Why wasn't Bioshock our Watchman?

[Not G. Ivingname]

Watchman (and to a lesser degree the Dark Night Returns) was the turning point for comics, finally they were accepted as an ART FORM by the general public. Ok, comic books themselves quickly crashed within a decade because of an uncontrolled speculator market and the moving away of comic books from grochery stores to comic book stores (leaving the general public unable to easily get the things) and continutity made it impossible for them to get into comic books if they even got one. However, through thick and thin, Watchmen has itself endured, being the only comic book to land on Time's best books of the century for it's deep plot, great writing, and the deconstruction of the entire superhero genre.

Bioshock also was a great game, lauded with it's deep plot, great writing, and small deconstruction of the entire FPS genre. It did gain tons of awards and is beloved beyond reason by people that played it, it never reached out and convinced everybody that this was an art form. Why? It seamed the time was right, coming out in the year everybody from your little sister to your grandmother got themselves a Wii, and was easily the biggest year in gaming history. Yet, here we are, waiting with eagerness and dread over the Supreme Court's ruling on the California gaming law. Why didn't it change the industry?

Besides the Wii, the biggest change in the industry that came out of 2007 was CoD 4. Bioshock in comparison was barely a blip on the radar. So, I ask you my fellow Escapists, why wasn't Bioshock our Watchman?

 

[Alexnader]

I don't know if comics are now accepted as mainstream/ an art form yet but hey I'll bite.

I think it's because Bioshock did not get a large amount of publicity outside the gaming world. It doesn't matter if everyone who already plays games and thinks of them as more than just entertainment likes Bioshock. You need the artists, critics, average joes/jills and mainstream media on your side before something can become a mainstream artistic thingy.

 

[Chibz]

It wasn't "Our Watchmen" because it was an overwhelmingly mediocre game with a mildly intriguing setting. The only thing that stood out to me was how underwhelming it was.

 

[The Bucket]

I wouldn't say Watchmen made the general public accept comics as an artform-thats-totally-not just-for-kids. How many non comic geeks have actually read it? Yeah, maybe it was what made the medium critically accepted, but i'm guessing that most people skimmed over that part of Times 100 books.

The weird thing is, Superhero Movies, particular the last decades worth have probably done more to get comics accepted as something beyond the domain of geeks, something that isn't uncool to try and get into than anything else. Which the gaming equivelant is probably the CODs and the Wii sports come to think of it.

 

[The Amazing Tea Alligator]

It wasn't "Our Watchmen" because it was an overwhelmingly mediocre game with a mildly intriguing setting. The only thing that stood out to me was how underwhelming it was.

I agree - it might have had something to do with it.

 

[Binerexis]

It wasn't "Our Watchmen" because it was an overwhelmingly mediocre game with a mildly intriguing setting. The only thing that stood out to me was how underwhelming it was.

Yep, I have to agree; Bioshock really wasn't anything new or interesting to shout and scream about. System Shock, anyone?

 

[Laser Priest]

A more important question: How does it fucking matter to us whether or not people see gaming as an art form?

 

[Singularly Datarific]

Perhaps it's a step in the right direction, or perhaps by the time of Watchmen's publishing, the older generation of non-comic-book-readers had mostly died out. It came out well over 40 years since the beginnings of comics, so it had time to be accepted before knocking out expectations.

Also, comics are more accessible than games, being a medium that just tells a story. There are no obscure instincts required to progress smoothly, there aren't expectations of being able to be fast and precise just to advance. Playing a video game requires a skillset out of reach of the vast majority of people who have not grown up using them.
Trying to make them play a good game is like being a helicopter pilot and, after going on for an hour saying why this one is better than the other, shoving the person you were talking to into the cockpit, saying "see for yourself!" and expecting him to praise it. Comics require two things, sight and literacy.
Compare that to the block of requirements of a game "lightning reflexes, precision when operating on an electronic device, instant understanding of a situation composed of chaos and HUD representations, and 20+ hours to blow on it".
It's daunting.

We will just have to wait further to reach to cross that threshold, when the majority populace actually can enjoy it.

 

[Ubermetalhed]

It wasn't "Our Watchmen" because it was an overwhelmingly mediocre game with a mildly intriguing setting. The only thing that stood out to me was how underwhelming it was.

Quoted for great justice.

What was most shocking about Bioshock was the fact it was inferior to System Shock 2 in nearly every way and that game came out eight years earlier!

 

[Superior Mind]

Watchmen was an experiment by Alan Moore who wanted to prove that comics as an artform could achieve what other mediums could not. It wasn't solely to gain respect for comics or anything, if it was he probably wouldn't have chosen a superhero story. Even though Zack Snyder made a passable film version Moore did prove his point... because it's not a hard point to proove. Moore's got a massive ego and like many artists thinks his chosen medium is superior to all others. Games have been proving that they can achieve what no other medium can since pong - it's interactive media.

