Films have made me cry and so have books. Take for an example the film 'Million Dollar Baby' which I recently watched for my second time. At the climax of the film, the tear floodgates flew wide open. I didn't just weep. I had a mental breakdown and by the end of the film I was onto the phone with my newly acquainted psychiatrist.
I know that the film isn't real. I know that they are actors, but still I can't help it. Why? It's because either the books or films are wonderfully well written so that the viewer will sympathise, connect or get absorbed into the well told storyline and for me, nothing does this better than video games.
If a video game has turned me from 'Rich Uncle Pennybags' to a weeping Muppet, then I consider it an art form and I love that. I love connecting with a game, and being transformed from it. I would disagree with anyone who claims that video games can't be seen as art. Yes even you Hideo Kojima! In fact, its hard to believe that Hideo Kojima even thinks this. His own series contains a deep story with themes which I would consider as art. Can you say that you didn't cry when "Way To Fall" played at the end of MGS3? It's a shame that Kojima has created something so wonderful, but is blind to it's true worth.
You could say ": what is art?". Art as it is defined in its most simplest form is, "Anything that stimulates the senses or emotions." I most certainly think games are able to achieve this. I can appreciate video games for what they are, I truly do view video games as a form of art in every sense of the word that you can express it. From a visual perspective the graphics with detailed environments and characters are art. It's a shame when people dismiss video games, as art because it means that they are missing out and are unable to view them from my perspective.
Cant be asked: Video games are art, MGS is a nice example of this. Below are a few of my favourites:
1.) Heavy Rain
2.) Anything made by Team Ico
3.) Lost Odyssey
4.) Mass Effect
5.) Dark Souls
6.) Red Dead Remption
7.) Bioshock
Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments!
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I'm surprised games like flow, flower, braid, limbo didn't get a mention in yer favs. they are one of the few games I can't stop singing praises about for their "art"
I absolutely agree with you! It's quite shameful that I didn't add those in. Thank you :)
I would also like to add 'TRAUMA' to the list.
I agree, I barely even watch movies that much any more, they have been replaced by more video-games in my life really, I feel I get more from them and just in general enjoy them more. Of course I know how good an art form it is, and also books (which I have started to take up the past few years) but video-games just offer you that extra bit of immersion when done right which you can't beat in my own opinion.
Of course video games can be classed as art. If an untidy bed can be, then why not video games.
http://www.saatchi-gallery....
Sorry about the hodge-podged reply I'm leaving. Putting it in on my handset.. Anyway..
I'm less than 12 months from writing my MA in English (and media-science) an thus far, I have written a total of three thesis on the use of games outside the convention of 'leisure' (e.g. propaganda, adversitement/education, language acquisition).
I agree with you 100% of the way - but I'd like to add that videogames and digital entertainment is making great headway in terms of recognition. Just look at how the spectrum of gamers has widened within the past decade.. From previouly being associated with an adolescent male audince, videogames are now played by at least 74% of the population. Adding to that, the audience is split 56/44 (with males still in the lead) and the average gamer is 33 years old - so to blatanly dismiss 'videogames' as "just games" is a false statement.
Naturally *some* games remain within the sphere of leisure and pure recreation, but as you clearly pointed out, there *are* most certainly titles that move above and beyond the preconceived conventions of videogames.. Yo compare videogames to another audiovisual medium, the exact tame thing happened when 'films' were initially exhibited- they were a pasttime event and "pure entertainment" up until the the point when people realized the full potential of the medium.
I, personally, think that you could just as easily apply a neo-formalist view on videogames as well as movies in regards to "fabula" (hard material, e.g. the story being conveyed) and "syuzhet" (the means used to convey the story). It is just another way of telling the story, as clearly exemplified with a title like Heavy Rain. It *is* an interactive movie..
The content of any medium is always another medium, it is just that videogames may still be too "young" to be universally approved as "more than just games".. But in time, I certainly believe that will change - particularly considering how much of a pop-culture phenomenon videogames are becoming..
Pardon my ramblings and excuse the mess :p