On video games and art

On video games and art

There is a very relevant debate occurring in the entertainment industry as to whether video games can be considered art. Whether they have the potential to be art. And if that potential has ever been demonstrated in a game we can actually call art. A lot of you probably don’t care about this, but screw you, I’m the one writing this. If you don’t want to read this, go to cuteoverload.com, it’ll keep you entertained.

Anyway, the reason this is an interesting discussion is that video games are currently bringing in more revenue than Hollywood, but due to rising costs it’s facing a period of creative stagnation.

Games right now are overwhelmingly a craft. And there are some damned fined craftsmen out there. Both in terms of game design and theory (Will Wright, Peter Molyneux), and games as a purely visual medium (the Crysis games, Cloverfield studios). The games these people are making are often things of beauty, and gloriously fun to play. However, they aren’t art. They’re crafts. They are objects of great skill and beauty, but not of art.

And some argue that games can never be art (see Roger Ebert), and remain being a game. The necessity of the manner of interaction (that of using a controller) and the use of win conditions mean that the artistic vision of the creator is always engulfed by the needs of the player.

It is also worth noting that video games are a medium in its infancy. The first true video game was probably Spacewar (1961), and that was surprisingly advanced but very limited in release. In fact, it was on one machine at MIT. That puts video games at approximately 45 years of age since the inception of the technology. If we are to look at film as a medium, 45 years from the first proper moving pictures (approx. 1880s) would put us firmly in the mid 1920s. And while 1927 gave us Metropolis and the Jazz Singer, the latter was only important in terms of technical innovation.

Rather than being incapable of art, video games are simply a medium that hasn’t been used artistically except in one case. Well, that’s what I would have said yesterday. Now it’s two.

The first, and most obvious is Shadow of the Colossus. If you’re a gamer, and you haven’t played this, please do. Please, please do. It is the pinnacle of gaming, both as an art, and a craft. It’s the first game I’ve ever seen deal with moral ambiguity in a way that draws the player in, and makes them question the actions that they’re undertaking. If you haven’t played it, you’re a young man named Wander, who is told that he can bring a girl back to life if he kills 16 giants scattered across an entirely barren landscape. For the majority of the game you are riding between colossi, in an entirely empty but oddly beautiful landscape. The only wildlife an occasional bird or lizard. And then you must find these giants, and viciously slaughter them. As you progress, you start noticing that the colossi are often peaceful and beautiful, and only fight back once you attack them. And you do start questioning if what you’re doing is worth it. As they’re the only inhabitants of this land, and you slowly destroy them your motivation and morality come into question in uncomfortable ways. This, coupled with sweeping graphics and an enrapturing score make the game unarguably art.

And then there’s Passage.

http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/

Go, get it. Download it. Play it. It’s free, and it’ll work on any computer. The games are only five minutes long. I’ll still be here when you come back.

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There, you’ve played it? Amazing huh? The first time I played it, I didn’t click onto the point till about half way. I was just wandering right, and avoiding blocks, and enjoying the music and retro feel. I got a bit bored, but figured something would happen. Then I noticed my character was losing his hair. And was slowly making his way across the screen. Towards the end, I could see my entire past stretching behind me, and I came to the realisation that death was utterly imminent. And it came.

It’s a memento mori. It’s a reminder of life. And I played it again. If you go south, you can find treasure chests, but you’ll get lost easily, and many of them are empty. If you go north the path is clear. You can even find a wife to travel with you, but you won’t be able to get to as much treasure. One day she will die too.

When you start you can see so much before you. By the end, it is all behind. And at no time can you see more than a little to either side.

This is art.