As someone who enjoys video games (I refuse to use the word gamer, thanks to a certain Yahtzee Croshaw) I find the continued discussion about the existence of video games as art a bit funny, seeing as we have seen several other types of media evolve simply from entertainment to art in the last hundred years. There are obvious artistic elements to video games, but can a video game be art; can the sum of all the artistic puzzle pieces create an interactive piece of digital art?
First let’s take a look at some of the different elements that go into game design. Let’s start with one of the most common pack-ins for special editions, the art book. The art book gives us a peek at the drawings of the different settings, characters, weapons, and items; in the better books even providing us with a commentary of why certain changes were made to the initial design and why the final design was ultimately chosen. Several artists are usually involved in major titles, while sometimes, as in “Braid” or “Limbo” a small team or even a single person. These artists meticulously make sure each character and item are identifiable, and that the settings are believable or at least memorable and applicable to the rest of the game. After all of this is handled in traditional ways it must all be converted into digital form and animated whether in 3D or 2D.
Next up is the music composition and sound engineering that goes into every title. Everyone is familiar with the sound of Mario collecting a coin, as well as the iconic “Overworld Theme.” In some of today’s realistic shooters a lot of work goes into making sure that when you fire a certain rifle it sounds as close to what you would actually hear if firing that rifle in real life. Sometimes music is in the background, sometimes there is silence, and all you hear are your character’s footsteps and the noises of some unseen horror skittering and shrieking. In battles, music grows louder as the tension increases, becoming nothing but a high pitch squeal as a grenade goes off. All of the sound and music needs to appropriate, from the haunting sounds of Alan Wake, to the upbeat songs of the Offspring in Crazy Taxi (not the newly available downloadable release though, sadly.)
Writing in video games has probably become a bigger beast than anyone could have imagined. Not only do video games have to worry about scripts, many feature interactive conversations which means the scripts must branch, reacting to the player, often effecting an event later in the game. A game such as “Mass Effect” and its sequel have an exorbitant amount of dialogue but also information about the universe, its inhabitants, planets, histories of the different races - the developers often refer to a “Mass Effect Bible” that contains information not even contained in the games. The writing has to set up proper motivation for the player and help define the character in a way that they are distinctive. ‘Writing’ a video game is far above and beyond what is necessary for film.
This is all without even thinking of the producers and programmers who will pull all of these pieces together into the finished experience. Knowing exactly when and where a certain sound should play, a creature should appear, or the world should switch from normal to the bloody ‘evil world’ of Silent Hill. Making sure the animations are smooth and characters react as they are supposed to, instead of getting caught in the walls (unless the point is for the character to get caught in walls).
Okay, so a lot of art is used in making video games but does that make the completed project art?
Maybe.
I’m not going to get into the argument that art is subjective, that's a bullshit answer to this question. In my experience, some games are pieces of art, and deserve to be respected as such; some games are just fun excuses to tear the limbs of off someone and beat them to death with it. Other games still can only be considered art when you take all of the installments and/or all of the extras along with the game. So what games do I consider artistic?
Shadow of the Colossus - Perhaps one of the most beautiful and atmospheric games ever made. The game made you feel lonely with it’s huge open environment, the only other living creatures being 16 colossi you must defeat in order to bring back your love. The game almost makes you feel guilty as you watch the Colossi die, knowing you are the one attacking them or purely selfish means. Emotional and graphically stunning, this is perhaps one of the prime examples of why video games should be considered art.
God of War III - Quite the opposite of Shadow of the Colossus, this game makes the list purely for it’s highly cinematic quality. Everything looks excellent as Kratos wages his war against Olympus, his Blades of Exile swinging smoothly as you tear masses of enemies limb from limb. The visuals, the music, and some great voice acting lead this game to be next to film.
Braid - A independent game, Braid has an excellent visual style to it as well as an excellent soundtrack.
Limbo - Another indie game with an excellent visual style, the black and white helps to assist the contrast of the child with the horror of the rest of the world.
Mass Effect - An action RPG with so many little details from how you design your Commander Shepard to a huge branching and game effecting dialogue/choice system. Your teammates each have their own personalities and backstories further fueled by an immense history of the universe and it’s various races.
Team Fortress 2 - The gameplay itself is fun, but it’s artistic merits lie purely in it’s style. It’s visual style and characterizations stand alone in a world of team based FPS’s. For a further idea of everything that went into making TF2 what it is, check out the director commentary.
Portal - An easy to learn difficult to master puzzle game, the Aperature Science facility is stark, sterile, and empty except for the insane computer running experiments and taunting you throughout your journey. Characterization at it’s finest, the world is (im)patiently waiting the return of GlaDOS.
Bioshock - With it’s time-appropriate music and the thundering footsteps of the Big Daddies, Bioshock completes the styling of Rapture with an art-deco design. Paired with a sociopolitical story leaning on Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” Ken Levine manages to bring an entire underwater city to life.
Halo: Reach - Some of you may hate me for this, but the Halo series is well developed outside of the games, and the special edition of Bungie’s final entry into the series contained some of the coolest extras I’ve seen. A journal from a doctor who worked on the spartan project, an ID card, patches, and news clippings all giving more background on the already deep universe.
So, while all of you might not agree with me or my choices, that's how I look at it: some games are art, some aren’t.
Let me know you’re thoughts and what, if any games you consider art and why in the comments.
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