Hey guys. I write for a blog with a couple of mates of mine. We're hoping to build up a decent portfolio of writing and it tends to consist of journalistic articles as opposed to big hype reviews of the lates Call of Duty. Figured during our exam downtime when the blog is dead I'd get some feedback on some of the bits I've written. Hopefully they'll lead to some discussion too. Today, games as art. Can they be considered art? Can they be considered 'classical' art in style and execution?
Video Games: The Real Modern Art
Geekdom is becoming popular. Call it reliance on the nerdier among us to work family and friends’ various appliances and tech or the Big Bang Theory being accepted as a successful comedy concept, it is happening. Sure it makes us less defined and I’m sure we’ll begin to rage when people start to steal our hobbies to be cool and…ah who am I kidding, we’ll be playing Skyrim and chowing down. It’s a good thing geekdom is becoming popular because it’s time for video gaming to put to bed the negative stereotypes once and for all. The true, contemporary, modern art of today is not anything you can see in the Tate Modern, it’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution and comrades.
Don’t get me wrong here, as a game aficionado I can make many an argument for some of the biggest and most popular videogames out there being as far from art as you can imagine. The Modern Warfare “franchise†shall we say is probably the biggest culprit of being a regurgitated, mindless piece of gaming designed to please the masses. Am I running it down as a way to spend my time? Not entirely, I loved Call of Duty 4 and had MW2 on pre-order so it’s not like I didn’t buy into it once upon a time. My point here is that Call of Duty aren’t doing any favours to the developers who I’m sure would desperately want their creations to be revered down the ages. I’ve mentioned games with massive moral quandaries like Deus Ex and no-one can deny the sheer beauty of Skyrim even if it fell short of your massive expectations. There are other games though that pushed, and push, the envelope even further. Take for example, Bioshock.
We here at Culture of Gaming have mentioned Bioshock many times before, I think as a team we can all agree on its excellence and I have a particularly fervent appreciation for both the aesthetics and the story. Throughout Bioshock in fact, particularly the music that overlays the experience, some things are borrowed from the décor and sounds of yesteryear. They are then amalgamated into one of the most ingeniously eerie, beautifully crafted and stunningly unique worlds in video game history. I stand by my superlatives and I stand by that claim. The world is second to almost none, not for its expanse, not for its customisability, for its condition as art. You truly get the feeling the visual production and editing process was handled with delicacy, with care and attention akin to that of histories finest portrait artists and sculptures. The concept alone is grand enough but the execution? At times it is staggering. I’m getting caught up in description and veering from facts...
So, where was I? There’s your ‘traditional’ art write there. The drawn image. The visual impact. That’s it embodied in a 21st century masterpiece. Other masterpieces are too numerous to mention but consider TheElder Scrolls and Fallout series, consider Ico and consider Flower. The art extends, however, to storytelling. Consider classic cinema, it’s visuals are a staple of modern culture and nostalgia but the stories as much as anything are what drove the fans to Hollywood. In this department games can punch above their weight. It’d be too easy for me, as a diehard fan, to revert back to the Bioshock story so I’ll go with Mass Effect to demonstrate this point, a game that, even despite current controversy, is a revolution in decision impact in video games.
I assure you, I’m not going to gloss over the current ‘ME3 ending’ debacle that’s going on right now but negativity and backtracking slightly we can come to in a moment…what Mass Effect does, perhaps up until the climax at the end of Mass Effect 3, is give unprecedented levels of interactivity and control to the player. If you’ve played these games you’ll know that beyond the aesthetics, beyond the vast world that rivals the likes of sci-fi epics such as Star Wars in terms of grandeur, there is a very real emphasis on character and emotional involvement. Decisions cause changes in storyline and gameplay; decisions YOU make usually via a conversation wheel interface. Relationships with your crew and team members can turn in a split second based on one conversational response. You shape the game, you shape your character, your relationships and the fate of characters around you. If you consider art to be in the hands of the artist…Mass Effect has you covered, the developers do a ridiculous job with the planets and races on offer. If you think art rests equally in the hands of the consumer then I’m not sure you could play a game better at putting the control into the hands of the player. This is art. This is the boundary pushing revolution we should be celebrating as the pinnacle of modern creative achievement. A word then, on the ending? Say what you will, I’m not giving spoilers away, but more so than anything consider this: George Lucas retained all creative power on the Star Wars films. When he had no budget and little to work with he made a far off world seem grittily realistic and had to rely on dialogue and character development to sell his film. The sequels were classics. When he had an endless budget and any number of special effects at his disposal he created the prequels which were a far cry from the originals in terms of quality. You might have requested more people spoke up to Lucas or that he worked as part of a bigger team instead of solely creating his vision and yes, this may have led to better prequel films, but if you don’t leave the art in the hands, primarily, of the creator then it loses its importance. By getting involved, demanding change and running down a product you’ve loved for approaching two thirds of its existence you are creating a scenario where nobody wins. Games are about interactivity with the player but the industry loses its integrity against other mediums if fans can control the content. That’s all I’ll say on the matter.
