I listen to MANY podcasts, one of them being “The Indoor Kids” which is a wonderful podcast from Nerdist Industries. The podcast stars comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily Gordon, both avid gamers (Kumail is hilarious check out a clip here). While I enjoy the podcast for its discussion of video game nostalgia (I was quite the Nintendo aficionado as a child, love Sid Meier’s Civilization series, and currently anticipate the release of Diablo III), I’ve come to find the podcast raises interesting discussions while maintaining an air of comedy as well. Recently, the Supreme Court made a ruling on whether or not video games should be considered art, defending video games as an artistic medium. “The Indoor Kids” decided to tackle this very discussion, entering into a discussion of what is art, and in turn, a philosophical discussion of aesthetics. So I bring it to you students, how can we discuss what makes video games art ANDDDDDD lend this discussion to nature? How do we identify something as “beautiful” something that is of value, something that speaks us unconsciously?
You can find the New York Times article here.
You can find this episode of "The Indoor Kids" here.
What makes video games art? Well Justice Anthonin Scalia says it all,"video games communicated ideas." Video games have characters, dialogue, plot, and music, which are the basic elements of art. The reason it's beautiful, is because it gives us the opportunity to do things we want to without any consequences. Also video games allow us to interact with the real world and let us "think about both human relationships and the wider world around us."
ReplyDeleteDavid Jiang
Art is anything that can create an emotional or intellectual response from someone. For many video games succeed in doing that. Similarly to literature, there are many ideas prevalent in video games that are brought out through the characters, plots and settings.
ReplyDeleteVideo games can be described as beautiful because they allow us explore different worlds without ever leaving our homes. Many conflicts are also brought to us and we are forced to act upon them. Even though video games are complete works of fiction, the choices we make when playing games are real and the thoughts that flow through our minds when making them are real.
Although I agree that video games are a form of art, I also believe most video games only exist to kill time, but every now and then there is a video game that forces you to explore a theme or make a moral decision. But that is just my opinion. Everyone has their own view on video games.
-William Yu
Aspects that can be considered art: scenery, character design, background music
ReplyDeleteNot art: quality of gameplay, difficulty, length of game, how good it is
Could possibly be art: plot, character development, voice acting
There are aspects of music, visual art, and even acting and writing involved in the production of a video game. With this said, I do not believe that connoisseurs of visual arts and orchestral music should pick up a video game to listen to it or to look at it.
Contrary to what is implied by the last line of the NY Times article ("now it is up to [those involved] to show us what art they can produce"), I don't think that the ruling will significantly or noticeably affect future games. There will still be inadequate games as there always have been, and if you wade through the insipid junk you'll still find a handful of needles in the haystack. I predict that an insignificant number, if any, video game companies will seriously increase their efforts to produce art.
Overall, music and scenery can only add to a game's quality, but to me - but perhaps I'm an oddball - the characters' likability as well as quality of gameplay either make it or break it.
P.S. Video game graphics aren't art...yet. Here's a concept that might come to fruition in 20 or 30 years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00gAbgBu8R4
Freshman's two cents:
ReplyDeleteRegarding the unlimited detail voxel graphics engine that Eric posted, it's not as amazing as they make it out to be. It's interesting, what they managed to do, but they exaggerate it and leave out a lot of the technical drawbacks. Great post by the guy who started Minecraft on that engine here:
I disagree with Eric's dissection of video games into different parts to judge whether they can be considered art or not. A video game is not just a collection of music, graphics, and the game itself. It's a 'the whole is greater than the sum of its parts' kind of thing.
For example, take the game The World Ends With You, which takes place in modern-day Shibuya, which is to Tokyo what Manhattan is to New York City. Taken alone, the music is just Jpop, rock, and rap, the graphics are mostly un-animated anime-style sprites, and the characters are all either exaggerated stereotypical teens or eccentric adults. The plot would make a terrible book, but put together with the above, creates an immersive world where the player can feel the setting and understand the characters. In considering whether a game is art, it is important to note that a game does not stand on its own, and rather involves the player, much as the experience of literature relies on the interpretation of the reader. Since a player does not experience these elements separately, they must be considered together as a cohesive whole instead of individually. Take the opening cutscenes: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSiuTri8y2g] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZrdvOQNHls] There is a very immediate establishment of the atmosphere by the combination of the individual elements, preparing the player for the plot to come.
