Which games do you consider Art?
- Thread starter Versago
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games that are art? easy.
Okami
if you can play through it without thinking of it as art then you're an insane, twisted soul.
And i'm talking about the game as a whole; visuals, music, story, writing, celestial brush mechanics; the whole thing is like a big digital masterpeice.
i like the game as you may have guessed.
Okami
if you can play through it without thinking of it as art then you're an insane, twisted soul.
And i'm talking about the game as a whole; visuals, music, story, writing, celestial brush mechanics; the whole thing is like a big digital masterpeice.
i like the game as you may have guessed.
The truth is always up for a vote. The truth was that marijuana made you a psychopath that would rape and kill without remorse. The truth was that the nuclear age would save us all and make the future perfect. The truth at the best of times is nebulous and view through a lens of personal opinion that can skew and distort it in many, many ways. The only reason you call it an apple is because someone else decided it was the word for it. I could call it ull or pomme or a hundred other things. It could be wax and not really an apple, it could be a pear that is the wrong shape. Don't act like the truth is beyond reproach, it rarely is.Cassita said:
See, thing is, for me, someone who dabbles in the (dark) 'arts', games are still too far from being a work of art. Choices in itself won't give it, because we make choices everyday, very little ones and very big ones. For me, most games, even those with expanded stories like Mass Effect are still just a documentary, a simple relation from the events.Versago said:
As art, i personally, understand something that is not literal in meaning. To make a simple example. Let's say you walk down your citys main street and see a couple kissing. In itself, it's just an event, like any other, taking a picture of that couple wouldn't make it art by default. Now let's say you actually know how to make good photos, you find a beam of lights that set a mood, you manage to capture their expression, you notice the fact that the background is just a faceless crowd that is in hurry to or from work that ignores the spontaneous act of love and that creates a different context to their kiss. All this combined creates a single frame that is filled with expression and emotions. That's when such picture becomes art. It doesn't have to be 'pretty', they could be the ugliest people you've ever seen and that would just add to the whole image.
For something to be art and not just a report, there needs to be space for interpretation, a secondary layer that forces you to stop and think for a second. So far i don't think i've played a game that actually would be like this as a whole.
Probably a bit late to your thread but - Shadow Man (get the pc version), despite its horribly aging graphics is a piece of art.
We deliberately arranged the game so that symbolic elements would influences and affect the senses, emotions, and/or intellect of the player.
The audio score was very much written in this way.
We deliberately arranged the game so that symbolic elements would influences and affect the senses, emotions, and/or intellect of the player.
The audio score was very much written in this way.
On the topic of being specious am I going to have to point out the fact that your argument seems to centre on "I'm right because I'm me and you're wrong because you're not"?Cassita said:
The Truth (Capital T) is a fictional idea created to represent something that can never be quantified, like Justice and Faith and Hope. To say something is the truth (lower case t) is to claim it is a wholly verifiable article of information. Thing is the truth is often governed by Belief. The Rabbi knows that his are the chosen people of israel and this is the truth, the Priest knows that his are the anointed of Christ and this is the truth, the Imam knows that his are those blessed by Mohammad the Prophet over all others and this is the truth.
There is awful lot of truth and far less fact than you'd think. Who says you are right in calling it a chicken? What if we are at the zoo looking into the tiger enclosure and you call it a chicken because that is the truth? People can be incredibly wrong and continually ignore that fact because they know the truth.
Funny how I have that bit RIGHT THERE about about how I am undecided on this issue...Ranchcroutons said:
Assassin's Creed 2. Seriously, Go to the mountains area and stop at a nice view point and look around. It is gorgeous.
Being a bit tired of the whole discussion on what is and isn't art I'm just going to get it over with and impulsively reply "Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie and Conker's Bad Fur Day".
I agree, but I'm gonna be a real douche and play devil's advocate here. The graphics and soundtrack I fully agree with, but the gameplay got really repetitive after a while and the story was loaded down with quite a bit of dead weight.Onyx Oblivion said:
With the gameplay I mostly mean combat against lesser demons(and not the bosses themselves which are FUCKING AMAZING AND IF ANYONE SAYS OTHERWISE THEIR MINDS ARE DEVIANT AND MUST BE PURGED), which can be boiled down to 'mash the square button until they turn gray and hit them with a Power Slash, repeat.' Of the few enemies that can't be beaten this way, it's usually because they're invulnerable until you do something special, and the game has a bad habit of not making it clear what you're supposed to do.
The story is interesting and original and compelling and a whole bunch of other words to convey praise, but it had lots of padding. To wit - that entire journey through the past where we meet our past selves. Was there any point to that at all? Couldn't we just have found the girl in the forest instead of making a time loop that only serves to convolute the plot?
I'd still offer this game as an example of 'games as art', but it isn't quite the perfect example.
