Gamer as Artiste (Article)
polycounter lvl 18
I was skimming through the NY Times this morning, and THIS ARTICLE was on the front page of the Week in Review section. There's a fair bit of rambling, but the author discusses the growth of the video game industry and its recognition as an art form. Anyways, it seemed relevant enough to be posted here. It's a decent read if you've got a few extra minutes. 
Replies
The types of emotions people experience when playing are totally diferent. In one way it is in the nature of video games. Frustration, rage, the will to triumph are mostly absent from other art forms. Some are genre specific like fear, disgust and hatred. The fact is that people are making the video game equivelent of action or horror movies, so that is the type of emotions you get. When you get the video game romanitc comedies or dramatic tear-jerkers then you will experience the emotions that go with those genres too.
Video games are a crappy story telling medium, but so are movies. Clearly books are the best way to tell a story, but I don't see people saying movies aren't an art form because they have different strengths and weaknesses than books. Video games are the same way. Sure you can tell a story, and it can be told well, but the Harry Potter game will never tell the story as well as the Harry Potter book. The great thing is that it doesn't need to. They are different.
I can't wait until I get done with my first game so I can tell interviewers how any idiot can shoot a movie but it takes a real artist and craftsman to make a video game.
yes, a book can draw you in on a completely different level than a movie can, because that's the way books operate. there's a lot of imagination involved.
for movies, you're being "fed" a very narrow set of information as compared to a book, but that doesn't mean that great, emotionally affecting movies haven't been made. that's fairly obvious.
and for games, like you said--it engages the viewer in a very different way entirely--the viewer is no longer passive, they are the player. as far as identification with the main character, i think games have the greatest storytelling potential of the three. doesn't mean we've quite reached any of that potential yet, but come on... let's not compare mediums that operate on wholly different mechanisms.
edit: was really happy to see this quote
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"The press treats Spielberg's announcement as the second coming," said Professor Jenkins of M.I.T. "But game designers remember how the game based on 'E.T.' nearly killed Atari, and is considered the biggest failure in game history."
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also: if you don't want to hassle with signing up with NY Times, use TNSLB / TNSLB as a login/password.
for movies, you're being "fed" a very narrow set of information as compared to a book, but that doesn't mean that great, emotionally affecting movies haven't been made. that's fairly obvious.
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I think we agree, but we have a different way of saying it. Now, I think a lot of stories can be told perfectly with movies or video games. I have my doubts that every story in a book could be told as well with movies or video games.
The book Catcher in the Rye would make an awful video game no matter how you tried to adapt. Almost nothing happens! The character has no clear goal, and with the exception of his re-occuring dream (which I think is mentioned once in the book) I can think of nothing that could be adapted into fun gameplay. Yet, it is one of my favortie books.
Another reason books are better for teling stories is that I have no problem reading a "page turner" for 8+ hours, but I find watching TV for that long tiresome. Video games are better, but I think it is because gameplay sections let a part of your brain rest. The games I could play the longest had no story at all (Civ, MOO, Sim City)
Video games are more than good enough to tell all sorts of great, emotionally involving stories. Just look at MGS, FFX, System Shock 2, Deus Ex, or Half-Life. But another example is Ico. The story is paper thin. If adapted into a book, it would be maybe a page long, yet the game does something, causes an experience. I'm not sure there is a word for it yet, or maybe it is story telling, but what it should be, and not what we are usually told is a story.
In the end, stories are told, music is played, or images are presented with the goal of giving you an experience. Video games can relay experience as well or better than any artform. And I think that is where we can agree.
The medium will come of age, he said, "when somebody confesses that they cried at Level 17."
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I know a few people who admit to crying when Aerith died in FF7. Really Steven you need to play more games than just the latest version of the sports franchise. FF7 was almost 10 years ago...
Meanwhile, I've been trying to figure a way to implement J.G. Ballard's "Crash" in the Grand Theft Auto engine...
/jzero
Oh wait, I'm making poker games..yipee.......
:P