Generalsexbad said:
It's not that video games can't be a valid form of expression, it's just that nothing being released to the market can in any way shape or form be considered art. Making art is using a medium to invoke an emotional response out of someone. Video Games are an interactive-medium, which means the music, the story, art direction, has nothing to do with it being art; what should invoke the emotional response is how the player is interacting with the game directly. And if you break most games done the the interaction you're pretty much just shooting things. How does that expose to the player something of the human heart? How is that showing something about the human condition? It isn't.
Sure the story might be well written and incredible but that is a completely separate medium from video games, and no one is going to be taking video games seriously as an art form until gamers get that through their heads.
When me and my friends read a book we like to talk and discuss the symbolism in it, talk about why the character did this or that; in music you can talk about how you relate to emotion the artist is expressing, after I watched the anime "Cat Soup" me and my friend probably spent an hour contemplating what the imagery meant; the same way you'd contemplate a painting.
I mean are you honestly telling me that after you play match of Call Of Duty that you put on you're french beret and swirl a wine glass and discus what the match meant to each of you?
The only Video Game I've ever played in my life that I think understands it's medium with flourish is the indie game Passage. Passage is a game with very retro graphics, there's no fighting, you're just walking; you play as a man who is walking down a narrow passage in which the end of the passage is blurred to you, but becomes clearer and more revealed as you continue on. In the early parts of the game you can also choose whether or not to take on a female companion who will follow you; now if you do take on the girl you won't be able to fit into certain walkways, so you'll miss treasure that way, but all the treasure you do find gives you more points with the female companion. And as you progress through the game you're character (and the female companion if you choose to bring her along) ages, and moves more slowly, tell you're character eventually dies.
The game is all about the passage of time, and that if you don't settle down with a life partner you could probably do more things with your life, but sharing moments with someone you love is so much richer. It actually almost made me cry once I finished the game.
I urge you to play it so you know better of what I'm talking about, it's free online. Hopefully you're not one of those gamers who are in denial because they've wasted so much of their life playing video games all day to the point they don't want to come to the realization that it was all for nothing. I mean I love Dragon Age: Orgins, but it is just garbage for my brain.
I don't blame Robert Ebert for saying Video Games arn't art, even though I disagree with him because clearly Passage is, but from what he sees on the market, I think he is defiantly right.
Thank you for your reply. Honestly, I don't think I've spent as much time analyzing the media I consume as you and your friends do, so I'm sure I don't have a point of view as sophisticated as yours is. For me, really, the artistic value usually isn't in the combat mechanics, but rather how the world is presented. This can be in the scenery, the story, the interactions, whatever.
For example, I got Bioshock Infinite some time after it came out, and booted it up fairly late at night. After the opening, when you're just walking around the city, it felt so real and alive that I could practically smell the sealant on the wood. For that matter, any moment in that game that wasn't combat was a fascinating experience, especially the ending (I'd gush over it, but that's not actually constructive). Honestly, despite the combat mechanics in that game making literally no sense given anything in the story, Bioshock Infinite was probably one of the most meaningful experiences in media I've ever had, and I don't think it would have been the same had I just been reading or watching it.
That said, as far as multiplayer games go (CoD, LoL, WoW, any other 3 letter acronym for a game you can think of), I don't go there looking for deep, artistic meaning, and I don't think that's how they should be used (at least, for now. People much smarter than me are probably already on this issue). For me, it's fairly meaningful to work with friends to overcome challenges, especially when we're trying to outthink someone we've never met before who could be employing strategies we would never have thought of in a million years. Maybe I don't use the exact same skills in League of Legends as I would in the office, but I use the same brain muscles trying to think up a solution to a strategy I'm unfamiliar with as I would trying to solve a problem at work (namely being creative in an area that isn't easy for me to be creative in).
As for how playing games truly helps society? It really doesn't. But neither does reading a book, if I don't intend on writing, or watching a movie if I don't plan on trying to help make one. Society has never benefited from anything I've done in Minecraft, or WoW, or League, or Tf2. And it never will, unless I actually get a job in the industry. But I have personally benefited. I've spent hours enjoying WoW, then drawing fan art. I've delved mines in Minecraft so I can finish a mansion I was designing (or possibly working out the mechanics of a Industrial Craft 2 base that efficiently uses power). I've taken ideas and puzzles from games and tried to come up with my own worlds and dungeons for D&D. Hell, I grabbed some software to remix some of my favorite songs from really old games, because I don't have immediate access to an orchestra. No, none of this will benefit the world at large, but I don't think I'm the next Mozart or Da Vinci. Most people probably aren't, either. We're all just trying to have the best lives we can, and I don't think gaming is necessarily a detractor from that.
