Ok, so this is an article that I am writing for my end of year English class. I thought that the best peer editing I will ever get is to turn it loose to the unsuspecting public. So, here it is. Feel free to be as ruthless as you may want when critiquing and I wont mind if people try playing Devil's Advocate on the matter to try and strengthen my argument. I may want to publish this in a local newspaper, but for now, I'll start with the community here. Be wary though, its a really long one.
P.S. I do not have a title yet. D:
(insert clever title here)
(insert clever "lead" here)
For a long time, Art has been as subjective as a debate between pirates and ninjas, its definition varies from century to century, from person to person and no two opinions are ever the same. Today, a new medium has risen. It has been around since the sixties, but only recently could we have considered it to be a form of art. Having it?s humble beginnings as a toy, video games have come a long way in a short time, starting with games like pong, which was nothing more than a pixelated ball bouncing from pixelated paddle to pixelated paddle. Now we have games like Red Dead Redemption, capable of displaying huge levels full of realistic detail, that would make Hannibal Lecter?s mouth water. It really is an incredible medium and a technological marvel, but is it art?
If I?m going to talk about this, then maybe it would be best if I try to define art. It?ll save some headaches later.
The earliest recordings of art would most definitely have to be caveman drawings. This, strangely enough, was just as meant to be art as the wrappers for juicy fruit gum were. Rather they were manuals for hunting, living, or documentation. These drawings were the main way to share knowledge, meaning and almost any other possible piece of important information before the advent of language. You could say that art was as essential to the survival of the prehistoric humans as the Toronto maple leafs for a Canadians fan?s hate.
From there, art had evolved, becoming more elaborate, with greater meanings, and more subtle messages, while men and women with greater education, knowledge, skills or creativity began taking on the task. After a certain period, these people became an important piece of their societies as a Hershey?s factory is. Enriching the knowledge of the many and the few, while pushing the boundaries of what was considered socially acceptable at the time and giving fuel to revolutions and rebellions.
Skip forward a few thousands of years to some of the more recognizable periods of art. Beginning with the gothic and medieval eras, art was similar to an old Italian couple?s living room and was almost entirely religious or religion based, from Lamentation of Christ in 1305 by Giotto Di Bondone to The Garden of Earthly Delights in 1500 by Hieronymus Bosch, all had some basis in the Catholic religion. In those times, if your painting or drawing had God in it, you were an artist, if not, try again next time.
Then came the Renaissance. Translated as ?Re-Birth?, Art began moving away from being purely religious, or if it was, it had hidden meanings and was extremely controversial at the time. Like The Last Supper, by Leonardo Da Vinci, if you look carefully you can see that the apostle sitting next to Jesus, and leaning away from him, looks very much like a woman, who is believed to be Mary Magdalene or a Japanese anime boy taking a nap. Or that, the apostle talking to Mary, Peter, is holding a knife in his hand that can just as well be used in a Klingon Sacrifice ceremony. These types of painting and drawings began to let the people question the church and the order of society while freaking out nuns and priests at the same time. The rise of scientists and non-theological based philosophers began to take place who, interestingly enough also happened to be most of the painters and artists of the time. Who would have thought?
After another period of time, there was the Baroque and Rococo eras, this was the first ?Weed? era of art which came in response to the mannerism style that had evolved in Italy, where artists were trying to top each other?s styles and began to go nuts with detail and color which would only be comparable to 15- year- old girls at a Justin Bieber concert. Baroque art was a style that appealed to a person?s emotions rather than their intellect by using an extreme amount of colors and huge flamboyance that could make Lady Gaga proud. While Rococo exaggerated proportions and made things bigger, smaller or unequal in size. It was like kindergarten for artists.
Immediately after came Neoclassicism and the ?Age of reason?. These two periods were mainly classified by the ?realism? fad, just as video games are going through today. It was a time where many artists tried to get exact proportions and accurate dimensions of each individual object with the obsession of a comic collector on meth. Many paintings had taken on a more scientific approach, kind of like if Voltaire decided that his contraptions needed a little pimping up. Science began to be a more important part of society, and was reflected in the art.
