So I was rambling with my SO the other evening about the world and the current cost of pc hardware vs gaming consoles and the long term value of pc’s because of game prices, I mean dear god look at my steam library.
Anyway regardless of console vs PC debate I got to a point where I was explaining that I see games as art, and after finishing Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons today that idea was even more reinforced. Music, paintings, sculptures, literature they are all readily and easily classified as art some are great some are trash but even trash can be worth something, I feel games are the same.
Be it a beautifully crafted master piece like the Witcher 3 or something akin to Merda d’artista games can be moving , they can make you think, make you feel, I find it strange that more often than not they are only seen as entertainment and there other merits are overlooked.
What say you fellow mewbs , do you purposefully play some games for their artistic merit or it is just an additional bonus , do you even notice or think about games from the perspective of art ?
If games are art then consider this next when you gaze upon your steam library a veritable treasure trove of things that might be priceless
Yeah, some games fall into that category for me aswell. Like most recently I played Rime 3 times right after each other because of its artistic/emotional design.
I also feel storytelling is an art on its own, which many games also get right. Others not so much
The biggest subset of games I believe cannot be classified as art. There are a handful of games that truly captures the imagination and emotion you would expect from artistic work. I also don’t think there is any AAA title that you can truly classify as art. See, AAA titles are all made with big budgets, they follow a strict checklist of things to include, and built with the exclusive idea of entertaining people. They tend to focus too much on the gaming and interaction part and less on the artistic nature of the entire project.
Take something like Journey, or ABZU. These games you can easily make the argument is art. These games focus more on the emotional reaction you have from experiencing it, rather than the gameplay. You’re not going to play these games and think about difficulty levels and game mechanics. You’re going to experience these games as, well artistic experiences. They transcend above the banal game mechanics to create something fluid, something where all your energy and focus is on the artistic side of the game
Now take Witcher 3. It is a really good game. Magnificent even. But it’s not art. There are too many “game” elements to it. The moment you die over and over again, having to redo conversations, ignore conversations you just had to go hit a bunch of bandits. All of these makes for a great game, but not an artistic expression of emotion. It’s a game, first and foremost.
you see now this is where it gets interesting, most peoples idea of art is actually normally far from what is defined as art when you start talking about it from a technical standpoint, I look at art and I go oh that makes me feel things or that’s pretty, someone who studies art or curates it might look at it and not care about how it looks but be amazed at the technical aspects of how it was produced the strokes, material or shapes in and of themselves.
In that same breath I look at witcher 3 and think about some of the game design elements which made me literary stop and go wow this F@#$ing game, how they used the lighting engine to change the way cut scenes look or just the overall design of the landscape blew me away, some story aspects “bloody baron” for instance definitely had a emotional affect.
Sure, beauty and art is subjective and can mean different things to different people. Who am I to say that your viewpoint of what art is is wrong. But I will state that the view of well-made games and beloved games being art is missing the point of what art is supposed to represent.
Deus Ex and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is two of my favourite games of all time. I have extremely strong emotional ties to those games. They capture my imagination more than any game I’ve ever played in my entire life. Yet they are not pieces of art. BOTW is probably the closest to be in contention for the discussion, but surely now. ABZU, on the other hand, is like an interactive art exhibit to me. It is artistry in it’s purest form. It tells a subtle story that will manifest itself in each person in a unique way.
It is really difficult to differentiate between pure art and artistic intent in entertainment media. Take Lord Of The Rings as an example; the movies won countless awards, they appear on almost every single Top 50 movie list of all time, yet you wouldn’t really call those movies “art” per se. Life Of Pie, on the other hand, feels intrinsically more artistic in nature than LOTR. Any movie made by Wes Anderson has a high affinity to art as well. It’s like those types of movies moves you in different ways than something like LOTR would. It’s not to say that LOTR is bad movies, on the contrary. It simply means those movies just isn’t art.
I apply the same argument to games. You are completely smitten by Witcher 3. There is no denying that its a great game. But will it be seen as an artistic installation within the realm of entertainment in 5 years time? Will its message and emotional connection stay with it for years, even decades to come? I highly doubt that. In fact, I don’t think there are a lot of games that would transcend the medium like that.
