Video Games Considered as an Art - Essay Example

? Video Games: An Art Video Games: An Art There has always been a debate on the question: “Do video games qualify as an art?” among video game admirers. And just recently the United States government’s National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced its official recognition of video games, along with other forms of media content made for internet and mobile technologies, as art; putting an end to the long prevailing debate. It changed its guidelines that described the characteristics that come under the art category. (Couts, 2012). What Are Video Games? Jack Kroll, in his article published in Newsweek, wrote about video gaming that it was a form of entertainment and fun and was also rewarding; however, it did not give rise to an emotional complexity that formed the basics of art. His writing caused people which include the gaming theorist and enthusiasts to write articles as negative replies to his writing. (Smuts, 2005). This is also a question whose answer has been pondered upon by many interested game theorists. So they compared the non-video gaming forms of culture with today’s video gaming forms in order to find resemblance. There are three resemblances that have been found: 1. Narratological: This category includes video games that are considered as a new form of narratives and text. 2. Ludological: This category includes all video games that are a digital version of old games. 3. Interactive fiction: This category includes video games with fictive characteristics of previous types. However, researches and gaming experts could not come up with any exact definition of video gaming or gaming in general. If we compare the defining of video gaming with the defining of art, there we find certain similarities. In order to define art, there has been a lot of struggle on the part of philosophers who came out with definitions each time experiencing doubts. Defining art by the representational theory which means that anything that represents and is a mirror of reality is an art, a video game also represents virtual reality; hence video gaming is a form of art. (Tavinor, 2009, p. 16). How Can Video Game Be an Art? As aforementioned, the question about whether video games being art has been a subject of a long lasting debate. According to many major theories of art, video games should be considered as art. (Mack, 2011). Film theorists found the relationship between cinema, photography and the theatre; similarly, video games can be scrutinized in order to find certain characteristics that match the characteristics of any art form. Investigating the closeness of video games to animation and digital cinema which are art forms can help define video games as an art. There are some game enthusiasts who argue that video games are not an art just like some film makers. Hence, anything said about video games becomes a controversial statement. Theorists, who defined video games under the category of Ludological, argue that video games are a form of play and should not be considered as an art form. Whereas theorists who defined games under the category of Narratological, they argue that video games if are made more narrative in form can make their artistic potentials visible to the world. Currently, games have obtained a highly narrative form which takes about twenty hours to be completed by the player.(Bissell, 2010). Observing the last ten years, we can see an influence between films and video games. We can see that many games are based on the story of many films and they have the characters similar to the characters in the films with the same names and personalities. Examples of such games would be James Bond 007 and Final Fantasy, which are movies as well as a game on the Play Station console. These are highly narrative driven games and are also known as Role Playing Games (RPGs). These games are very complex in comparison to games like Pacman and the like. RPGs are created to be close to a film like, that is, they also have cinematic features like cut-scenes at different points in the games. Cut scenes are animations sequences that are like the full motion film scenes. The game also mentioned before which is called Final Fantasy, has cut scenes after any major event or at the beginning of any new mission to make the player understand and feel like he is watching a movie and is a part of it by being a player in it. The games also incorporate reality that films incorporate in themselves. For example, in the game called Halo, when we move our player in order to see the sun, the glare produces nested circles as if the player is working with a movie camera.(Swaim, 2009). Such games suggest that the game designers design the games in order to form a cinematic experience. Therefore, any theory that claims that films are a form of art, then according to the details above, video games should come under the definition of art also. The development of the modern games is a complex activity on the part of game designers. In order to create a complete and real theatric and cinematic experience, game designers are well aware of the traditional aesthetic considerations familiar to animators, novelists, and art designers for films. The game designers and developers want us to appraise their video art and digital animation. When the game scene or environment is being created, like any other film producer, a game designer gives significant importance to minute details such as lighting sources, placement of props and the like; in order to give a real life experience just like any film. How a character should be moved is also a major area of concern for the game designers which they coordinate with the animators. The aesthetic tools that film makers use to create their films are even used by the game designers and developers. Furthermore, another argument in favor of video games being considered as an art is discussed as follows. In the past ten years, the old video games have been a part of a museum not an art museum though. And in these museums, they have been explored on how they developed technologically as lessons for others. Even a video related to video arcade games was shown to people by certain museums. Hence, we can say that video games are being treated as an art form. Furthermore, another museum called the San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art hosted an exhibition where the main question was the relationship between video games and art by displaying recent artwork inspired by video games were place alongside with the video games they have been inspired from.