The next period of art had then seen a major split along the levels of team Jacob versus team Edward. It was Naturalism and Realism versus Impressionism. During those times, many artists had begun to see ?beauty in nature?, like Hippie without the weed, scary stuff. Combined with the previous era of Neoclassicism, it led to Naturalism, which, as the name implies, is mainly based in the depiction of nature and landscapes, kind of like my mother?s painting classes, but better. Whereas Impressionism is the ?impression? of the artist in which they want to paint. It was still mainly concerned with landscapes, but focused less on the technical aspects of reproduction and more on the surreal aspects of human perception. Think Tim Burton meets Raphael Santi
From this point art has begun to take a turn away from the familiar and ventured into the surreal of Alice in Wonderland crossed with rectangles that failed inspection at Rectangle Academy. With styles like Cubism or futurism taking place and artists being less concerned with exact proportions, art had become more based on human perception and hidden meaning, while artists like Jackson Pollock and Pablo Picasso began to rise with their own unique and purely emotion based styles. To be put simply; It got weird.
Of course, this historical review only talks about painting and visual forms of art. It may seem as I am neglecting other forms, like a chimney sweep would be if he were working for Scrooge. However, painting is the one that had the longest time to develop and evolve in different ways. This, in no way, makes it any better than other mediums, only it gives a better reference to this article. Not to mention, all artistic movements in all mediums are reflective of their times. So if there was a certain movement in painting, it would probably turn out to be a similar one in another medium.
Now, as for ?What is art?? (Look at me Dancing around the issue so professionally)
In my own opinion, art would be the crafting of emotions and experiences to be enjoyed by an audience through the imagination of one or multiple artists which, ironically, can make quite a few things stand up as art... including things that aren?t exactly socially acceptable (Ba-dum Tish). The Oxford English dictionary defines it as ?The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination. Typically in visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty and power.? Yeah, I didn?t get it either.
However, as mentioned earlier, art is nothing if not subjective. My opinion may not be your opinion which may not be the opinion of the person next to you. As said by Wassily Kandinsky ?There is no must in art because art is free.? That, to me, is the beauty of art, because it can be anything, no matter what medium you want to express it in. Video games are no exception. Video games started out in the sixties and seventies. Then, in the eighties, American videogame developers saw a major crash due to the low quality of games being produced, leaving the market open for Japanese game makers. Companies like Nintendo and their signature characters, like Zelda and the Mario brothers helped the videogame culture recover from the crash.
As more people wanted videogames, more videogames were made, and more companies began making them with better graphics, better stories, and innovative interfaces. (not all of that innovation was good? looking at you Nintendo Virtual Boy) There had been numerous consoles to come out, over the years, but the first, foremost and most recognizable aside from the arcade machines is the PC. That?s right, the PC. Before there were any consoles that specialized in the playing of games, there was the personal computer. Then, as demand increased, there were more companies that came out with their own specialized consoles to gain the exclusivity of the use of their games. You wanted to play a Mario game? Well, you had to buy an Atari 2600, or it was tough luck for you, buddy.
So, this means that videogames have started out as nothing more than a toy, created for profit and enjoyment of the masses. But as time progressed, more money was available to videogame makers and better resources were more accessible. As time passed, and the economic status of videogames stabilized unlike the Jiggle physics in Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, developers began experimenting with different genres and new types of games, with more and more complicated game mechanics, leading to some great games like Assassins? Creed 2. But experimentation can lead to oopsies, like all those fake Nutella brands.
That brings us to today, where games are their prettiest and computer graphics are their shiniest. With modern technologies, developers can make a game that looks exactly like life, massive levels and minute detail alike. However, this is only in terms of its technicality. If I?m going to speak of games as an art, then their ability to display images is secondary compared to all the other factors required in a game. (Yay, big words!)
