It does raise a lot of subtle and complex issues though so I'd recommend you review the following sections in detail,
"6.3 Violence: gamers"
pp. 71 - 80
"6.4 Violence: professionals"
pp. 81 - 87