gaming High Art in Videogames

[Steel Accord 6,660]

So for those of you watch the Nostalgia Critic you'll know he made an editorial video positing that if video games are not a high art form already, they certainly have the ability to become so.

 

His line of thinking lead to a point where he said he didn't know if the video game equivalent of the Seventh Seal or ​2001: A Space Odyssey was out there, but it very may well exist and he simply doesn't know about.

 

So I ask you guys, what games, whether you've personally played them or not, measure up to such films caliber in your opinion? Which ones are the truly memorable titles that either say something about the human experience, provoke thought, or evoke powerful emotions in the player? 

[Discordian 6,015]

I think most games won't fall under the definition here simply because there are a lot of games that fall into the "lowest common denominator" area. There are some games that have a distinct message and carry it out well though. One of the more popular examples would be Shadow of the Colossus. It portrays not only the frailty of mankind but also the strength and willpower an individual has when one has the proper motivation.

 

I suppose you could consider something art for holding the essence of video games within itself though. Showing what makes a video game what it is in spite of it's content. Something like Katamari Damacy.

 

Of course, then you have to argue function vs form, content and concept vs implementation, and it just gets muddled as hell. If nothing else, video games are a very new and often quite different art form than anything we've previously viewed as art.

 

Talk about giving a meaning to the term "new-age"

---

 

To add to that, this is a Google search's definition of art:

 

art1

ärt/Submit

noun

1.

the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

"the art of the Renaissance"

synonyms: fine art, artwork More

works produced by human creative skill and imagination.

"his collection of modern art"

synonyms: fine art, artwork More

creative activity resulting in the production of paintings, drawings, or sculpture.

"she's good at art"

2.

the various branches of creative activity, such as painting, music, literature, and dance.

"the visual arts"

 

Video games very easily fall under that definition. Video games are creativity incarnate as an amalgamation of all the different kinds of creative mediums. Fashion, music, architecture, visual representation...video games have it all.

[Megas 27,786]

If people want good examples of games as art, I can kindly point them to Okami or Windwaker

Edited May 17, 2014 by Megas75

[Steel Accord 6,660]

If people want good examples of games as art, I can kindly point them to Okami or Windwaker

 

Why those two? I mean don't get me wrong, they are both lovely to look at, but is that what defines great art?

 

I'm not saying you're wrong, far from it, I'll take their beautiful, stylized vistas over grey and brown corridors any day!

[Megas 27,786]

Why those two? I mean don't get me wrong, they are both lovely to look at, but is that what defines great art?

 

I'm not saying you're wrong, far from it, I'll take their beautiful, stylized vistas over grey and brown corridors any day!

Obviously there's more examples of artistic video games that don't involve just the artstyle(and those two are also artistic from other areas beside their artstyle). From a story telling standpoint, Metal Gear Solid and or the Ace Attorney series. You can also say Mass Effect, Halo, or Zelda for their universes. And of course there are plenty other examples from a visual stand point

[Steel Accord 6,660]

Obviously there's more examples of artistic video games that don't involve just the artstyle(and those two are also artistic from other areas beside their artstyle). From a story telling standpoint, Metal Gear Solid and or the Ace Attorney series. You can also say Mass Effect, Halo, or Zelda for their universes. And of course there are plenty other examples from a visual stand point

 

Oh again, I wasn't saying those were bad examples at all. Apart from the look, Okami was also an adaptation of Japanese mythology, which almost never gets it's fair due. Even then, for all the times you see a mythological name in a game, how many actually use it to make a point and not just as a grab bag "insert monster here."

 

Windwaker did not just look pretty, it's soundtrack was iconic and appropriately mythical, and it really did feel like an Epic in the classical definition of the word. The various cultures, creatures, and other encounters Link finds throughout the game all the while on this big over-arching quest. It's the first game I played where I wanted to go to that island off in the distance just to see what was there!

Edited May 17, 2014 by Steel Accord

[long gone 8,929]

You guys want another game that proves that games are art? Look at Child of Light. I've yet to play it myself, but it's an oldschool-style RPG that, visually, resembles a watercolor painting.

 

 

Beyond graphics, it also has a wonderfully-composed, piano-heavy orchestral soundtrack ranging from ambient themes on the overworld to dramatic, frantic tones (complete with chanting!) for boss battles that invokes memories of Final Fantasy games of old. The game's dialogue also reads entirely like a poem in the sense that characters rhyme with each other in their dialogue. If a game like this doesn't prove that video games are art, then I don't know what will.

[Banul 3,831]

I always thought of art as something that can provoke an emotion. Video games do a better job of that for me than any other medium.

[Steel Accord 6,660]

I always thought of art as something that can provoke an emotion. Video games do a better job of that for me than any other medium.

 

What would be an example of such for you?

[NomDeSpite 452]

I actually just played through Ico a few days ago. If there's only one game that can qualify as "high art", I nominate that one. If Andrei Tarkovsky were alive, he could have done a movie adaptation of it.

[Banul 3,831]

What would be an example of such for you?

Mass Effect for one. I got really invested in the world and the characters. Skyrim too, it gave me a sense of awe the first time I played it. A lot of other people mention Windwaker, which I've always held as my favorite Zelda game.

[Steel Accord 6,660]

Mass Effect for one. I got really invested in the world and the characters. Skyrim too, it gave me a sense of awe the first time I played it. A lot of other people mention Windwaker, which I've always held as my favorite Zelda game.

 

Mass Effect is a good example of "game as genre fiction" as it evokes the feel of a Space Opera to a tee while still updating it from the genre's roots.

 

Skyrim as well, it was a game that made YOU feel like you were Aragorn or Conan or basically any other dragon slaying ultimate fantasy badass, by carefully building up the mythos of the world and how the Dovakiin was central to it.

 

Well I think Twilight Princess is underrated, I can certainly see why most people favor Windwaker, and I'd be lying if I said I did not as well.