If we look at video games at their core, what are they? They are experiences that are crafted from the imaginations of one or several developers. A game like Psychonauts, from Tim Schafer and his company Double Fine is a great example of pure imagination, a child acrobat runs away from the circus in order to become a professional psychic or ?Psychonaut?. From there, journeys through the subconscious minds of his peers and teachers alike help him learn new abilities that will wreak someone?s day, and slowly unravel the mystery surrounding the removal and disappearance if his friend?s brains. Sounds like quite the experience, wouldn?t you say?
Another aspect in a game is its theme, or it?s aesthetic. What is an aesthetic? (More big words!) Basically, it?s the style that a game takes on like a kid tring to get their parents attention. It is what can make a game with low graphical capacity look better than a game with top of the line hardware. It is a huge factor in the immersion that makes a videogame so great. To put it into perspective. Say you were looking at the Mona Lisa and as you were looking at the photo, you see something that has no earthly business being there, or something that does not fit with the theme the photo was displaying, like if in the background there was a little green Martian with a ray gun in his hand. You definitely won?t like the painting as much as you would have otherwise. It is the same for a Videogame, but much harder to avoid. It is this kind of factor that can make a game like Team Fortress 2 that is done on a very dated Source engine, look (in some ways) as good as Farcry 2 or even Crysis 2, both who are well-known for beautiful levels that contain heaps of detail that is regular for their more recent Cry engine, that will again, come up in Hannibal Lecter?s daily fantasy.
A game that could be titled art would also need good characterization, with direct and indirect methods. Take for instance, the Half Life character, Gordan Freeman. This character does not speak, maybe he is mute, antisocial or flunked English class, whatever the case, the man does not say a word during the whole series. But even so, we still get so much information from the story?s background that it matters as much as if Optimus prime would win a battle with Godzilla. We see that he is a physicist of a very high caliber when he is chosen to be the one who executes a dangerous experiment along the lines of seeing weather or not Donald Trump wears a toupee. We know he is athletic or very physically capable from all the running and fighting he must do, it shows that he has a military background for him to be able to use weaponry and defeat countless soldiers to become the one of the symbols for the human resistance, all the while not saying a word, I might add!
A topic that has also come up in the debate of weather videogames should be an art form is the current fixation on ?Realism? like an obsessive compulsive man on speed. But this argument does not hold water. Not only has there been a ?Realism? period in classical arts, but those types of paintings have already been accepted as a form of art. Not to mention that this fixation has only come across in the Triple A (mainstream) development in games. If we look at indie developers, they seem to be running away from that realistic approach as most people from a Cosplay convention. With games like Magika and Super Meat Boy, the indie developers seem to be carrying the innovation of the industry, while the Triple A are mainly concerned with the shine and polish of established ideas, which seems to be a rather good combination. Let the Indie developers come up with the ingredients, and then hand it to the triple A industry to make it a cake. There are places this could go wrong, but hey, we?ve had worse?
Some people also tend to think that the method a videogame is made is reflective of how artistic it can be. With all the creation going through a computer, they feel that there is as much emotion in a videogame as there is in a box of raisin bran. This seems, to me, to be a rather limited view. The method in which an artist chooses to create their artwork is irrelevant to the final product. Each artist chooses how they want to make their art. Michelangelo said it best ?A man paints with his brains, not with his hands? Not to mention that of we are to talk about some famous artists like Bernini, then most of their art wasn?t even made by them. Bernini had a hand in the creation of his art, but he had a studio of artists to actually make his sculptures. He made his sculptures in as much a way as an architect made his bridge. Everyone else worked to make it, while he sat and ate all the packed lunches. It is the same for videogames, the idea comes from one person?s imagination, and then he gets help from his employees. Just like the story of WMDs.
One of the biggest things that can make or break an artistic game will be its immersion. Immersion is when a player becomes engrossed in their game like a man and his beer. This is not like the World of Warcraft-like addiction of a game, it?s more like when you curl up to read a good book for only half an hour, and when you check the clock, you find that you have read for more than two hours and now you?re late for the evening festivities at the ?Weird things to do with my life? convention. That is immersion, the total submersion in the game?s world, taken in like a trip to the tire factory (or was that just me?). One game that pulls this off magnificently is Bioshock. With an excellent story and a combination of all the factors that have and will be mentioned in this article, it truly is a game that can pull you in and give you a wonderful experience that feels like a patented brain massage? I should get to work on that?