As to why BioShock isn't considered some great thing that finally exonerates gaming... well because although it was artistically stylish and had a fairly solid narrative it wasn't unparalleled by any means. The twists were well done but not particularly brilliant, the gameplay was pretty samey and despite some memorable sequences it also made a number of poor choices, draggging out the game in the final sequence making many gamers, myself included, just wanting to get to the bloody finish - which was pretty unsatisfying to be honest.

 

[Zinkraptor]

Bioshock wasn't our watchmen because the reasons games aren't accepted are very different than the reasons comics weren't accepted. That's basically it I think.

Also there's been games like Bioshock before anyway.

 

[gigastrike]

The difference between Bioshock and Watchmen is that Watchmen took a good comic and transformed it into a more accepted form, while Bioshock was a game that remained a game. The people who didn't like comics saw the movies and said "huh, maybe comics aren't so bad", while the people who don't like video games didn't even give Bioshock a second look because it was still a video game.

I think that this could be proven by saying that Watchmen only became popular after it was turned into a movie (a more accepted form of media).

 

[Teh Jammah]

To the OP - My friend, you seem to be operating under a delusion. A delusion possibly propagated by Alan Moore, which equates the publishing of Watchmen to the fall of the Berlin wall, the end of communism, and the instant increase in the popularity of Mick Foley post Hell in a Cell at KotR 98.

The latter being my actual example.

assuming you're not a wrestling fan (likely) I shall excplain. Foley, AKA 'Mankind' was a predominently mid-card guy in a feud with another wrestler in the upper-main event leagues known as the Undertaker. The afforementioned match saw Foley nearly die (legit - see the thru-the cell chokeslam) and is ultimately credited with his world title/main event push. Which happened 6+ months later.

Essentially Bioshock is a game that will be given props in the future for setting/atmosphere but it'll take something more than an FPS with atmosphere to properly push the game=art dealio to the next level

 

[AT God]

If people don't think that games are an art form, their problem. Game industry makes more money than all the doubters do in their life times. As for Bioshock not doing it, the games industry is cluttered with crap, Bioshock was a diamond in the rough, and thanks to the success of the Call of Duty yearly reskins, all focus is on making psudo military shooters with horrific plots.

Since Bioshock was released the highest selling game of all time has been replaced twice by basically the same game with different weapons, MW2 and BlackOps. These are the household names for videogaming, even for people who don't play video games, and if those people play games, they start with these and realize that these games are paper-thin.

That being said, back to my original point, who cares if people don't think gaming is an art form, the gaming industry seems to be making loads of money not being an art form.

 

[Hiphophippo]

Bioshock is a great game made by a great studio. I'm glad so many people come together on this.

But it's no Watchmen.

 

[yoshiru]

Hahahaha. Bioshock isn't our watchmen because comics had been around a whole lot longer than video games.

And also because you can read watchmen in what, less than a day? Whereas video games consume a whole lot of your time that you could spend doing something more fun. Bioshock was incredibly interesting but it didn't teach me anything important.

Once the educational value you get out of a game (educational meaning art, or truth, not just textbook education) is actually proportional to how many hours of your life you will throw down the sink at it, THEN people will start taking them seriously.

You can spend 8 hours reading a good book and be thoroughly satisfied and educated, and you'll be able to have intelligent conversations with many people, even those smarter than you.

And you can spend 500 hours playing a game like CoD and you will be less educated, your only skills will be no-scoping people, and the only satisfaction you can get out of that will be to be better than people, and you will still lose to the Marathon perk-guy who runs around knifing everybody.

 

[Just_A_Glitch]

Personally, I hated Watchmen. It had its ups, but overall, it just bored me.

I'm probably going to get some flak for that, but whatev.

OT: I know what I want to say, but I don't know exactly how to word it, which is frustrating to no end.

Perhaps it's a step in the right direction, or perhaps by the time of Watchmen's publishing, the older generation of non-comic-book-readers had mostly died out. It came out well over 40 years since the beginnings of comics, so it had time to be accepted before knocking out expectations.

Also, comics are more accessible than games, being a medium that just tells a story. There are no obscure instincts required to progress smoothly, there aren't expectations of being able to be fast and precise just to advance. Playing a video game requires a skillset out of reach of the vast majority of people who have not grown up using them.
Trying to make them play a good game is like being a helicopter pilot and, after going on for an hour saying why this one is better than the other, shoving the person you were talking to into the cockpit, saying "see for yourself!" and expecting him to praise it. Comics require two things, sight and literacy.
Compare that to the block of requirements of a game "lightning reflexes, precision when operating on an electronic device, instant understanding of a situation composed of chaos and HUD representations, and 20+ hours to blow on it".
It's daunting.

We will just have to wait further to reach to cross that threshold, when the majority populace actually can enjoy it.

This is close enough to what I feel, so I'm going to second this post.

 

[AugustFall]

I am literally regurgitating what Yahtzee said but wasn't Bioshock drawing a lot of inspiration from System Shock? I mean, there have been games like it before, plenty of intelligent shooters out there.

Also I should say that I don't think games or comic books have gained any real respect as art forms in the mainstream media.