However, the qualification of a game as art doesn't just have to apply to games with a plot and character development. Just as we consider an abstract painting to be art, despite its lack of meaning beyond questioning our definition of art, [http://www.russianpaintings.net/articleimg/kandinskiy/kandinskiy_composition_8_1923.jpg], we may also consider games such as Tetris or the Falling Sand Game as art. I feel that physics simulations in particular are prime candidates to be considered art due to the emergent design and gameplay that they can produce: [http://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/dust2/] [http://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/ee/] [http://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/dust/]
Ack, my link on the unlimited detail engine didn't show up. Here it is:
ReplyDelete[http://notch.tumblr.com/post/8386977075/its-a-scam]
It was interesting how halfway through the podcast, they mention how powerful and effective empahty is since we spent a great deal of time learning about empathy. He contrasts how movies really understand the power of empathy and video games should try harder to as well, to create narrations and such.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with William Yu.
One aspect that I believe people play video games for is because you could be someone else entirely. You can create a new identity for yourself and behind a computer screen, associate with other people killing mushrooms or visiting other worlds. Like the lady in the post cast was saying, as she was growing up, she never really saw any female characters so she was given the chance to play and act as a man. But, you are also given the option to relate to the video game characters. Like Hulk said, even if you are the Loch Ness monster, there is always a relation of some sort, you can relate to his loneliness. Video games gives you the option of either relating to other characters, or to have a new identity, to be someone else you are not.
Heheh, I managed to write more than can fit in one comment:
ReplyDeletehttp://speedcap.net/img/d54950736212e127f20ace7dd5838df5/0bd1dedb.png
Critique:
I have some doubts about the Hulk dude really turning into Hulk every time he sits down to write articles, despite his use of all capital letters. One of the dudes on the podcast pronounces 'ennui' wrong. It's French, man. FRENCH. He also says nuclear the George Bush way.
Comments:
I see some parallels between the Indoor Kids' definition of art and Oscar Wilde's: "Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine."
Both definitions require art be created, whether consciously or not, with the purpose of conveying a message or eliciting a response from something or someone.
@Jennifer
I have concrete proof of your beliefs. Have you ever heard of role playing games? Commonly referred to as RPGs, the main appeal of these games is the players' ability to empathize with the characters.
Response to actual prompt:
I agree with both Eric and Freshman’s analysis of video games; although a game’s whole may be greater than the sum of its parts, both the whole and its individual parts must be examined to decide whether it is art. A game’s message and gameplay might be amazing, but when put together, they can come short—individually, they are art, but together, their incompatibility destroys their beauty and reduces their value to little more than that of an amusement park ride.
All Quiet on the Western Front, a WWI movie, brings out the reality of war and adheres to decadent Wilde’s definition of art in every way; compare it to some of video games which kids play just to “shoot some sand(expletive),” and the “masturbatory Michael Bay kind of crap” ubiquitous in the entertainment world, and it is easy to see why someone might view labeling video games art as ludicrous. However, games like Mass Effect which actually have substance and help the player arrive at personal and universal truths should be considered art, as they are not “merely matters of technology or neuromuscular coordination,” as NY Times journalist Seth Schiesel writes, “ but of finding new ways to explore and think about both human relationships and the wider world around us.”
To paraphrase Emerson’s Nature, nature serves to purify the mind, soul, and body of man, as well as point him towards Truth. Video games worthy of being considered art should offer the same things nature does; once again, games like Mass Effect fit the bill.
Almost indisputably, literature is a work of art. Throw video games and literature together and you get the visual novel. I enjoyed the ‘scary’ Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was younger, but visual novels take things to a whole new level with their profound and provocative plots and character development. I think it’s interesting that these visual novels are also largely considered art, although some video games just a few steps down the road from visual novels are considered schmuck.
Here's some super awesome, totally related music.
ReplyDeleteFor you especially, Mr. Ferencz:
Baba Yetu, from Civilization IV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJiHDmyhE1A
You should come to the concert in May! Our chamber choir is probably going to be singing it. If I can gather enough singers, I might perform it for our class as a minutes gift!
The Last Waltz, from Oldboy
http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=EQ2Grul5Ees
Oldboy was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It’s up there with Schindler’s List and Spirited Away in terms of effectiveness of empathetic appeals.
