In order to explore this seemingly wild argument, we first need to understand some sort of concept of what art is in essence.
Art is something that serves no worldly purpose. You do not need art to carry your books to school, you do not need to wear art on your t-shirt; you do not need to eat art, drive it to work. You do not even need to look at art.
But art has been around since our very earliest recorded human history. Despite its apparent uselessness, paintings, stylized architecture and extravagant fashions have all thrived throughout the entirety of human existence. And now, technology has breached the holy sanctity of our beloved art.
Art seems to be about beauty and elegance, High class, emotion and wonder. It’s not about pixels or numbers, polygons or frames per second. It never has been, and never will. Right? Of course not, and neither is photography, films or impressionistic paintings. At least they weren’t accepted as such at the time. And according to critics, they never WOULD be. But, despite the fluctuation of acceptance for what SHOULD be considered art, the merit of art has never changed, and video games may be the pinnacle of art forms in our generation.
Widely accepted public opinion suggests that video games are no more than mindless wastes of time filled with nothing but offensive language, violence, and “suggestive themes”, however, the majority of games out there are much more than action packed sexual romps of money and power, as the media wants you to believe. With cinematic visions that rival those of blockbuster films, musical scores up to par with those of all genres, and artistic talent that, in my opinion, surpasses the likes pawned off as “fine art” these days, some video games should be taken as no more than interactive artistic masterpieces.
There are two games I would like to bring up. The first is Shadow of the Colossus: an Epic, deservedly titled, about how a boy and his seemingly heroic quest to restore the life of his love becomes a massacre of 12 legendary beings, and how it not only destroys the lives of these creatures, but his own as well. This game verges on the edge of Shakespearean tragedy in story line alone, not to mention its award winning soundtrack and the beauty the game designers amazingly managed to push through the Playstation 2 hardware. Shadow’s visuals arguably hold up and even surpass games on the next-gen consoles of today. Not because of poly’s or frame-rates, but because of artistic thought and creative execution.
The second is Braid, a side-scrolling two-dimensional platformer, similar to Mario, which fuses the deeper concepts of the seemingly simplistic plot of the original Mario into the story of the development and deployment of the atomic bomb. The bomb’s irreversible effects are wittily represented in the game by a time control mechanism, allowing your mistakes to be redeemed with the ease of a button, and with no consequence, quite opposite the effects of a bomb. Every sprite and frame in the game is elegantly hand drawn, that creates a stylistic environment where every moment in game is its own original painting. Symbolism spewing out its pixels in true Edvard Munch fashion, its true artistic nature cannot be ignored.
A reason I also bring up these two games specifically is because, while braid is a fairly new game, neither was given the luxury of superb graphics and shaders that the media insist are video games only seemingly artistic quality. Neither is representative of fantastical masculine romps of power or money, they both engage a deeply romanticized and tragic plot. The simplistic game play elements are there to provide the least amount of hindrance into immersing yourself into the character and his worlds. Although much attention has been given to the visuals themselves, they are not merely productions of high poly models or reflective surfaces.
Is immersing yourself into these fantastic fictional worlds not artistic enough? Is learning how to use a fairly dated piece of hardware with very few functions at all too much of a hassle to go through in order to appreciate a piece of art? Perhaps we should make a game where 30 people with far too much money stare at a 4 by 4 square of canvas and pretend to understand the complexities of the human mind. Then you could drive home in your BMW, ignore your kids, and have an affair. All in High definition and at 60 frames per second. Because that’s what art is really all about.
To be blunt, it would be naive to assume that video games cannot, and never will be, art. Although it will take time, I understand, in order to achieve the full merit they deserve, video games will undoubtedly realize the status of “Art” in the modern world. Technology is only a tool. Video games are the product. If you believe art is something that can only be appreciated standing 3 feet away from in the sanctity of a museum, perhaps you should read a book, or listen to some music, go to a bakery. There is art absolutely everywhere in this world, and this elitist “fine art” is something that Da Vinci and Picasso would laugh at.
