Jim Sterling said:
Lazy, Boring, Ordinary, Art Games
Your humble Jim Sterling is deep and philosophical, and therefore appreciates a videogame that attempts to communicate something more special than the average bit of software. However, most so-called "art games" are generic and mediocre, for the very same reasons that they THINK they're unique and enthralling. Art games are becoming as ordinary and boring as anything in the mainstream market, and your cultured host shall explain why.
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Every art goes through this... and, in fact, sometimes a new medium deliberately
jumps to this phase in an effort to be the "first to cross." Funny enough, that creates a matryoshka doll of pretense and meta-pretense around this whole thing.
Sometimes a new artistic movement is an intense reaction to an existing trend or trope, and it is explored by a strong personality (or group of them) that charges into the unexplored in a way that shows borderline contempt for the audience -- they don't appear to care whether or not someone "gets it," but whether they can do it.
At the same time, audiences have caught onto this trend, and there are several who understand that they can piggyback on the "depth" of these movements by jumping on the "Get It" bandwagon as quickly as possible.
Seeing this, artists occasionally set out to
deliberately push works like this -- the entire point is to "seem deep" by showing that contempt for the audience, because that's what creates "artistic credibility." The goal isn't to try something new, the goal is to
seem like you are. The goal isn't to realize your vision, consequences-be-damned, but instead to intentionally damn-the-consequences just to appear like you're realizing some deeper vision.
And, in turn, the "artsy" audiences lap it up, because each iteration makes the artistic "in crowd" that much smaller and more exclusive. It's a game of chicken -- no one wants to be the first to look away and say, "What the hell are we doing? This stuff
sucks," because then they're just one of the "Don't Get Its."
Groundbreaking art is usually underappreciated in its time because it's usually a rebellion
against its time. Later on, people look back and realize, "Ah, this was just an artist asking why we always do it
this way, and just trying to find something new." What we're seeing is not groundbreaking art. It's developers being obtuse dicks in an effort to
become "underappreciated in their time."
So... matryoskha doll, cart-before-horse, game-of-chicken, intellectual circle-jerk, choose your analogy here. Every medium goes through it.