The perfect example, on the other hand, would be Portal(ino, original right?). A tight, punctual script written to best exploit the merits of the medium combined with plenty of philosophical and emotional depth and some truly hilarious pitch-black humor.
I believe a game IS the gameplay. Consider the folowing metaphor: The gameplay is the beef and the animatics, music, graphics, etc (in other words, art) are the spice. You use spice to improve flavor, but in the end what defines your dish is the beef.
So... unless the gameplay can be considered a form of art, the game as a hole cannot. It uses art, but is not an example of one. Even if a game tells a fantastic story, wasn't that story told in a cinematic and not in the actual game? remove the cinematics and/or the amazing graphics, is the game still an art form?
Some games can be considered an art form. In "Loved" and "Depict1" (both can be found in Kongragate), for example, you have to make the decision of trusting, or not, im the narrator (it's not like mass effect, because your choices are made INSIDE gameplay), what you do will, in the end, turn into a moral lesson, a metaphor and even determine if your are worth of finishing the game.
It's an art form because of gameplay, and not dispite of. Maybe "Flower" and "Rez" can be considered art too, if you follow my logic.
PS: Most of the games cited here are considered by you guys art because they have beautifull graphics, interesting story (told in cinematics) or fun gameplay. None of these is a compeling argument to accept such games as an art form. I hope someday games can be considered art just because they have a creative and fun gameplay, and not because they have elements that are considered art in other medias.
So... unless the gameplay can be considered a form of art, the game as a hole cannot. It uses art, but is not an example of one. Even if a game tells a fantastic story, wasn't that story told in a cinematic and not in the actual game? remove the cinematics and/or the amazing graphics, is the game still an art form?
Some games can be considered an art form. In "Loved" and "Depict1" (both can be found in Kongragate), for example, you have to make the decision of trusting, or not, im the narrator (it's not like mass effect, because your choices are made INSIDE gameplay), what you do will, in the end, turn into a moral lesson, a metaphor and even determine if your are worth of finishing the game.
It's an art form because of gameplay, and not dispite of. Maybe "Flower" and "Rez" can be considered art too, if you follow my logic.
PS: Most of the games cited here are considered by you guys art because they have beautifull graphics, interesting story (told in cinematics) or fun gameplay. None of these is a compeling argument to accept such games as an art form. I hope someday games can be considered art just because they have a creative and fun gameplay, and not because they have elements that are considered art in other medias.
They're all art.
They?re all a collection of symbolic images that are arranged in a way that encourages player/viewer input. They stimulate the senses and oftentimes the intellect too. I think the programmers are finding that the more they try and get an emotional response out of us, they fail but we can?t blame them for trying.
Going by what many of the snobs are defining as art, the only thing separating games from high art is the controller.
But even these snobs can?t look at a game by Q Games or Q Entertainment and say that it isn?t art.
They?re all a collection of symbolic images that are arranged in a way that encourages player/viewer input. They stimulate the senses and oftentimes the intellect too. I think the programmers are finding that the more they try and get an emotional response out of us, they fail but we can?t blame them for trying.
Going by what many of the snobs are defining as art, the only thing separating games from high art is the controller.
But even these snobs can?t look at a game by Q Games or Q Entertainment and say that it isn?t art.
Way I see it, all video games are art. Not necessarily by the definition of art, but by our culture's need to label mediums as an "art form." All video games are comprised of artistic elements, whether or not art is necessarily the goal of the designer, and if video games are an art form, that means all games are an example of the art, regardless of intent or quality.
However, by that definition of art (basically including intent to create art rather than make money or provide an arena for competition), that does limit things. But still there are too many artistic games to name them all, so I will simply name some that I consider to be good art.
Shadow of the Colossus
Ico
Okami
Beyond Good and Evil
Final Fantasy Series
Metal Gear Solid Series
Knights of the Old Republic
Mass Effect Series
Metroid Series
Legend of Zelda Series
Phoenix Wright Series
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
The World Ends With You
Skies of Arcadia
Portal
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Halo Series
Chrono Trigger
Star Ocean Series
Fatal Frame
I could name more, but that's enough, really. But there are quite a few, across all generations of gaming (excluding the very early ones, of course; Pong is hardly art).
However, by that definition of art (basically including intent to create art rather than make money or provide an arena for competition), that does limit things. But still there are too many artistic games to name them all, so I will simply name some that I consider to be good art.
Shadow of the Colossus
Ico
Okami
Beyond Good and Evil
Final Fantasy Series
Metal Gear Solid Series
Knights of the Old Republic
Mass Effect Series
Metroid Series
Legend of Zelda Series
Phoenix Wright Series
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
The World Ends With You
Skies of Arcadia
Portal
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Halo Series
Chrono Trigger
Star Ocean Series
Fatal Frame
I could name more, but that's enough, really. But there are quite a few, across all generations of gaming (excluding the very early ones, of course; Pong is hardly art).