Exemplary Instances of Video Games with Artistic Merit!

[The Apprentice]

I bet this topic gets linked onto Insomnia, lol.

Mega Man 9. The whole game is designed to evoke feelings of nostalgia from its players, and I think it was done extremely well on not just the visual and audible levels but also in other more subtle areas. Notice that the story revolves around robots that are fighting to live on past the point they were supposedly obsolete. This is supposed to link the robot masters to the NES, and for some of us, links them to a very large portion of our childhood; nostalgia is then achieved. I feel the game is a perfect expression of a desire to relive the late 1980s and early nineties' Mega Man experience.

[Jrecee]

If this is art:



then this is sure as hell art:

[brokenpavement]

There is a really fascinating PS1 game, entitled LSD, that I believe has what could be considered artistic merit. The player (if you want to call it that) travels through approximately 15 minutes of dream landscapes. Some of these are re-occurring, much like human dreams; after the time runs out, the player "wakes up". While the graphics are somewhat dated, they are adequate and give the feeling of a surreal environment. This title does require some japanese language ability, but even with no understanding you can still get a feel for the setting. Definitely give this one a try.

[corn619]

There is a really fascinating PS1 game, entitled LSD, that I believe has what could be considered artistic merit. The player (if you want to call it that) travels through approximately 15 minutes of dream landscapes. Some of these are re-occurring, much like human dreams; after the time runs out, the player "wakes up". While the graphics are somewhat dated, they are adequate and give the feeling of a surreal environment. This title does require some japanese language ability, but even with no understanding you can still get a feel for the setting. Definitely give this one a try.

I'll have to look that one up, sounds interesting.

[MrPopo]

If this is art:



then this is sure as hell art:

A man after my own heart. Far too much of what is labeled as "art" is really an excuse for pretentious assholes to get together and feel superior to other people.

[MrEco]

Play "Okami" for either the PS2 or the Wii. If that game doesn't have artistic merit, I don't know what does.

It's artistic in its graphic style, but it's pretty far from it in the game play category.

*SPOILER WARNING*

I recall when Queen Himoko died we were treated to a heartfelt narration about her spirit and sacrifice. I was impressed by the way the game had made me feel... until out of nowehere comes this disgusting yell and a grade result screen that felt the need to burst into the scene to tell me I had gotten a pink tree rating on the last battle! At this, and many other times, Okami reminded me that I was just playing a game. For every pretty cutscene and moment that immersed me, an Issun moment or fetch quest violently yanked me out.

It's true that the game is pretty to look at and that SOME of the material is a bit heavier than what we're used to seeing in games, but I would go as far as to say that there is absolutely nothing artistic or even original about the way you interacted and played the game. The dungeons were dull and unimaginative. You were once powerful, but start out weak (Metroid style) and have to recollect your powers. Standard inventory packed with items that restore you health, temporarily increase your attack power, damage enemies, ect.

The overworld and towns felt familiar. Walk into town. Talk to everyone. Hear their one or two lines of dialogue. Visit the shops. Buy better versions of weapons you already have that won't change the gameplay. See someone whose character model looks to have had a bit more time spent on them and recognize them as significant. Talk to them. Progress the story. Ect.

The less important battle encounters just felt unnecessary and like a means to extend the game. The fighting system never evolved. I never felt in peril of death. I don't see a reason to fight an enemy 50 times when I figured out their 'trick' in the first battle. The controls were pretty standard. The 'drawing' aspect really only replaced items/weapons, much like the Wii version just replaced button presses for waggles.

The game relied entirely on established video game tropes and themes. It completely failed to innovate. It did many things well, but nothing spectacularly. It is by no means a must play. I expect it will very soon become outdated and forgotten.

All of this is just my opinion, but I stand behind what I say.

YES! Finally, I'm not alone.

Also, Shadow of the Colossus is easily the most artistic game I have ever played. I don't go around looking for artistic games that much, but the few I've tried pail in comparison to SotC.

[J T]

Agreed, Shadow of the Colossus is probably the best example. I'll probably rattle on more about that later.

I've been playing a lot of the supposed "art" games lately like The Graveyard, The Path, Braid, Passage, Synaesthete, etc. I find it interesting the way these games are trying to push the medium. I like the way they challenge the notion of what a game should be, and in particular they challenge the notion that a game needs to be fun in order to be worth your time. I think The Path is the best example of that. A game that I didn't enjoy, yet I don't regret buying.

