Videogame Essay

Paolo Aninag
Mrs. Jennifer Cantrell
English 1304 Sec: 5026
21 March 2007

The Renaissance of the Next Generation

There I am, in the cockpit of my F-14 fighter.  While my plane streaks across the dawn sky, the rays of the rising sun shine through my canopy as I stare into the endless horizon.  Then, out of the darkness of space, my target, a space station on a collision course with the capitol, descends from the upper atmosphere.  I switch my afterburners to full thrust, creating a roar that rivals the even mightiest dragons.  As I approach my enemy, the sound of dramatic orchestral music slowly emerges and fills my ears pumping me with adrenaline.   I fire away at it with my missiles; each piece I destroyed of my enemy gives me 1000 points.  After a few minutes, I finished the concluding level of a videogame called Ace Combat 5.  While the credits rolled, I thought to myself, how can people synthesize visual and acoustic beauty so perfectly?  In addition, I did not just watch it, I lived it, and I was part of the experience!  Videogames evolved from the simplicity of Pong to the epic adventures of Ace Combat, and throughout those years, many artists pulled together their unique skills to create masterpieces that emotionally move the masses.  This revolution led me to I believe videogames should be considered a legitimate medium of art.

What do most people see as art?  Is it a painting, a drawing, a sculpture, or a movie?  According to my high school art teacher, there are numerous meanings of art.  What I picked from the many definitions of art in the dictionary is “the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance”.  In addition, the word aesthetics is defined as “the theory of beauty”.  Or in short, art is something a person creates to incite emotional feelings of beauty.  Next is; how do most people see videogames?  Are they nothing more than a simple toy to kill time?  “Are video games a massive drain on our income, time and energy? A new form of "cultural pollution?  No. [Video] games are art-a popular art, an emerging art, a largely unrecognized art, but art nevertheless” (Jenkins, par. 2-3).

One question asked by all critics of the issue is do videogames have the power to emotionally move an individual like art should?  Newsweek writer Jack Kroll states “games can be fun and rewarding in many ways, but they can't transmit the emotional complexity that is the root of art”.  Even though, they may have characteristics similar to movies, “Moviemakers don't have to simulate human beings; they are right there, to be recorded and orchestrated”.  For example, “the digitally created medieval Japanese warriors in Kessen [a PS2 Game] have none of the breathing presence, the epic gallantry, of the knights in Akira Kurosawa's 1985 film Ran" (Kroll, par. 3).

Such statements are completely ignorant because he only made observations of the games itself.  Everyday, “at high schools and colleges across the country, students discuss games with the same passions with which earlier generations debated the merits of the New American Cinema” (Jenkins, par. 5).  Similar to movies, my high school buddies and I endlessly discuss how we were blown away with the graphics and storylines found in our favorite games.  I also remember when my college English teacher discussed how Lego Star Wars is unique because of the Lego humor that substitutes as its violence.  The smiles on the entire class’ faces were priceless when we spoke of the game’s humor. People against the issue failed to look at the faces of gamers or people who live with gamers and how videogames have affected their lives.  Yes, videogames can transmit complex emotions to the masses, to look for the answer you just have to look in the right place.

Videogames have the power to blow away the masses like art can.  But in order to do that, game creators have to put the artistic elements to transmit the complex emotions.  We now have to observe the technical side of art contained in videogames.  Every person that believes videogames can be an art medium agrees to one thing; it has all the artistic qualities of a cinematic movie.  For example, the game Final Fantasy XII presents cinematic qualities through the cinematography of it’s beautifully rendered movie scenes.  Storylines of this game includes fictional character archetypes, fictional political intrigue and romance.  Cinematic elements such as storylines, setting, characters, and even cinematography are included in modern day videogames.  But what about game play?

Game play is the core element of every videogame old or new, good or bad.  A game whether it is chess, or a sport, involves interaction.  Professional art critics of the issue think that the art lies in the narratives and storylines but that is only where the art is found.  Usually “a player can be evaluated for a form of athletic quickness, but not usually for grace or other aesthetically relevant features of play” (Smuts, par. 20).  In other words, if you watch someone skillfully plays a game, the player’s performance is more associated with watching a sport than something aesthetically pleasing like a movie.  However, unlike a sport like football where the performance is meant to only win a match the participation of a player’s actions is needed to bring out all the artistic elements of a videogame.  Like a stage performer, I have to pilot the F-14 in Ace Combat in order to play out the storyline, graphics, and soundtrack in Ace Combat otherwise both player and watchers will be staring at the menu screen all day.

