should games be more artistic than fun?
- Thread starter knightguy123
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I think the mistake is looking at "fun" and "art" as though they're both objective and quantifiable. Different people have different ideas as to what constitutes both - look at all the flame wars over whether X game is more fun than Y, and in the art world the incessant debate as to whether the works of modern art darling du jour should be considered art or not. Since undoubtedly most people do play games for fun, I suspect that where we fall on the issue of how important art is depends on the extent to which our ideas of "fun" and "art" overlap. It can be argued that the satisfaction of appreciating a good work of art is itself a kind of fun, after all.
Edit to add: It's also not a zero-sum game. If a developer says they made a particular choice for artistic reasons, it doesn't follow that this negatively impacts the gameplay. Likewise vice versa.
Edit to add: It's also not a zero-sum game. If a developer says they made a particular choice for artistic reasons, it doesn't follow that this negatively impacts the gameplay. Likewise vice versa.
Both. Definitely. From titles like Okami and Psychonauts which are games packing with great artstyle and great fun, to simpler titles like the old adventure games, which depended strongly on the art and were also a lot of fun to play because of various reasons (mostly the storytelling and humor). Even games you wouldn't exactly call "art" draw attention to them because of their art style (like Fable for example).
So my answer is both, definitely.
So my answer is both, definitely.
I don't care if games are "artistic" as long as they are not boring and made to be talked about or watched instead of played. In fact, if they really are trying to be artistic then they could be more engaging as good art and games both require much more engagement from you than things like cinema.
Why can't games be both? Like Team Fortress 2?
I normally like games that do things a little differently, so art style is important to me.
I mean, good art style can't save bad gameplay, look how poorly Velvet Assassin is being treated, but then again, Bioshock wouldn't have been anywhere near as engaging if it hadn't been a mix of Ayn Rand, Art Deco, genetic engineering, guns, magic and horror all in a dank, oppressive underwater setting.
Games like Silent Hill 2 are essentially all art style. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and Katamari and The World Ends With You are all great examples of art direction taking a front seat to game play. And they're all great games, well remembered because of it.
I think a game with a unique art style stands a better chance of being remembered longer and more fondly than a game that uses a very trite art style.
Braid, Okami and Psychonauts will stand the test of time longer than all the WWII FPS that came out in the early part of this decade.
I normally like games that do things a little differently, so art style is important to me.
I mean, good art style can't save bad gameplay, look how poorly Velvet Assassin is being treated, but then again, Bioshock wouldn't have been anywhere near as engaging if it hadn't been a mix of Ayn Rand, Art Deco, genetic engineering, guns, magic and horror all in a dank, oppressive underwater setting.
Games like Silent Hill 2 are essentially all art style. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and Katamari and The World Ends With You are all great examples of art direction taking a front seat to game play. And they're all great games, well remembered because of it.
I think a game with a unique art style stands a better chance of being remembered longer and more fondly than a game that uses a very trite art style.
Braid, Okami and Psychonauts will stand the test of time longer than all the WWII FPS that came out in the early part of this decade.
Should movies? Book? Music? Games have the potential to be just as robust as any art form: perhaps moreso. Games are a even more fundamental human experience then reading or music. So its fine to have games that are purely fun, as we see it. But you can sacrifice the traditional kind of fun on occasions to be more, "fulfilling" or "Artistic". And we should, to make the medium mature. But having artistic game doesn't exclude the normal "fun" games from existing. Games shouldn't be more or less artistic: They should be broader in scope.
But art is a form of entertainment: performance art, paintings, architecture, etc.Colonel Rosso said:
I think games are art already. I think the question, rather, is that should developers focus on entertainment or a serious statement. And personally, I'd rather have entertainment than serious statement, unless the seriousness contributes to the overall entertainment (like in Metal Gear series).
How can you say that they scarified the fun? Maybe they just don't know how to make fun games. A lot of games have good graphics but boring gameplay, like Gears of War for example. I'm not sure I would call that game artistic though. Maybe you could give me a few examples.knightguy123 said:
Games like Bioshock, Prince of Persia and Braid are games that are artistic and don't sacrifice the element of fun. This i like. Be as artistic as you want but don't take away from the general playability of the game.
here's an example most people think halo 3s single player(im only talking about single player) looks great and so do i but its not FUN!not a zaar said:
Not unless it is supposed to be artistic like flower. Games like that can be artistic and should be, but games like madworld try to be artsy and come off as pretentious. Then again that game with the dog god whos name escapes me was very artistic and fun, so i guess its what kind of art and what genre.
This is a rather hard question. While I rather like games that go outside the regular fps-mmo-halo-bonertown genre, its undeniable that games are originally a form of entertainment, not art. I believe Mr. Sessler likes to see games in a more artful form, somewhat like films. But even in that sense, if you only watched indie films, then you'd end up a maniac serial killer hell bent on women's rights and Chuck Palahniuk books.
In the end, I think the Mission Impossible type games need to still dominate the gaming world, while Schindler's List kinda floats around in the back.
In the end, I think the Mission Impossible type games need to still dominate the gaming world, while Schindler's List kinda floats around in the back.