Videogames = Art
My partner sometimes rolls his eyes at my excited dialogues about videogames. What i realised just recently is that when i do, i'm by far mostly talking about the stories and concepts within them (especially to worldly or religious constructions) -- eg Final Fantasy VII's lifestream theory, the two competing beliefs about dragons for citizens in the Panzer Dragoon series, the German research founding the mechanics to NiGHTS, or the socially-accepted mass killings of those people marked by their world's gods/demigods more pleasantly called the Purge in Final Fantasy XIII. Look at how adopted the Jedi theories are from the Star Wars movie franchise. These theories can permeate into culture.
Videogames are a massive wealth of intellectual property crossing visual design, animation, story telling, audio composition - all classic artforms in their own right. But videogames still don't seem to have quite broken the threshold to being accepted as art by the mainstream populace. They are touted as being a waste of time and not achieving anything. Yet what is achieved for reading a book or watching a movie? It is the journey and experience through the narrative that hooks us. They are all methods of sharing and exploring someone else's imagination. We experience this through a character directly or empathy. This is our window, generously granted, and crafted as a videogame for your involvement.
Games are taking similar investment in time, human resources, and finances to movies to produce. There's narrative script, voice work, art design, prop design, and writing/filming/programming - all within the same creative cycle. Performers contributing to current videogames are skilled and renowned artists, eg John Cleese voicing your main supporting in Fable 3, Andy Serkis (better known as Gollum) with motion capture throughout Enslaved, and Jack Black touting his comedic vocal talent as the lead character in Brutal Legend -- which is also full of major rock star cameos. Then there's the other direction, where games have inspired movie franchises like Tomb Raider and Resident Evil. Videogame launches and sales records have surpassed films already too. World of Warcraft is one such heavyweight.
My thesis i am (not) me already explores player characterisation in videogames. i had been thinking to revise and expand it some, so maybe this topic of videogames as art could be a significant new chapter. Sorry for the mini-essay. |