(Kellman & Jenkins, 2005). Apart from looking at the similarities between game designers and film producers, the video games’ history can be related to other forms of art also. As films grew from drama and photography, video games grew out of digital animation. The stories incorporated in the video games match the history of Western literature and theatre. Richard Posner, who is in favor of the argument that video games are a form of art, states that video games tend to exhibit thematic and expressive continuity in similarity to herald literature and is as effective as the protected speech is one of the popular art. He gives an example of the game The House of the Dead and narrates a scene from it. He describes that the player in the game is holding a gun in order to fight with an army of weird zombies who are actually dead people brought to life through a voodoo magic spell. Those zombies have already attacked some people and the job of the player is to protect those people from further assaults by the zombies and his main goal is his self-defense. These zombies are super natural in nature; hence, a single shot does not kill them. They are killed after several shots by the player and the player has to make sure that his gun is loaded with bullets and he is not out of them at any point. This description of the game is then compared with the old themes of literature such as the notions of self-defense, protection of others, fighting against supernatural being and the like. In this way, Posner explained the expressive continuity and thematic relationship between the literature and video games. The artistic potential of video games to arouse high forms of emotion should not be ignored. This potential allows video games to come under the definition of art. The narrative based video games exhibit the neo-representation theories of art. For example, the neo-representation theory of art by Dantos which is called the Aboutness criterion in which any art work is something what it is representing about. The way the characters are placed in a war game, for example, who make decisions in the game affecting the troops and civilians, can be related to the aforementioned theory as it includes a fictional representation. Hence, we can see that the representational theories related to art strongly and perfectly support the artistic characteristic of video games than other forms of art. David Best in his book The Philosophy of Human Movement writes about the difference between sports and art. Sports do not contain the representational criteria. He also says that sports can be a subject of art but not vice versa. Sports and video games are clearly distinct in characteristics. Video games can be voted to be a candidate for being an art as comparison to physical sports or aesthetic chess.(Smuts, 2005). Counter-Argument: Video Games Not an Art Roger Ebert who is a film critic writes in his journal that he believes video games cannot be considered as an art and he gives his reasons supporting his opinions. He says that artistic qualities and elements present in video games do not necessarily make it a form of art. The artistic incorporation in the video games include the formation of graphics by creative graphic designers which is art, the creation of a story by creative people, the placement of music and sound effects by creative people and the like. All these efforts that involve artistic elements form the video game. But can this product be considered an art? Suici, in his article supports this argument by comparing the area of critics that is are art critics similar to game reviewers also considering their experiences. An art critic is a student of an art school where he studies about the history of art, the techniques of art and become an artist himself. Game reviewers do not have a similar story. These are people who have played games for a long time. Hence, game reviewers are actually gamers. So as a consequence, these game reviewers do not possess the artistic skills and hence are not art critics. Suici further argues that if the game reviewers give a negative review about a game, what the game designers and developers would say. They would probably say that people have not understood their vision. If any game consists of bugs, were those bugs a part of their artistic vision? Suici argues that the word “art” should not be associated with video games as it would then loose its true meanings. He further adds that not all paintings are art, not every film is an art, therefore game is also not an art. (2007). Conclusion The above analysis of video games suggests that not all video games can be considered as an artwork except for a few exceptions. Video games have their similarities with modern art paintings with the graphics it contains the animations with cinematic experience, the story with the thematic quality and traces from literature, the sound with that of music and finally it arouses emotion which every art form has the characteristic of arousing. For example, the games Halo and Max Payne are best video games but they are not considered as great art. In the near future, game development will surely advance to the extent that it would be called an art without any debate as some form of debate still exists even after the announcement of NEA. (Zax, 2011). Works Cited Bissell, Tom. (2010). Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter. Pantheon Books. Clarke, Andy. Mitchell, Grithe. (2007). Videogames and Art. United Kingdom: Intellect Ltd. Kelman, Nic. Jenkins, Henry. (2005). Video Game Art. Assouline Publishing. Mack, Eric. (2011). Video Games are Art eligible for your tax dollars. Retrieved June 6, 2011, from Crave CNet News Web site: http://news.cnet.com/video-games-are-art-eligible-for-your-tax-dollars/8301-17938_105-20061941-1.html Smuts, Aaron. (2005). Are Video Games Art? Retrieved June 6, 2011, from Contemporary Aesthetics Web site: http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/article.php ?articleID=299 Sucui, Peter. (2007). Video Games Not an Art. Retrieved June 6, 2011, from DVice Web site: http://dvice.com/archives/2007/08/shift-video-games-are-not-art.php Swaim, Michael. (2009). 10 Video Games That Should Be Considered Modern Art. Retrieved June 6, 2011, from Cracked.Com Web site: http://www.cracked.com/blog/defending-the-habit-10-video-games-as-modern-art/ Tavinor, Grant. (2009). The Art of Video Games. United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing Vorderer, Peter. Bryant, Jennings. (2006). Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses and Consequences. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Zax, David. (2011). It’s Official: Video Games Are Art. Retrieved June 6, 2011, from Fast Company Web site: http://www.fastcompany.com/1753652/its-official-games-are-art Read More