At the top of this article I ran down a piece of modern art. It turns out I study Psychology, a discipline in which it is vital to critically evaluate research and the like. I asked for feedback for this article from my fellow CoGs and Jonny said something really excellent and thought provoking you can see below that inspired this conclusion. I guess my position as a budding journalist and lover of games means I’m going to be biased. You’ll have to forgive me, those who think the picture I posted near the top there, of a painting from the Tate Modern, can be considered art feel free to believe so, I have no reason and no merit to stop you having those beliefs. I think what irks me is the consistent backlash. Films have had backlash. Films have been banned all over the world for being too grotesque, too self-indulgent of the minds of madmen. Films have been blasted by parents and films have been made scapegoats for horrific acts of violence. Music has had its share of hate, particularly rap music, again a scapegoat for a number of violent acts and lifestyles. Through this time however, will anyone say the overarching concepts of music and film do not deserve to be considered real examples of contemporary art? Of course not, they’re as intrinsic to life as anything we experience on a daily basis. I feel like the blasting of video games and their poor reputation has lasted too long. It’s time to realise that this era of videogames in particular should be remembered as more than entertainment, more than revolutionary. It should be remembered as the generation defining art the gaming world sees it as. I think we’ve been at a turning point for some time. Let’s cement OUR legacy.
Heavy article right? Sometimes I like a good bit of hard-hitting something or other.
Peace.
Geekdom is becoming popular. Call it reliance on the nerdier among us to work family and friends’ various appliances and tech or the Big Bang Theory being accepted as a successful comedy concept, it is happening. Sure it makes us less defined and I’m sure we’ll begin to rage when people start to steal our hobbies to be cool and…ah who am I kidding, we’ll be playing Skyrim and chowing down. It’s a good thing geekdom is becoming popular because it’s time for video gaming to put to bed the negative stereotypes once and for all. The true, contemporary, modern art of today is not anything you can see in the Tate Modern, it’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution and comrades.
Don’t get me wrong here, as a game aficionado I can make many an argument for some of the biggest and most popular videogames out there being as far from art as you can imagine. The Modern Warfare “franchise†shall we say is probably the biggest culprit of being a regurgitated, mindless piece of gaming designed to please the masses. Am I running it down as a way to spend my time? Not entirely, I loved Call of Duty 4 and had MW2 on pre-order so it’s not like I didn’t buy into it once upon a time. My point here is that Call of Duty aren’t doing any favours to the developers who I’m sure would desperately want their creations to be revered down the ages. I’ve mentioned games with massive moral quandaries like Deus Ex and no-one can deny the sheer beauty of Skyrim even if it fell short of your massive expectations. There are other games though that pushed, and push, the envelope even further. Take for example, Bioshock.
We here at Culture of Gaming have mentioned Bioshock many times before, I think as a team we can all agree on its excellence and I have a particularly fervent appreciation for both the aesthetics and the story. Throughout Bioshock in fact, particularly the music that overlays the experience, some things are borrowed from the décor and sounds of yesteryear. They are then amalgamated into one of the most ingeniously eerie, beautifully crafted and stunningly unique worlds in video game history. I stand by my superlatives and I stand by that claim. The world is second to almost none, not for its expanse, not for its customisability, for its condition as art. You truly get the feeling the visual production and editing process was handled with delicacy, with care and attention akin to that of histories finest portrait artists and sculptures. The concept alone is grand enough but the execution? At times it is staggering. I’m getting caught up in description and veering from facts...
