Games that are art: What's your candidate?
- Thread starter Tele-screen
- Start date
Recommended Videos
Cryostasis:
The gameplay was poor, The guns shot peas and you spent the majority of your time walking round levels meeting maybe 3 or 4 serious opposition targets. It was poorly paced and badly narrated but all those things aside. It was 31 degrees outside when I was playing and I still felt cold. Thats immersion you just don't get from computer games.
The gameplay was poor, The guns shot peas and you spent the majority of your time walking round levels meeting maybe 3 or 4 serious opposition targets. It was poorly paced and badly narrated but all those things aside. It was 31 degrees outside when I was playing and I still felt cold. Thats immersion you just don't get from computer games.
You mean celcius right? because if it was 31 degrees farenheit you'd feel cold despite how good the immersion was. As for my candidate, I wouldn't call either "art" but Bioshock, for it's great art design that's both stylistic and realistic, a balance virtually no game out there has managed, and for its haunting atmosphere. and Silent Hill 2, it had just as much wrong with it as Cryostasis, but was worth to learn of James' haunting story.SwitchUK said:
Art, the way I've always understood it by the most widely acknowledged definitions, is simply a designation for creative processes which are specifically intended to provoke, elicit, extract and/or stimulate the emotions and senses of any given recipient.666Chaos said:
Now, one problem with calling games "art" is the fact that the term "game" implies a predetermined goal for any creation in the medium, regardless of its inherent qualities.
Win the race, score a point, reach the finale, etc.
This would suggest that no game is more artistically relevant than a chessboard.
- Which is why I differentiate between games and interactive experiences.
An example of a game would be Pac-Man.
An example of an interactive experience would be Half-Life 2.
Though it's true that I often forget to utilize this appellative myself, a dilemma which I'm trying to improve upon.
The fact is that as the form has grown in sophistication, it has also evolved in its capabilites as an expressive format.
I look at developers such as Valve, Tale of Tales, FunCom, Team Silent and Frictional Games and see a great future potential for immersive experiences.
Bioshock definitely pulled and immersed me in the dark and twisted pool that is its storyline. Every aspect of that game screams ART to me - from its storyline, to its music, and, finally, to its execution. Bioshock brought to light the sense that all men, no matter how great, are merely mortal, and that even those who carry themselves like demigods on this Earth can be brought crashing down with the careful swipe of a 9-iron.
Another game I consider to be a work of art would be the Halo series, actually. The storyline in Halo is what impressed me. I didn't care at all for the Spartans, mind you, but I was much more interested in the Covenant storyline, and how the Elites grappled with the mere brainwash that was their doctrine.
Bear in mind, a videogame should only be considered art provided it fulfills a certain basic criteria. We're talking storyline, music and how the story was executed here. If we were to judge gameplay on an equal level as the listed three, then trash games like Gears of War would be considered art - which they aren't.
Another game I consider to be a work of art would be the Halo series, actually. The storyline in Halo is what impressed me. I didn't care at all for the Spartans, mind you, but I was much more interested in the Covenant storyline, and how the Elites grappled with the mere brainwash that was their doctrine.
Bear in mind, a videogame should only be considered art provided it fulfills a certain basic criteria. We're talking storyline, music and how the story was executed here. If we were to judge gameplay on an equal level as the listed three, then trash games like Gears of War would be considered art - which they aren't.
But that only becomes a problem if one assumes the position that art must dogmatically convey the intention of its creator.666Chaos said:
Which, in practice, wouldn't be any different from the fundamental goal of a game of Pac-Man.
I think that, to prove that videogames are art you don´t need to dig too deep, plot?, script?, complex characters? no, no, no ,no, not always at least... Super mario world!!! for me, the first clear example that videogames can be art!
