Think about it.
Think about a world.
Think about a world where video games don't exist.
Can you do it?
It's the New Media. The media for intellectuals. The media that takes you to your extremes -- with a quick hand and a cool mind you dominate the masses, overcome your deficiencies, slay the oppressors. Can you think about a world where these things don't exist?
Think about the Civil Rights Movement. What if Martin Luther King Jr. didn't have the courage to fight for what he thought was right? Now think of Phil Fish. Do you think he could have told his story? Fought for what he thought was right? Think of Edmund. Could he have fulfilled his awesome vision? Video games are a main reason people in today's society are strong. Video games are the reason why we have solidarity; fighting transphobia, homophobia, sexism, transsexism, racism, and classism is a rally behind the media of video games and developers like BioWare. I would even argue that we are stronger than we were in the 60's. No one is a Ku Klux Klan member if they have video games. This post is a thank-you letter - a love letter - to the medium that is changing this world.
Once upon a time, to make a game you'd need the money only a huge corporate publisher could give. Which type of people got this money, you ask? Typically, men - white men - and their interests showed through in their games. In those dark days, the only games being made were those featuring angry white men shooting giant guns. Videogames were seen as the medium of children, providing meaningless, thoughtless entertainment. No more. It should be noted that studies have shown that 63% of gamers are female. While previously they could not be represented thanks to the kind of people making the games, with the rise of indie games anyone can make their own game - whether they are in a position of privilege or not - and the results are clear for all to see. No longer the sickeningly masculine, bull-headed fare they once were, the videogames of today are a beautiful reflection of the human experience.
Take the indie smash hit Thomas Was Alone. Deceptively simple, minimalist art belies deep gameplay and the message within. This is not a meaningless tale of colored shapes - it is a heartfelt tapestry showing the despair and the ecstasy, the peaks and the troughs, the love and the hate, the joys and the fears: everything it means to be human. Thomas Was Alone is clear evidence that we don't need corporations or hundred-man teams or big publishers who care nothing for us gamers. We just one (wo)man with a vision, with heart, with the desire to make something truly great.
Thomas Was Alone is not alone (pun intended!) in this voyage into, dare I say it, art. That's right! Despite the uninformed, almost idiotic criticisms of Roger Ebert (RIP) videogames are indeed art - perhaps the highest form of art. Braid is another indie chart-topper, and rightfully so - not only is it a better game than anything the big publishers churn out to desperately try to stay afloat as the gaming public wake up and realize the true potential of the medium, but it is also a subversion of videogames in general, a deconstruction of what we, as players - as GAMERS - will do. Braid initially presents us with a "Damsel In Distress" plot. While seemingly problematic, this trope is later turned on its head in the ending. Braid beautifully and expertly interweaves gameplay, story and deeper meaning - the core aspects that constitute the fabric of any game worth its salt - into a life-affirming, almost mystical experience that is a joy to partake in. I won't spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't played it yet (though I'm not sure such people exist!) but anyone who has played Braid will know what I mean when I say that, upon completing this wonderful journey, I sat in my computer chair in awe. I looked outside my window, up into the stars, and knew how insignificant I was.
Innovators such as David Cage spearhead gaming's march toward enlightenment, with his magnum opus Beyond: Two Souls showing us the kind of storytelling games are capable of. B:TS is a piece of transcendental fiction - slipping the bonds of it's medium and becoming something greater than both games and movies, a piece of true art. To the mainstream public, our medium is little more than a plaything, a child's timewaster. Our Citizen Kane may be on the horizon, should other developers follow in Cage's footsteps - a work we, as gamers, can point to and say "yes, this is what games are capable of. This is why games are art".
I pose to you the question, then - has this moment arrived? Are games yet art, or have we yet to wait longer for validation? Perhaps you think that masterworks such as Bioshock: Infinite have already shown the way, or perhaps you think that we are on the cusp of being an artform, but have some ways to go yet? I've been tossing this question over and over in my mind for a while now, and thought this would be a good forum to ask.
Think about a world.
Think about a world where video games don't exist.
Can you do it?