So, where was I? There’s your ‘traditional’ art write there. The drawn image. The visual impact. That’s it embodied in a 21st century masterpiece. Other masterpieces are too numerous to mention but consider TheElder Scrolls and Fallout series, consider Ico and consider Flower. The art extends, however, to storytelling. Consider classic cinema, it’s visuals are a staple of modern culture and nostalgia but the stories as much as anything are what drove the fans to Hollywood. In this department games can punch above their weight. It’d be too easy for me, as a diehard fan, to revert back to the Bioshock story so I’ll go with Mass Effect to demonstrate this point, a game that, even despite current controversy, is a revolution in decision impact in video games.
I assure you, I’m not going to gloss over the current ‘ME3 ending’ debacle that’s going on right now but negativity and backtracking slightly we can come to in a moment…what Mass Effect does, perhaps up until the climax at the end of Mass Effect 3, is give unprecedented levels of interactivity and control to the player. If you’ve played these games you’ll know that beyond the aesthetics, beyond the vast world that rivals the likes of sci-fi epics such as Star Wars in terms of grandeur, there is a very real emphasis on character and emotional involvement. Decisions cause changes in storyline and gameplay; decisions YOU make usually via a conversation wheel interface. Relationships with your crew and team members can turn in a split second based on one conversational response. You shape the game, you shape your character, your relationships and the fate of characters around you. If you consider art to be in the hands of the artist…Mass Effect has you covered, the developers do a ridiculous job with the planets and races on offer. If you think art rests equally in the hands of the consumer then I’m not sure you could play a game better at putting the control into the hands of the player. This is art. This is the boundary pushing revolution we should be celebrating as the pinnacle of modern creative achievement. A word then, on the ending? Say what you will, I’m not giving spoilers away, but more so than anything consider this: George Lucas retained all creative power on the Star Wars films. When he had no budget and little to work with he made a far off world seem grittily realistic and had to rely on dialogue and character development to sell his film. The sequels were classics. When he had an endless budget and any number of special effects at his disposal he created the prequels which were a far cry from the originals in terms of quality. You might have requested more people spoke up to Lucas or that he worked as part of a bigger team instead of solely creating his vision and yes, this may have led to better prequel films, but if you don’t leave the art in the hands, primarily, of the creator then it loses its importance. By getting involved, demanding change and running down a product you’ve loved for approaching two thirds of its existence you are creating a scenario where nobody wins. Games are about interactivity with the player but the industry loses its integrity against other mediums if fans can control the content. That’s all I’ll say on the matter.
At the top of this article I ran down a piece of modern art. It turns out I study Psychology, a discipline in which it is vital to critically evaluate research and the like. I asked for feedback for this article from my fellow CoGs and Jonny said something really excellent and thought provoking you can see below that inspired this conclusion. I guess my position as a budding journalist and lover of games means I’m going to be biased. You’ll have to forgive me, those who think the picture I posted near the top there, of a painting from the Tate Modern, can be considered art feel free to believe so, I have no reason and no merit to stop you having those beliefs. I think what irks me is the consistent backlash. Films have had backlash. Films have been banned all over the world for being too grotesque, too self-indulgent of the minds of madmen. Films have been blasted by parents and films have been made scapegoats for horrific acts of violence. Music has had its share of hate, particularly rap music, again a scapegoat for a number of violent acts and lifestyles. Through this time however, will anyone say the overarching concepts of music and film do not deserve to be considered real examples of contemporary art? Of course not, they’re as intrinsic to life as anything we experience on a daily basis. I feel like the blasting of video games and their poor reputation has lasted too long. It’s time to realise that this era of videogames in particular should be remembered as more than entertainment, more than revolutionary. It should be remembered as the generation defining art the gaming world sees it as. I think we’ve been at a turning point for some time. Let’s cement OUR legacy.
Heavy article right? Sometimes I like a good bit of hard-hitting something or other.
Peace.