Another great thing that videogames can pull off better than most mediums is indirect story. Rather than all exposition be through dialogue, or be blatantly shown across a screen, you can try it a la Portal, and create story through an assortment of tiny things that show the player story elements and, at the same time, reward exploration. In portal, the game takes place mostly in a series of test chambers. But in a few of these test chambers, there are secret rooms that have been opened up and are not under surveillance by the AI computer that has control over the facility, your ?crying room? if you will. These rooms give the player a feeling of not being alone, despite the player never seeing another human being. It also allows the player to see that there is something inherently wrong with the place in which these tests are taking place (not to mention these are the places where the ever-famous ?The Cake is a lie? is written). This is a great example of storytelling through indirect methods.
The last factor that I will talk about in this article is atmosphere. This is kind of like the aesthetic, but it is more of the application of an aesthetic. Atmosphere is the pressure or the tone that a game wishes to impart on a player, something that your grandmother does every time you enter her house. This is most critical in a horror game, but is applicable to all games. A great way of showing this is in Silent Hill 2. With a very thick fog that limits the player?s vision and a radio that crackles when you have an enemy that approaches, it can create a very tense atmosphere for the player, and allows for the player to create their own horror. Imagining the enemy around the corner, interpreting one harmless object for an enemy, and having the player jump at their own shadow, are very good examples of how a player truly feels the horror game?s atmosphere. Basically, if they pee their pants, you did something right.
Of course, there are many other factors that go into a game that can make it truly artistic, and worthy of being deemed ?Art?, such as pacing, mechanics and difficulty curve, but the above mentioned are good examples of what a great medium of art videogames can be. However, Videogames still have a very long way to go before they can show their true potential as an artistic medium. Some games have already demonstrated the true qualities worthy of art, like most of the games mentioned above, but if we keep pushing forward and constantly coming up with new and better ideas, focus less on graphics and more on transmission of story, then I?m sure that videogames can be a medium that is just as good as painting, movies, literature or music. All it will take is a bit of learning. But hey, we?d rather spend more time complaining about some Mass Effect side-boob, right?
P.S. I do not have a title yet. D:
(insert clever title here)
(insert clever "lead" here)
For a long time, Art has been as subjective as a debate between pirates and ninjas, its definition varies from century to century, from person to person and no two opinions are ever the same. Today, a new medium has risen. It has been around since the sixties, but only recently could we have considered it to be a form of art. Having it?s humble beginnings as a toy, video games have come a long way in a short time, starting with games like pong, which was nothing more than a pixelated ball bouncing from pixelated paddle to pixelated paddle. Now we have games like Red Dead Redemption, capable of displaying huge levels full of realistic detail, that would make Hannibal Lecter?s mouth water. It really is an incredible medium and a technological marvel, but is it art?
If I?m going to talk about this, then maybe it would be best if I try to define art. It?ll save some headaches later.
The earliest recordings of art would most definitely have to be caveman drawings. This, strangely enough, was just as meant to be art as the wrappers for juicy fruit gum were. Rather they were manuals for hunting, living, or documentation. These drawings were the main way to share knowledge, meaning and almost any other possible piece of important information before the advent of language. You could say that art was as essential to the survival of the prehistoric humans as the Toronto maple leafs for a Canadians fan?s hate.
From there, art had evolved, becoming more elaborate, with greater meanings, and more subtle messages, while men and women with greater education, knowledge, skills or creativity began taking on the task. After a certain period, these people became an important piece of their societies as a Hershey?s factory is. Enriching the knowledge of the many and the few, while pushing the boundaries of what was considered socially acceptable at the time and giving fuel to revolutions and rebellions.
Skip forward a few thousands of years to some of the more recognizable periods of art. Beginning with the gothic and medieval eras, art was similar to an old Italian couple?s living room and was almost entirely religious or religion based, from Lamentation of Christ in 1305 by Giotto Di Bondone to The Garden of Earthly Delights in 1500 by Hieronymus Bosch, all had some basis in the Catholic religion. In those times, if your painting or drawing had God in it, you were an artist, if not, try again next time.