It's the New Media. The media for intellectuals. The media that takes you to your extremes -- with a quick hand and a cool mind you dominate the masses, overcome your deficiencies, slay the oppressors. Can you think about a world where these things don't exist?
Think about the Civil Rights Movement. What if Martin Luther King Jr. didn't have the courage to fight for what he thought was right? Now think of Phil Fish. Do you think he could have told his story? Fought for what he thought was right? Think of Edmund. Could he have fulfilled his awesome vision? Video games are a main reason people in today's society are strong. Video games are the reason why we have solidarity; fighting transphobia, homophobia, sexism, transsexism, racism, and classism is a rally behind the media of video games and developers like BioWare. I would even argue that we are stronger than we were in the 60's. No one is a Ku Klux Klan member if they have video games. This post is a thank-you letter - a love letter - to the medium that is changing this world.
Once upon a time, to make a game you'd need the money only a huge corporate publisher could give. Which type of people got this money, you ask? Typically, men - white men - and their interests showed through in their games. In those dark days, the only games being made were those featuring angry white men shooting giant guns. Videogames were seen as the medium of children, providing meaningless, thoughtless entertainment. No more. It should be noted that studies have shown that 63% of gamers are female. While previously they could not be represented thanks to the kind of people making the games, with the rise of indie games anyone can make their own game - whether they are in a position of privilege or not - and the results are clear for all to see. No longer the sickeningly masculine, bull-headed fare they once were, the videogames of today are a beautiful reflection of the human experience.
Take the indie smash hit Thomas Was Alone. Deceptively simple, minimalist art belies deep gameplay and the message within. This is not a meaningless tale of colored shapes - it is a heartfelt tapestry showing the despair and the ecstasy, the peaks and the troughs, the love and the hate, the joys and the fears: everything it means to be human. Thomas Was Alone is clear evidence that we don't need corporations or hundred-man teams or big publishers who care nothing for us gamers. We just one (wo)man with a vision, with heart, with the desire to make something truly great.
Thomas Was Alone is not alone (pun intended!) in this voyage into, dare I say it, art. That's right! Despite the uninformed, almost idiotic criticisms of Roger Ebert (RIP) videogames are indeed art - perhaps the highest form of art. Braid is another indie chart-topper, and rightfully so - not only is it a better game than anything the big publishers churn out to desperately try to stay afloat as the gaming public wake up and realize the true potential of the medium, but it is also a subversion of videogames in general, a deconstruction of what we, as players - as GAMERS - will do. Braid initially presents us with a "Damsel In Distress" plot. While seemingly problematic, this trope is later turned on its head in the ending. Braid beautifully and expertly interweaves gameplay, story and deeper meaning - the core aspects that constitute the fabric of any game worth its salt - into a life-affirming, almost mystical experience that is a joy to partake in. I won't spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't played it yet (though I'm not sure such people exist!) but anyone who has played Braid will know what I mean when I say that, upon completing this wonderful journey, I sat in my computer chair in awe. I looked outside my window, up into the stars, and knew how insignificant I was.
Innovators such as David Cage spearhead gaming's march toward enlightenment, with his magnum opus Beyond: Two Souls showing us the kind of storytelling games are capable of. B:TS is a piece of transcendental fiction - slipping the bonds of it's medium and becoming something greater than both games and movies, a piece of true art. To the mainstream public, our medium is little more than a plaything, a child's timewaster. Our Citizen Kane may be on the horizon, should other developers follow in Cage's footsteps - a work we, as gamers, can point to and say "yes, this is what games are capable of. This is why games are art".
I pose to you the question, then - has this moment arrived? Are games yet art, or have we yet to wait longer for validation? Perhaps you think that masterworks such as Bioshock: Infinite have already shown the way, or perhaps you think that we are on the cusp of being an artform, but have some ways to go yet? I've been tossing this question over and over in my mind for a while now, and thought this would be a good forum to ask.
) and while I agree this was certainly an undeniable statement of wealth, the artists in question would often use the opportunity to develop techniques of both brushwork and composition. Da Vinci's Mona lisa is most famous for her smile, but it should really be more famous for the technique used to achieve such blended tonal change over such a small canvas. 