@Freshman- thought I’d mention this. I’m actually writing a version of Danball’s Dust that implements real physics (if you know some physics and play around with it, you’ll see the creator(s) fudged a lot of things, like gravity, fluid dynamics, etc) for my AP Computer Science class. I would compare Dust to an artist’s palette, or to an animation program like Blender or Autodesk, before calling it art; it’s more of a tool for creating art than it is art.
A suggestion: I think Hulk would love to do this extra credit. Do we have any Hulks out there?
What makes video game an art is the elements within it. There are several factors of art within a video game such as the background, plot line, graphics, character models, and much more. How are character models art? If portraits are artworks then so should character models be. Both are created by someone showing a depiction of a character, the only difference is that a character model is created off imagination. People paint backgrounds and that's considered artwork. Video games have backgrounds within them created by a programmers.
ReplyDeleteAlthough all video games do not have a good theme behind it, paintings don't either.
http://chef-doeuvre.blogspot.com/2006/11/goyas-black-paintings-two-men-fighting.html [Taken from a comment in the podcast]
What is the theme of the painting? All I see is two guys beating each other with a golf club while their legs are stuck in sand. There is no meaning behind it, and the website states that the background is beautiful. It is pretty clear most people would define this as art, but if this is art then so is Grand Theft Auto.
We can define anything as art as long as it evokes joy, thoughts, or emotions. What makes video game art is everything about it. The theme of a video game may displease others, but it is still considered art. There are controversial paintings which are still considered art, so why can't controversial video games be considered art? Even if it may not impact you, it may impact other people which allows it to be considered art. If I stare at a painting at feel nothing, it's still going to be considered an artwork.
We consider anything beautiful as long as it appeals to our good senses in general. A picture can be beautiful, a plot line can be beautiful (Final Fantasy) and even music can be beautiful. Please no HULK's reading his comment is terrible! Everything is in capital letters and he talks about himself in 3rd person.
"SHASSIN – HULK THANK! HULK DEFINITELY GOING TO CHECK OUT PASSAGE TOO. IT ON THE LIST!" -Example of a Hulk message
I think Jennifer and Daryl touch upon something interesting when discussing the ability to relate or empathize with a character. And Charles brings up a good point when stating the comparison, if any, between Goya's painting and Grand Theft Auto. But be careful, just because we cannot see anything in the painting or in a video game does not mean that there is something substantial in the work. Great ideas so far everyone ...
ReplyDeleteBeauty is based on one's interpretation and experience with the object. William Yu and Jennifer Zhou make great points about how video games can be seen as a form of art, because the creation of these games are based solely on imagination. Grand Theft Auto for example, can be one's Pollack or another person's Dali, just as McCandless had seen the Alaskan wilderness as a place of beauty, while others can never see themselves trying to survive in the wild by themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe visual effects of some of these video games become the player's second world, a place where their feelings can be expressed without being judged. Like in many art pieces, the artist's own opinion shines through by their technique as well as the subject of their piece. As DrdrMD had commented, "Bad art is still art, whether you like it or not...A game that leads to great frustration is still evoking emotion." As long as the video game can evoke any type of emotionalnresponse from the player, it is an art piece that can relate to the person's interests.
An aspect key to the success of video games in the graphic detail that they include during game play. When the game is aesthetically pleasing, the player becomes much more lenient when criticizing it other aspects; impressive graphics make a game much more enjoyable to play. Many highly rated games display a vast and detailed environment in which the character can travel. Games such as The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption, which have each sold millions of copies, play host to expansive areas in which the player can explore. Similar to how McCandless was drawn to the beauty and vastness of nature, players respond to these characteristics in their games. The success of these games can be attributed to the beauty of the land, this is analogous to how people go camping to appreciate the beauty of nature.
ReplyDeleteOnce again relating to what Jennifer first mentioned, today's Poll of the Day on GameFAQs relates to players feeling empathy for the characters they control. Out of 50,000 polled, less then 3% chose the most conservative option while more than 40% said they felt bad when committing a horrible or unfair action in a game. (I'm part of this group too.)
ReplyDeletepoll results: http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=4602
75% of the audience essentially said that they had at least a small amount of emotional connection with the character. However, contrary to what Jennifer said, it seems that much of the audience of this poll wants to put themselves into the character rather than becoming the character themselves.