Then came the Renaissance. Translated as ?Re-Birth?, Art began moving away from being purely religious, or if it was, it had hidden meanings and was extremely controversial at the time. Like The Last Supper, by Leonardo Da Vinci, if you look carefully you can see that the apostle sitting next to Jesus, and leaning away from him, looks very much like a woman, who is believed to be Mary Magdalene or a Japanese anime boy taking a nap. Or that, the apostle talking to Mary, Peter, is holding a knife in his hand that can just as well be used in a Klingon Sacrifice ceremony. These types of painting and drawings began to let the people question the church and the order of society while freaking out nuns and priests at the same time. The rise of scientists and non-theological based philosophers began to take place who, interestingly enough also happened to be most of the painters and artists of the time. Who would have thought?
After another period of time, there was the Baroque and Rococo eras, this was the first ?Weed? era of art which came in response to the mannerism style that had evolved in Italy, where artists were trying to top each other?s styles and began to go nuts with detail and color which would only be comparable to 15- year- old girls at a Justin Bieber concert. Baroque art was a style that appealed to a person?s emotions rather than their intellect by using an extreme amount of colors and huge flamboyance that could make Lady Gaga proud. While Rococo exaggerated proportions and made things bigger, smaller or unequal in size. It was like kindergarten for artists.
Immediately after came Neoclassicism and the ?Age of reason?. These two periods were mainly classified by the ?realism? fad, just as video games are going through today. It was a time where many artists tried to get exact proportions and accurate dimensions of each individual object with the obsession of a comic collector on meth. Many paintings had taken on a more scientific approach, kind of like if Voltaire decided that his contraptions needed a little pimping up. Science began to be a more important part of society, and was reflected in the art.
The next period of art had then seen a major split along the levels of team Jacob versus team Edward. It was Naturalism and Realism versus Impressionism. During those times, many artists had begun to see ?beauty in nature?, like Hippie without the weed, scary stuff. Combined with the previous era of Neoclassicism, it led to Naturalism, which, as the name implies, is mainly based in the depiction of nature and landscapes, kind of like my mother?s painting classes, but better. Whereas Impressionism is the ?impression? of the artist in which they want to paint. It was still mainly concerned with landscapes, but focused less on the technical aspects of reproduction and more on the surreal aspects of human perception. Think Tim Burton meets Raphael Santi
From this point art has begun to take a turn away from the familiar and ventured into the surreal of Alice in Wonderland crossed with rectangles that failed inspection at Rectangle Academy. With styles like Cubism or futurism taking place and artists being less concerned with exact proportions, art had become more based on human perception and hidden meaning, while artists like Jackson Pollock and Pablo Picasso began to rise with their own unique and purely emotion based styles. To be put simply; It got weird.
Of course, this historical review only talks about painting and visual forms of art. It may seem as I am neglecting other forms, like a chimney sweep would be if he were working for Scrooge. However, painting is the one that had the longest time to develop and evolve in different ways. This, in no way, makes it any better than other mediums, only it gives a better reference to this article. Not to mention, all artistic movements in all mediums are reflective of their times. So if there was a certain movement in painting, it would probably turn out to be a similar one in another medium.
Now, as for ?What is art?? (Look at me Dancing around the issue so professionally)
In my own opinion, art would be the crafting of emotions and experiences to be enjoyed by an audience through the imagination of one or multiple artists which, ironically, can make quite a few things stand up as art... including things that aren?t exactly socially acceptable (Ba-dum Tish). The Oxford English dictionary defines it as ?The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination. Typically in visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty and power.? Yeah, I didn?t get it either.
However, as mentioned earlier, art is nothing if not subjective. My opinion may not be your opinion which may not be the opinion of the person next to you. As said by Wassily Kandinsky ?There is no must in art because art is free.? That, to me, is the beauty of art, because it can be anything, no matter what medium you want to express it in. Video games are no exception. Video games started out in the sixties and seventies. Then, in the eighties, American videogame developers saw a major crash due to the low quality of games being produced, leaving the market open for Japanese game makers. Companies like Nintendo and their signature characters, like Zelda and the Mario brothers helped the videogame culture recover from the crash.