I wrote the following about The Path on another videogame site:

As a game, the only thing The Path really allows you to do is wander around... slowly. The more you wander, the more symbolically charged imagery you are hit with. I don't think many people want games to be art in the way that The Path is art. By that I mean interesting concepts that are not fun to play. But The Path needed to happen because it opens our eyes to other possibilities by flipping the idea of gaming upside down. I think it represents the first time that anyone has attempted to embue artistry into a "game" without any intent of making it fun to control. And the remarkable thing is that it kind of works. The thing is such an unusual curiosity, that I found myself spending several hours meandering off the path into the woods just to see what would happen even though I was constantly frustrated by my character's slow pace. I never would have thought that a game that is so utterly unenjoyable to play would be so worthwhile. It leaves an impression on you.

But, I don't think it is a model for artistic games. It is merely a doorway. It serves as an example that not every part of a game requires fun play control, but storyline also doesn't have to be told entirely through cut scenes. You can have scenes that slow you down and force you to pay attention to the details of the world. You can have scenes that don't provide you with any direction or goal and leave it up to you to simply explore. Symbolical imagery can emerge from the ether and confuse you and force you to think. The Path does all of these things and they provide you with an experience that, if integrated into a game as pieces of a larger work that was actually fun to play, might just work.

This is typically what happens in the avant garde. Some people experiment with the very idea of what the medium is about and they challenge core notions of how things can be done. The criteria for success in the avant garde is, therefore, different than what we would expect elsewhere. To succeed in the avant garde you have to break apart, disect, examine, challenge, and present anew. This then opens up new paths that can be integrated back into the mainstream. So though I think The Path is a lousy videogame, I think it is a wonderfully inventive avant garde piece that could potentially have a great impact on the gaming world. It's sort of like a genetic mutation that first seems strange and useless, but eventially is utilized and helps the whole species evolve.

I think what gamers really want though is not the 'Citizen Kane' of videogames. They want the gaming equivalent of something like Titanic or The Beatles. They want something that will simultaneously please the artists, the critics, and the general audiences. Somthing that gives us that artistic legitimacy, but still manages to be a good time. The Path won't do that, but by challenging and shaking things up, it might have offered up some ideas that will help get us there.

[Limewater]

Quest - A now-ancient Atari 2600 title, which told the story of a block composed of some four pixels traversing highly pixelated dungeons, fields, and castles, battling monsters composed of some eight pixels on a quest to rescue a princess composed of a similarly low number of pixels. That is all. The story is practically non-existent, and it takes a great deal of imagination in order to give any true identity to the crudely-animated inhabitants and architecture depicted in the game. However, the player's ability to move through the "story" at his own unique pace, explore how he sees fit, and conquer tasks at his own discretion, define the very qualities that are unique to video games. Neither film, music, or any other medium of art is capable of both composing a tangible world and physically exploring it. Other video games came after it and built upon the concepts employed by the game tremendously, making the game look by all means silly by today's standards (The Legend of Zelda series, The Elder Scrolls series, Shenmue, etc.), but what is represented in the title depicts the very most basic aspects of what makes video games unique. It showed the infinite potential of the medium to communicate the human experience in a more complete fashion than any other medium.

Are you sure that this game exists?

It sounds like you could be talking about "Adventure," though that game has no princess to save. It was inspired by the text game "Adventure," also called "Colossal Cave Adventure." The creator of the 2600 title was actually trying to capture the feeling of exploration one had while playing the text game when he made his version.

There was a game called "Secret Quest" for the 2600, and it was Zelda-like, but it came after zelda and is far more linear, so I am pretty sure that is not the game you are talking about.

In terms of art as you define it, many of these very old, primitive games can and should qualify. Due to technical limitations, many of the games are terribly abstract in order to boil the experience down to something that they could implement. For example, see the original version of Missile Command. Do some reading on that game, and even watch the "Little Miss Gamer" episode on it on YouTube.

Professor Ian Bogost's website might be a great resource for you in your paper. Also, he has a book out called "Racing the Beam" that I'm going to be reading this summer. If your library has it, it could be very helpful.

www.bogost.com

The old arcade game "Berzerk" may also be worth examining.

[BIZ]

shadow of colossus no doubt fits in somewhere...

[J T]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is Adventure. You are a square, you pick up a key to open castle doors and an arrow that is supposed to be like a sword. It was a great game for its time. It left an impression on me as a youth anyway.

The only Atari game I could think of that starts with the word Quest is The Quest for Quintana Roo, which is a game where you climb Aztec pyramids and pick up little squares and try not to get attacked by snakes.