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Video Games and Art
So Roger Ebert said once more that video games aren't art. And there has been a big tizzy about this. This is silly. Clearly, for the trivial definition of art, video games are art. But Ebert, sometimes (he shifts his goalposts constantly) means "not art" in a different sense than formal definition: he sometimes means it in the critically dismissive sense, and in that case he's pretty close to right on target.
What do I mean by "critically dismissive?" Well, for instance, imagine a Hallmark card with a nice painting of some lilies on the cover. It's clearly art in the trivial sense: paintings are pretty much the only thing which are defined culturally as honestly %100 bona-fide art without asterisk. But in another sense it's "not art:" in that it has no redeeming social or aesthetic value. Indeed it pretty much exists to be inoffensive and non-noticeable.
In terms of the basic question: are video games art? clearly the answer is yes. But in terms of the question "is there any worthwhile art in video games?" the answer is much hazier. I think that the answer is yes, but there's still a surprising dearth.
When I think about video games that have personally affected me about as much as a pretty good movie or nearly any book, I can count them on one hand. If I remove the games where it was some non-game aspect of the work (I'm looking at you, FFTactics) that affected me, it drops even further.
When I think about video games that have caused me to dramatically re-examine and rethink my life, the number drops to zero. (compared to a handful of movies, a few role-playing games, a great many books.)
In terms of things which have actually honestly changed my life, it's really just books and may...be a tabletop role-playing game (although I bet if I was a movie buff it'd have some movies too: I've seen this amongst my friends.) Video games aren't anywhere close to this.
So, once we've dismissed the obvious, there's a pretty important question there: why the dearth of decent art in video games? I think that, as a generation of video game players and designers, we need to confront that question, not shun and avoid it.
What do I mean by "critically dismissive?" Well, for instance, imagine a Hallmark card with a nice painting of some lilies on the cover. It's clearly art in the trivial sense: paintings are pretty much the only thing which are defined culturally as honestly %100 bona-fide art without asterisk. But in another sense it's "not art:" in that it has no redeeming social or aesthetic value. Indeed it pretty much exists to be inoffensive and non-noticeable.
In terms of the basic question: are video games art? clearly the answer is yes. But in terms of the question "is there any worthwhile art in video games?" the answer is much hazier. I think that the answer is yes, but there's still a surprising dearth.
When I think about video games that have personally affected me about as much as a pretty good movie or nearly any book, I can count them on one hand. If I remove the games where it was some non-game aspect of the work (I'm looking at you, FFTactics) that affected me, it drops even further.
When I think about video games that have caused me to dramatically re-examine and rethink my life, the number drops to zero. (compared to a handful of movies, a few role-playing games, a great many books.)
In terms of things which have actually honestly changed my life, it's really just books and may...be a tabletop role-playing game (although I bet if I was a movie buff it'd have some movies too: I've seen this amongst my friends.) Video games aren't anywhere close to this.
So, once we've dismissed the obvious, there's a pretty important question there: why the dearth of decent art in video games? I think that, as a generation of video game players and designers, we need to confront that question, not shun and avoid it.
(Jono here)
(Anonymous) 2010-04-22 04:48 pm (UTC)(link)Thank you Ben for taking this useless argument and turning it around into a topic that's actually interesting. Thank you.
> "why the dearth of decent art in video games?"
What is it you're actually looking for? As an interactive activity, video games are a closer analogy to board games or sports than they are to non-interactive media like movies, novels, paintings, sculptures, music, etc. Every revered example "great art" from our cultural past is a non-interactive work, and therefore a really terrible analogy for a video game. Where would the art be in a video game? In the story and how it makes you feel? Even if the story has nothing to do with the gameplay and could have as easily been presented in some other medium? In aesthetic appreciation of the creator's skill in game design? Or is that more "craft" than "art"?
Or are you looking for games where the gameplay itself affected you emotionally? Even an unoriginal side-scroller can induce emotions like frustration, fear, boredom, laughter, anger, a sense of triumph, and a sense of discovery verging on wonder. Do these not count? What emotions would it have to evoke to count?
Can a decision made by the player himself/herself in trying to negotiate a challenge affect that player the same way as an aesthetic decision made by an artist can affect a viewer of a non-interactive work? Should we ask it to?
> "redeeming social or aesthetic value"... "things which have actually honestly changed my life"
Doesn't Starcraft have redeeming social value in the same way as, say, chess or organized soccer? It gives players a competitive framework within which to apply themselves, practice, excel, and aspire to glory, right? I bet Starcraft has changed the lives of a lot of Korean kids. And this has nothing to do with its storytelling or aesthetic qualities, and probably nothing to do with art, either.
"Oh gee, I'm falling behind at school because I'm playing this game so much. Am I addicted? Should I stop? What's wrong with me?" I've done that a few times. Does that count as re-examining my life?
> "When I think about video games that have caused me to dramatically
> re-examine and rethink my life, the number drops to zero. (compared to a
> handful of movies, a few role-playing games, a great many books.) "
I may be alone here, but when I think of "dramatically rethink my life" I can't come up with a single example of art or fiction in any medium or genre that's done that to me. I can name some nonfiction books that influenced my thinking, but mostly the things that made me who I am were all real-life experiences. I'm curious - if you've had that life-changing experience from art, what was it like?
Re: (Jono here)
yrs--
--Ben
Re: (Jono here)
You're not alone in this. I can think of examples of music or books that, in retrospect, set me on paths that have been radically influential in my life, but I can come up with almost nothing that had an immediate and discernable effect of life reevaluation on me.