As more people wanted videogames, more videogames were made, and more companies began making them with better graphics, better stories, and innovative interfaces. (not all of that innovation was good? looking at you Nintendo Virtual Boy) There had been numerous consoles to come out, over the years, but the first, foremost and most recognizable aside from the arcade machines is the PC. That?s right, the PC. Before there were any consoles that specialized in the playing of games, there was the personal computer. Then, as demand increased, there were more companies that came out with their own specialized consoles to gain the exclusivity of the use of their games. You wanted to play a Mario game? Well, you had to buy an Atari 2600, or it was tough luck for you, buddy.
So, this means that videogames have started out as nothing more than a toy, created for profit and enjoyment of the masses. But as time progressed, more money was available to videogame makers and better resources were more accessible. As time passed, and the economic status of videogames stabilized unlike the Jiggle physics in Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, developers began experimenting with different genres and new types of games, with more and more complicated game mechanics, leading to some great games like Assassins? Creed 2. But experimentation can lead to oopsies, like all those fake Nutella brands.
That brings us to today, where games are their prettiest and computer graphics are their shiniest. With modern technologies, developers can make a game that looks exactly like life, massive levels and minute detail alike. However, this is only in terms of its technicality. If I?m going to speak of games as an art, then their ability to display images is secondary compared to all the other factors required in a game. (Yay, big words!)
If we look at video games at their core, what are they? They are experiences that are crafted from the imaginations of one or several developers. A game like Psychonauts, from Tim Schafer and his company Double Fine is a great example of pure imagination, a child acrobat runs away from the circus in order to become a professional psychic or ?Psychonaut?. From there, journeys through the subconscious minds of his peers and teachers alike help him learn new abilities that will wreak someone?s day, and slowly unravel the mystery surrounding the removal and disappearance if his friend?s brains. Sounds like quite the experience, wouldn?t you say?
Another aspect in a game is its theme, or it?s aesthetic. What is an aesthetic? (More big words!) Basically, it?s the style that a game takes on like a kid tring to get their parents attention. It is what can make a game with low graphical capacity look better than a game with top of the line hardware. It is a huge factor in the immersion that makes a videogame so great. To put it into perspective. Say you were looking at the Mona Lisa and as you were looking at the photo, you see something that has no earthly business being there, or something that does not fit with the theme the photo was displaying, like if in the background there was a little green Martian with a ray gun in his hand. You definitely won?t like the painting as much as you would have otherwise. It is the same for a Videogame, but much harder to avoid. It is this kind of factor that can make a game like Team Fortress 2 that is done on a very dated Source engine, look (in some ways) as good as Farcry 2 or even Crysis 2, both who are well-known for beautiful levels that contain heaps of detail that is regular for their more recent Cry engine, that will again, come up in Hannibal Lecter?s daily fantasy.
A game that could be titled art would also need good characterization, with direct and indirect methods. Take for instance, the Half Life character, Gordan Freeman. This character does not speak, maybe he is mute, antisocial or flunked English class, whatever the case, the man does not say a word during the whole series. But even so, we still get so much information from the story?s background that it matters as much as if Optimus prime would win a battle with Godzilla. We see that he is a physicist of a very high caliber when he is chosen to be the one who executes a dangerous experiment along the lines of seeing weather or not Donald Trump wears a toupee. We know he is athletic or very physically capable from all the running and fighting he must do, it shows that he has a military background for him to be able to use weaponry and defeat countless soldiers to become the one of the symbols for the human resistance, all the while not saying a word, I might add!
