Quick Thoughts on Games as Art

Written 8 months ago

So Austin Mace, a student, sent me a quick mail with questions regarding games and art for a paper he must write.. I thought I could share some of my answers here. I used to think about this stuff a lot some years ago..

1. What company do you work for and what is your job title?

Popego Co., I’m the CEO.. but it’s not a gaming company, we do AI. I used to work for Three Melons, an advergames company.

2. Would you consider video games to be considered an art form just as movies now are considered art?

Games explore a unique dimension of storytelling that’s impossible to reproduce in film, literature, painting.. That’s the dimension of interactivity. Games model experiences through rules and goals, and the task of the game designer is to shape and define interactions. That’s a whole new field for human creativity.

3. if yes to question 2, what would you argue to your opponents regarding the artistic integrity of a video game?

Those who do not consider games as an art, are usually the same kind of minds that considered rock and roll a devilish thing in the 60’s or novels a polluting thing in the 16th century… Games are the most avant garde form of expression today because it is uniquely tied to technology.. just like film was in the early 20th century. Obviously there are a lot of commercial games out there.. just like movies and books. But as the internet becomes a dominant space of our cultural life, artistic games are starting to gain more and more adopters.

4. Are certain games considered more artful in your eyes compared to other games? (example: Mario Paint vs Fallout 3, Saints Row, Oblivion, Bioshock)

Of course. Katamari Damacy to me is a perfect example of a deeply artistical game, in its uniqueness of gameplay and visual style.. but essntially the gameplay. Unfortunately, most of the console games tend to be very conservative in terms of gameplay due to the high costs of developing them.. but in the last years, new channels of distribution like Xbox Live or PSN really opened a big door for indie games with more artistic means.

5. Some consider video games as the greatest art of the 21st century. Would you agree with that statement?

I used to agree with that. We’ll have to see. Games (specially hardcore games) are still a thing that are mostly played by people under 35 years old. As these generations grow older, I think they’ll become more common… but to become an influential art form, you have to carry a big message, say something relevant (think Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” as a great example of this in movies).. I don’t see many games doing that… Metal Gear Solid tries to do it.. but mostly relying on filmmaking techniques, not really gaming per se.

6. Some measure artistic merit in what lasting impact a said medium has on society. What’s your take on what impact games as a whole have had on society?

Well, it’s nice to quote Nintendo’s chief on PacMan: “if games were influential, everyone would be in dark rooms, hearing repetitive electronic music and eating pills”.. I think the impact of games has more to do in terms of making the new generations more ludic towards life. Yet, I don’t know if games have found a big influential masterpiece that could inspire revolutions..

7. The founder of the independent game studio Evouxion and Popego Santiago Siri has said this about games; “You can think of a sculptor as someone who creates with the three dimensions of volume; or filmmakers as creators of stories through the use of space and time captured by a camera. The art of games is about sculpting Fate.” Would this be an accurate depiction of what makes a video game art or is there more to it than that?

That’s the very essence of games if you ask me. You’re moving in this 5th dimension that goes beyond space and time.. Games are about all the possible spaces and times given a specific set of rules. That’s powerful. And as AI improves, we’ll be able to shape and model experiences in very sophisticated ways.

8. Are there any additional comments you’d like to make regarding this subject?

Games are art, because you *play* them. In the very same way a musician plays an instrument. Or you go to see a play in the theatre. Play is encoded in our genes so we can learn.. just like dogs play to learn their hunting skills.. and life’s nothing but a game ;)