Convincing my art teacher that video games are art

[chuppy]

To the OP:

Limbo, Bioshock or Braid are good examples of artsy games. The Void, World of Goo and The Path are other games that can be considered art. You could even look at Capsized for the graphics and how it portrays a beautiful, yet hostile and dangerous world.

If you want to show a medium in which you choose and then face consequences, forget Fallout and the likes, The Witcher and Silent Hill 2 are the best examples. In The Witcher you have to face a morally ambiguous world where there is no "right" choice. You always have to choose the lesser of two evils and the decision always comes back to haunt you. Example: At the end of the first chapter you have to choose your side between a beautiful, lonely witch and the villagers that want to burn her alive.

Silent Hill 2 is a different beast. It tells the story of a tormented man who is drawn to the town of Silent Hill to face his past and atone for his sins. The story is very complex and handles a lot with psychological motifs. The fight is not against the monsters that want to kill your character, but with himself. Everything is a manifestation of his conscience and guilt, he just has to figure that out and then decide how to deal with it. Everything from the atmosphere of the eerie town, to the monsters, the music and the characters is deep and makes you THINK and FEEL. When the twist comes, you'll find yourself in front of one of the saddest tales any game has ever told.

Another fantastic game that most consider a piece of art is Planescape: Torment. It handles similar themes about past sins and how we eventually have to pay for them no matter how hard we try to avoid our fate. Also, it's the best written game ever and that's a fact, not an opinion. Take out all the dialogs and descriptions and you could easily build a decent novel with them. If you ever thought Mass Effect was well written, then P:T will blow your mind. It's on a whole different level. It has a few scenes that stand out as amazing and as something more than a game. At one point, the main character will come across a "sensory stone" of his past love Deionarra. A sensory stone records the thoughts, feelings and actions of a person and allows the one who later uses it to be put in that person's place and experience everything he has experienced at the time of the recording. That particular scene will send shivers down your spine, make your jaw drop and tears come to your eyes. It's so sad and beautifuly written.

 

[spartan231490]

So I've been in an art class for 2 years now I need to make a נןע finishing work in the third year, so I decided to make a video game


So I've spoken to the head of the art subject in my school and she wants me to send her an explanation as to why video games are art(Which is at least better than outright dismissing video games as art, like most people I know do).

I watched the Extra Credits episode on introducing people to gaming and I know she ls fascinated by the renaissance era so I am using Assassin's Creed 2 as an example



Any advise or opinion would be welcome

A lot of people will tell you to reference bioshock, be careful with that as many of the topics in it are very controversial and you don't want to piss the teacher off. I suggest just looking at extra credits. They talk about this in dozens of episodes. You also might want to talk about missile defense. Maybe even include one of their videos in what you send to here so she can see the source material and to show her that it's not just something you believe but it's widespread. Also, wasn't there an art agency that openly admitted video games were art not too long ago? You will want to reference that as well.

 

[Twilight_guy]

No. Don't use a single game as an example. You can prove it that way but potentially it could blow up in your face if she doesn't see it. Explain it in conceptual terms, draw parallels between games and existing art. Show the parallels in how games and art are rated and how people treat both. Show the websites where people debate the notion of art. Explain that the government recognized games as art. Explain that there is even an "indie" sector in games. Make conceptual comparisons and links. You don;'t want to end up on a boat where you proved a single game was art and the rest are still up int he air or worse if she doesn't approve then you damned all of games.

 

[King Toasty]

Mass Effect 2. It combines the art of writing, visual aesthetic and emotional situations, plus that extra immersion only video games can give. Unfortunately, it requires your teacher to play through it to experience it. And it's pretty long.

But seriously, I'd consider that game art.

 

[Jake0fTrades]

Video games are essentially movies in which you can control the ending, movies are considered art, so that makes video games SUPER art.

 

[RA92]

snip snip snippity snip

Great post. Speaks heaps for RPGs.

 

[lovest harding]

Does the application of code truly counteract any of these things? Games are art through simple Gestalt, if nothing else (and given the complexities a nuances of computer code, I'd go so far as to assert that it too is art) and every game is art. Not every game is GOOD art mind you, but judging video games by Mortal Kombat is a lot like judging books by Twilight, and no one is questioning the legitimacy of literature as a medium.

I couldn't agree more wholeheartedly with this statement. Seriously.

 

[aristos_achaion]

A few tactics that spring to mind:

I'd start with A Fox-News-style straw-man argument: it's common to dismiss video games as not-art because of popular titles like Call of Duty, Halo, &c, &c. That probably ought to be addressed, but it's pretty easy: point out that just about every other medium has trashy junk as well, but that doesn't prevent the rest of the medium for qualifying as "art". For instance, it's fair to say most people would consider _Citizen Kane_ or _Casablanca_ "art", and it's silly to say that, because _The Hangover_ isn't "art" that cinema in general isn't art. Likewise, even painting isn't free from awful, trashy examples (if she doesn't believe you, point her to the Museum of Bad Art website: http://www.museumofbadart.org/).

Once you've established that trashy, popcorn video games don't disqualify an entire genre from being "art", I'd think the best argument that art exists in video games would be an in-depth analysis of a game you feel has artistic merit. Let's use _Shadow of the Colossus_ as an example, but you might be able to find a better one. You should analyze the individual aspects of the game (e.g., the design, the color palate, the music, the plot, &c), but then show that tying those aspects together through gameplay and having the player in control actually adds artistic worth to the entire experience. For instance, in SoTC, the bleakness of the landscape between colossi is mirrored in the lack of music, which contrasts sharply to the intricate and highly individual design of the colossi and the correspondingly intricate score. However, the player isn't merely shown those, he's experiencing them: thus, both the bleakness and terror of the world are underscored by the ability to interact and explore, deepening the player's experience of the designer's artistic vision.

Futhermore, the message of the plot is underscored by the player's control of the main character. In SoTC, in particular, you have quite a bit of commentary on religion, society, human desires, &c, and it's possible that it could work as cinema, rather than a game. However, if it were cinema, the player would miss a central artistic point: that, while the player is nominally in control of the Wanderer and supposedly has autonomy, he's really bound to follow Dormin...theoretically, you can wander anywhere you want, but the bleak, desolate world leaves nothing to do except willingly do the bidding of an evil god. This seeming self-determination and the fact that it's really a lie underscores the final fate of the Wanderer, since, ultimately, it's YOUR FAULT. NB that the player can control the Wanderer, trying to escape, when he ultimately meets his fate: your control, your freedom, is, ultimately, a lie. That message could ultimately not be conveyed through a non-interactive medium, and, thus, the format of a video game adds artistic value to the aesthetic experience as a whole, and, thus, has artistic merit

 

[PAGEToap44]

Look at the way games are created. Talk about concept art, textural designs, building vibrant worlds inside a computer. Compare to the digital VFX used by filmmakers. After all , films are art and comprise of sound and visuals. Video games have both these with the added bonus of being completely interactive.