Video Games as Art

This post is text-heavy, and I won't name many games, but I'll toss in a few pictures to break up the word continents. Bear with me, because the pictures are all from 90's games, and I know a single frame can't really give you much of an idea of the game, but the three of them are from games that mean a lot to me.

Jet Force Gemini

This has been talked to death in so many ways by so many people, but I think the fact that I write for a blog gives clear enough evidence that my pretense is so great that I can not help but throw my hat into the ring. Now, my view on it might seem something of a cop-out, but basically, I believe that there can be no concrete definition of what constitutes art. Rather, I consider anything that inspires thought, art. Of course, arts occupy a spectrum of varying types and intensities, so I think the question of whether or not something is art is a little silly.

I think the less jackassish path of logic still leads to the conclusion that video games are an art. Though they started as a simple, while increasingly complex, form of entertainment, they have evolved into a medium for profound, universal commentaries, as well as unequivocal exercises in empathy. A game can place your mind into the body of a character, and bring you to experience what he experiences on a personal level, by creating an association of your actions and objectives with those of the character.

Pokemon Blue

I have a theory or two about how the stigma about recognizing video games as art arose. My first theory is that in attempts to classify video games, people have gotten hung up on comparing them to established art forms, i.e. poetry, sculpture, dance, calligraphy. This is something that confounds me, because it would appear that there is really only one major difference between video games and classical art forms, albeit it is a big one. Interactivity is the thing. For some reason, many argue that interactivity essentially disqualifies video games, because interactivity shifts possession of the property from the artist to the audience. This is really an infantile argument; fundamentalism for fundamentalism's sake.

I think an argument against arthood that bears a little more weight is the notion that a fabricated universe that one can experience virtually takes the place of imagination. I feel that this opinion is a relic of a society with a considerably less tolerant "uncanny valley." For millennia, man has imagined the worlds described in art, now, however, he can see and hear and interact with those worlds. I do not believe this is an abortion of the spirit of creativity that art is often meant to instill. In fact, I feel that the immense powers of creation that game designers wield has repeatedly resulted in the most profound and inspiring works of art that man has ever seen. Forgive me for being dramatic, but I think video games may be the most powerful -though unrecognized- art form. Art has always been about projecting the artists perception of existence. Now more than ever can an audience truly experience the mind of an artist, in ways that paintings and symphonies will struggle to match.

Final Fantasy VIII

An individual is no longer limited to simply looking at a static graphical depiction of happiness, or rage, or love, and the quiet contemplation of the symphonic outpourings of a musician's soul no longer needs to be the only way to experience his emotions. I have said "experience" several times now, because the synthesis of the visual, auditory, and interactive culminate in the ability to experience an event, whether or not it ever happened. I think the redefinition of what it is to experience is a change that will come to define mankind's increasingly digital existence.

There are a lot of ideas here that are too big to talk about in anything less than a Socratic debate, but I hope that I've given you something to think about.

-Daniel

PAX East: This One's For the Nerds

So- Penny Arcade eXpo! I think it's appropriate to first describe what went into getting to PAX, and it really wasn't alot. Last Christmas, my brother suggested it and we hashed it out with our parents. Some frantic preparations over Google Wave in the days before the expo were pretty much the only planning that happened.

I could tell you the whole story of the trip, but I'll just give the skinny, for the sake of time. After a ten hour train ride, our first real PAX experience was waiting in line, in the expo center's queue room. Now, one would assume that waiting in line with a bunch of excited nerds might be a little weird, and it was, but it was also a load of fun. There were several large projector screens with a few fun little distractions on diplay: The main screen was a command prompt with a hidden typist, ghost writing for the computer, in a dialogue with the audience. From here, transitions were made to trivia with audience participation via text, choose your own adventure stories, and a game sort of like Doodle Jump, except the jumper was Gabe, and controlled by the left-or-right-leaning raised hands of the audience facing a camera. In the glorious name of metagaming, the scores attained by each crowd (morning crowd and night crowd each day) were displayed.

The expo floor was a sea of booths and nerds. A few rad booths out of the ~60:

NVidea, showcasing their new 3D system for games. I was surprised by the clarity and the comfort compared to what I've seen, movie theater 3D, that is; no nausea here.

EA, with a big SKATE booth. I mention them because through the duration of the expo, I saw people running around with some swell skateboard decks. My brother and I decided we would give it a go, and rushed to the booth, first thing Sunday morning. Other expo-goers had the same idea, evidently, and the line had grown to the point at which it was no longer worth it to wait for the chance to fail.

Instead, we stumbled upon the Uber Entertainment booth. We signed up for the tournament for a game called Monday Night Combat, a Xbox Live Arcade game that is due to release this summer. It was kind of a farce of a tournament, in that it had only two rounds. Nevertheless, we won and were the proud recipients of Pit Girl trophies, while the losers received Baconnaise. Extrinsic rewards aside, the game itself was a load of fun, something like DoTA, only an FPS with a futuristic bloodsport twist.

Outside of the main expo hall, there were numerous exhibits and events. Among these events were daily Q&A sessions with various weighty figures in the gaming community. We, in our lousy planning didn't really see many. We did, however, get to watch Mike and Jerry (real life Gabe and Tycho) create a Penny Arcade strip while fielding questions. It was a great chance to see a smashing artist at work, as well as hear some quality comedy. At the audience's request, Jerry even sang a soulful ballad about some fantasy love -not as weird as it sounds.

On Saturday night, we managed to snag some pretty okay seats to the night's concert. The first to perform was the Video Game Orchestra. It was amazing. Hearing their classical, rock, and metal renditions of some classic game tunes reminded me of the wonder I experienced the first time I heard the music. It might sound silly, but some of the Final Fantasy songs nearly brought me to tears from nostalgia alone. Foolishly, we ducked out and missed most of Paul and Storm, a duo of musical comedians. We caught their last few songs, whose content, combined with top-notch banter had me laughing out loud. Things got a little weird when the audience startedtrolling, but I guess nerds are pretty good at dealing with nerds, because they managed to diffuse the aggression. The final act (for which we were initially most excited) was Jonathan Coulton. Coulton is famous of his nerd anthems, and notorious for writing Still Alive, the ending theme to the smash hit Portal. Talk about a shaggy man with a voice. His words, whether sad or happy or desperate, slid like butter into my ears and down to my heart.

Like I said in my filler post, PAX is about The Gamer. I found that this objective was met with great success, and the atmosphere of the whole weekend was consistently positive. In the Sumo beanbag-filled handheld gaming lounge, the rows and rows of console and PC freeplay tables, and every room of the expo center, the spirit of gaming could be found. Of course, when I say the spirit of gaming, I mean Fun, because what are games but an escape from the anxiety and pressure of reality? This post would not be complete without recognizing the jolly Enforcers - the volunteer security guards that ensured the smooth execution of the weekends merriment.

To conclude, I want to go again.

-Daniel