A topic that has also come up in the debate of weather videogames should be an art form is the current fixation on ?Realism? like an obsessive compulsive man on speed. But this argument does not hold water. Not only has there been a ?Realism? period in classical arts, but those types of paintings have already been accepted as a form of art. Not to mention that this fixation has only come across in the Triple A (mainstream) development in games. If we look at indie developers, they seem to be running away from that realistic approach as most people from a Cosplay convention. With games like Magika and Super Meat Boy, the indie developers seem to be carrying the innovation of the industry, while the Triple A are mainly concerned with the shine and polish of established ideas, which seems to be a rather good combination. Let the Indie developers come up with the ingredients, and then hand it to the triple A industry to make it a cake. There are places this could go wrong, but hey, we?ve had worse?
Some people also tend to think that the method a videogame is made is reflective of how artistic it can be. With all the creation going through a computer, they feel that there is as much emotion in a videogame as there is in a box of raisin bran. This seems, to me, to be a rather limited view. The method in which an artist chooses to create their artwork is irrelevant to the final product. Each artist chooses how they want to make their art. Michelangelo said it best ?A man paints with his brains, not with his hands? Not to mention that of we are to talk about some famous artists like Bernini, then most of their art wasn?t even made by them. Bernini had a hand in the creation of his art, but he had a studio of artists to actually make his sculptures. He made his sculptures in as much a way as an architect made his bridge. Everyone else worked to make it, while he sat and ate all the packed lunches. It is the same for videogames, the idea comes from one person?s imagination, and then he gets help from his employees. Just like the story of WMDs.
One of the biggest things that can make or break an artistic game will be its immersion. Immersion is when a player becomes engrossed in their game like a man and his beer. This is not like the World of Warcraft-like addiction of a game, it?s more like when you curl up to read a good book for only half an hour, and when you check the clock, you find that you have read for more than two hours and now you?re late for the evening festivities at the ?Weird things to do with my life? convention. That is immersion, the total submersion in the game?s world, taken in like a trip to the tire factory (or was that just me?). One game that pulls this off magnificently is Bioshock. With an excellent story and a combination of all the factors that have and will be mentioned in this article, it truly is a game that can pull you in and give you a wonderful experience that feels like a patented brain massage? I should get to work on that?
Another great thing that videogames can pull off better than most mediums is indirect story. Rather than all exposition be through dialogue, or be blatantly shown across a screen, you can try it a la Portal, and create story through an assortment of tiny things that show the player story elements and, at the same time, reward exploration. In portal, the game takes place mostly in a series of test chambers. But in a few of these test chambers, there are secret rooms that have been opened up and are not under surveillance by the AI computer that has control over the facility, your ?crying room? if you will. These rooms give the player a feeling of not being alone, despite the player never seeing another human being. It also allows the player to see that there is something inherently wrong with the place in which these tests are taking place (not to mention these are the places where the ever-famous ?The Cake is a lie? is written). This is a great example of storytelling through indirect methods.
The last factor that I will talk about in this article is atmosphere. This is kind of like the aesthetic, but it is more of the application of an aesthetic. Atmosphere is the pressure or the tone that a game wishes to impart on a player, something that your grandmother does every time you enter her house. This is most critical in a horror game, but is applicable to all games. A great way of showing this is in Silent Hill 2. With a very thick fog that limits the player?s vision and a radio that crackles when you have an enemy that approaches, it can create a very tense atmosphere for the player, and allows for the player to create their own horror. Imagining the enemy around the corner, interpreting one harmless object for an enemy, and having the player jump at their own shadow, are very good examples of how a player truly feels the horror game?s atmosphere. Basically, if they pee their pants, you did something right.
Of course, there are many other factors that go into a game that can make it truly artistic, and worthy of being deemed ?Art?, such as pacing, mechanics and difficulty curve, but the above mentioned are good examples of what a great medium of art videogames can be. However, Videogames still have a very long way to go before they can show their true potential as an artistic medium. Some games have already demonstrated the true qualities worthy of art, like most of the games mentioned above, but if we keep pushing forward and constantly coming up with new and better ideas, focus less on graphics and more on transmission of story, then I?m sure that videogames can be a medium that is just as good as painting, movies, literature or music. All it will take is a bit of learning. But hey, we?d rather spend more time complaining about some Mass Effect side-boob, right?
