Exemplary Instances of Video Games with Artistic Merit!

[Original_Name]

Okay, so I'm writing a paper on how video games have more artistic potential than any other available medium. I define art as the preservation of one's temporary state of mind in the form of a tangible physical entity. Thus, by this criteria nearly every video game has some measure of artistic merit if feeble explanations such as "I was thinking about how blocks fit together," for the likes of Tetris or "I was thinking about how rad it would be to recklessly drive a taxi," for the likes of Crazy Taxi. While every game has some amount of artistic merit in this sense, I'd like to highlight video games with exceedingly high levels of artistic merit - this means video games which creatively utilize the medium to communicate unique concepts. This excludes video games that are merely visually or aurally pleasing - as fantastic as Super Mario Galaxy's visuals and soundtrack are, the game does little to validate video games as a tangible, let alone effective artistic medium. Also, while not all RPG's are discouraged, ones that play like graphic novels are not my focus - as fantastic as Final Fantasy VII and Xenogears' stories are, their inherent qualities as video games are seldom utilized in artistic fashions.

I'd like you guys' help in determining the artistic merit of games I may have overlooked or have little knowledge of. For instance, I've never played Ico, but I know it LOOKS very artistic. That doesn't necessarily mean that the entire product fully embodies an art form that is both wholly unique to the medium and is a truly impressive display of artistic ability being harnessed through the medium.

Here is a list of titles and explanations for their artistic merits thus far:

Rez - Inspired by Wassilly Kandinsky's theory and paintings of synthesaesia (the attempt to recreate music through the medium of paint, synergizing aspects of both into a tangible medium), Rez essentially takes motives depicted in Kandinsky's two-dimensional paintings, and translates them into the four-dimensions employed by modern video games (three-dimensional images progressing in real-time). The title even employs Kandinsky's theory for use in the game's story, which, if carefully inspected, carries the message of how art allows humans to feel as though they've escaped reality, when they are in fact still "trapped inside the system". Rez is an exemplary instance of art in video games because not only does it base itself around an existing artistic theory, it expands upon it by utilizing characteristics inherit to the medium (four interactive dimensions) to communicate it. The theory of synthesaesia was never communicated so clearly as it was in Rez.

Adventure - 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. (EDIT: Okay, there's no princess. Doing my research on this title now) 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.

Shenmue - Escapism inspires the vast majority of video games: the ability to release oneself from the boring confines of daily life in order to become something more fantastic - a race car driver! a space marine! and so forth. Shenmue took the opposite route to the near-extreme by placing the audience in the shoes of one Ryo Hazuki, a young adult living in Yokosuka, Japan in the mid-eighties. His father has recently been murdered by a man named Lan Di; as he lays dying in his son's arms, Ryo's father instructs him to "Keep [his] friends, those [he] loves close to [him]". Ryo promptly sets off on a journey to avenge his father, seemingly ignoring his final advice and becoming essentially the man he hates. Despite an obvious character-development relationship to Shakespeare's Hamlet, the title would not seem to display any more potential for video games as an effective art form than any other video game. However, the game is constructed in such a brutally realistic fashion that nearly every facet of regular life has been superficially recreated; the most significant: time. Time passes in a highly realistic (if expedited) fashion, and is almost never sped up in a significant way. If you have an appointment in three hours; you cannot simply skip to that time - you can talk to people; you can take a walk; you can even play a game at the arcade, but you must wait for three game hours. Truly exciting events are seldom - the majority of the game is spent talking to others and gathering information... or doing whatever else you want to do, like collecting capsule toys - but this gives the exciting events much more weight. By having gamers play in an anti-escapism scenario, fleeting moments of escapism have much more weight. Because of this, Shenmue essentially creates perhaps the most accurate depiction of the modern human experience ever crafted, but with a few kung-fu shits and giggles. If a copy of Shenmue and a Sega Dreamcast were somehow preserved for a thousand years, future peoples would be able to actually EXPERIENCE something akin to 1986 Yokosuka, Japan instead of merely having it explained to them. While Shenmue's depiction of Yokosuka is admittedly crude compared to actually visiting Yokosuka, it is far less crude than what a book or film might deliver.

"Sim" Games - Creating unique universes and scenarios is among the primary motivations for art; games such as Sim City and Spore allow gamers to both form aspects of the world they are given, and to react to them accordingly. If this isn't the human experience, I don't know what is. Games with "God Complexes" in general display a massive amount of potential for art, and do so in a way that only video games are capable of doing. While Shenmue allows one to intimately control one avatar's decisions, "Sim" Games allow one to directly control the collective's desires, something impossible for a human to truly do - it is realistic escapism.

(EDIT!!) Now considering:

Black & White (And similar games, such as Fable)
Seaman (A nonhuman being which one can converse with, ultimately delivering a critique on human life from an inhuman point of view. Also, questions his being at a certain point in the game. Gets very upset if you say he's not "real"; defends his existance by saying "I think, therefore I am". Pretty artistic, and triggered by human choice and interaction)
Shadow of the Colossus (How is that game art? I'd like to know from an objective viewpoint how that game validates videogames as an artform without relying heavily on other artforms to convey its message.) (For similar reasons as J T cited for Manhunt? You're killing beautiful creatures - but why? Is this why it's art? Because if so, that's a very good reason!)
Portal (Thank you, General Norris!)
Echocrome (For similar reasons as Rez)
Manhunt
The Path
The Graveyard
Braid
Synthaesthete (Thank you, J T!)
Passage
Gravitation (Thank you, equalsign!)
Don't Look Back
Judith (Thank you, dedalusdedalus!)


Any other suggestions? Like I said, I'd like information on Ico. Also, I've heard that Metal Gear Solid 2's underlying theme is a statement about how it is foolish to play video games to experience an exciting scenario, when life is already given to human beings for them to shape as they see fit: that life is like one great video game that people seem to be progressively ignoring more and more. I read this in some online essay. Can anyone verify?

[Erik_Twice]

Portal and terror games are a must.

Why? In a movie or book you can only care about the characters but you feel safe on your sofa. In terror games YOU must survive because you are the one controling the character's actions. In a movie the suspension of dislief is much lower than in a videogame.

The sense of survival is as strong as the suspension of dislief. Being able to choose how the character reacts removes the limitations on the suspension of dislief and thus a videogame can create a more powerful experience.

For example it's impossible to convey the sense of freedom when you exit the last puzzle in Portal while keeping a good level of suspension of dislief. If the character doesn't talk so as to keep the suspension of dislief high there will be no sense of freedom as the viewer will not be presed to solve the puzzle and thus cannot relate to the main character. If the character talks then you can relate to the character but you know you are not it so there's no preassure on the viewer, there's no effect when GladOS tells you lies.

Portal is an amazing game. However "The Cube" sucks ass. Why? Both are somewhat similar but it's impossible to care about the characters on the cube and , at the same time, caring about the Cube itself.

Just think about how revolutionary Half-Life was.

Also something I have realized recently is the importancy of character deep on media but not as in "very deep characters" but as in "very flat". Everybody loves the Ouendan guys and the Team Fortress 2 soldiers. Why? Because they have exactly as much caracterization as they need. If they had less they would be boring, if they had more you would not be able to relate to them. The exact amount for a videogame is lower than for any other kind of media as part of the characterization is the player itself. As I said before: Half-Life.

Also I think OutRun 2006 has one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. Every detail is created in such a way it's breathtaking and the Milky Way level is just beautiful. A film about a guy who drives would be boring because it doesn't have any kind of plot. However when you are that guy everything changes. The "racing" part of OutRun makes you feel like if you made a great way to whatever goal you wanted. It may be "old" but it has awed me in every drift and in every curve something that no movie has ever been close to.

I'm sure Space Harrier is a game a lot can be said of. It's a dream made videogame, I don't know a lot but that sounds "artistic" to me.

[Pulsar_t]

way to gloss over my post.

[alienjesus]

I'd suggest Echochrome for PSP and PSN.

[equalsign]

Passage

http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/
http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passa ... ement.html

Gravitation

http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/gravi ... index.html
http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/gravi ... ement.html

He has other too, but I haven't played them (although I've heard good things about between):
http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/jason-rohrer/

[Filtymcnasty]

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

[equalsign]

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.

[Xonticus]

Ah yes, video games as art. I fully agree, but the beauty lye only in the eyes of the player.

That being said, Half-Life gets me as being artisticly charged. This game and especially half life 2, portrays humanity and human emotion, and makes you feel guilty, sad, happy, scared, and everything in between. In evoking an emotion, it thus becomes true art. The direction in which the game is portrayed, which is in a silent protagonist, is the perfect vessel for putting the player right in the emotional roller coaster, and getting the player involved in the game and characters.

I don't think there is another medium that can create emotion in which video games can. Movies can do that, but usually feel rushed, or cheated to feel them for a cheap thrill. Video Games are interactive emotional playgrounds. We play them to have fun, de-stress after a long day, to boil our blood, etc. Just like books, music, painting, sports..... all can be claimed as an artform, and all ARE artforms in their own rights, simply because of the emotional involvement and attachment. Not everyone can be stimulated by all art forms though, as proven merely through personal preferences.

Humans are artistic beings, wishing to experience and convey emotions however they can.... and Art is a way of doing that. Video games fit into that category, so claiming that they are at least Art is simple. To say that it is one of the most unique forms, you might have to include the part about being fully interactive, and thus immersive.

[dedalusdedalus]

you should play some of terry cavanagh's stuff. short and simple, but really powerful and atmospheric stuff. really makes you think about video games as a story-telling medium.

here's some of his stuff. they'll take you no longer than 20 mins each to finish, so try it out:

-Don't look back. http://www.kongregate.com/games/TerryCa ... -look-back.

-Judith. http://distractionware.com/blog/?p=759

[corn619]

Art is in the eye of the beholder. Someone who says "that isn't art" is a retard. Every game is art and just like paintings, sculptures or whatever some are better than others in different peoples eyes. Hence why there is so many kinds and genres as art is impossible to define. Anyways, I thought Ico did a wonderful job in telling a story without a word spoken.