So then, the conflict about the issue is, what is it about videogames that makes many people look at them with skepticism as a medium?  What all arguing sides agree upon is how new it is to the scene.  Therefore, the lack of information about this medium creates numerous critics.  However like every new art form introduced, people would not accept it until it is popular.  As we look at how significant videogames are in the entertainment industry, yes it has gained lots of popularity and reached the level of being a legitimate art form (Gibs).

However, the flaw of all the critics of the issue that they mention is that they fail to address the most important part of videogames, the hard working men and women behind the gaming industry.  What about the techniques and working conditions that game developers deal with that are similar to a traditional artist?  For this side of the issue, I have to look at the source.

A videogame can not be considered Fine Arts because it involves the effort of more than one person.  Fine Arts such as paintings and sculptures are from the minds of one individual made from the hands of the individual (Gibbs).  Whereas a Fine Arts master like Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa by himself, videogames “pull a lot of different art forms (such as character designs, story writer, and song composers) as a final cohesive project” more similar to movie making.  This type of cooperation between different artists is what makes videogames considered its own art form.  Although the way the art is created is similar to cinema in many ways, both art forms have two completely different goals.  The reason why it is similar to movies is because it “involves a lot of design work like a production of a film”.  However, whereas movie companies please the audience visually and acoustically, a game company’s goal is to please the audience by creating “immersive” experiences (Beswick).

So what kinds of artists are involved in game making hand how do they contribute to create a good videogame?   According to the development lead of Bungie studios people behind the hit game Halo “utilized the finest skills of some breathtakingly talented artists” (Jones, Preface).  In Eric Trautmann’s The Art of Halo, mentions the hard work of concept artists like Lorraine and Robert McLees, Shi Kai Wang and Eddie Smith.  These artists create the visual world of the game by creating concept art of settings, characters, items etc.  With sleepless nights of drawing and research, they visualize, design and put on paper the physical world in videogames.  Writers like Hideo Kojima who created and wrote the plot of the Metal Gear Solid engrosses gamers into his world with political intrigue, character development, plot twists, scenarios, and hints of philosophy.  Composers like Final Fantasy’s Nobuo Uematsu change the player’s mood with breathtaking and memorable sound tracks.  Programmers that created the realistic physics of Half Life 2 were like a stage illusionist to create such a thing (Beswick).

People that question these game developers say that they are not really artists because they prefer videogames as their medium.  Jack Kroll states that “it's human beings who create art, not the polygons and Bezier curves of digital technology”.  This is another ignorant statement because it is similar to saying a brush just moved by itself and painted the Sistine Chapel.  Only humans operate the computer to create the 3D polygons, and only humans think up what those polygons can create.  People like Kroll also believe that the creators are “swept into a kind of euphoria” into believing they are artists (Kroll, par. 2).  They are only criticizing these people because of their radical method of using a “toy” as a medium.  However, what most people even gamers fail to realize is the significance of videogames and their creators are in the world of art.  The XBOX games many take leave scattered on the living room floor is a small piece of an artistic revolution.  They are a part of an art Renaissance where people from all over the world have a chance to express themselves using the latest tools available.  If critics like Kroll actually pick up a videogame for even a few minutes, they would think otherwise.

Similar to the Renaissance in ancient Venice, in the modern era, videogames probably have the potential to create the legendary masterpieces of the next generation.  Paintings have to start somewhere too right?  However, I do not believe all videogames can be considered art.  Similar to people express their feelings by writing curse words in public restrooms, a bad videogame can actually be considered a waste of time.  Videogames are the paintbrushes that groups of talented people can use to express themselves by pulling together their abilities to give birth to an amazing adventure.  Don’t believe me?  Ask a football jock who played Madden.  I bet he probably won’t shut up about its graphics and its realistic and immersive game play.  He probably even loves to play a little Halo on the side.


Annotated Bibliography

Beswick, Kurt.  Personal interview.  16 Mar. 2007.  An art director from a Stafford Based architectural and design firm named Quest.  A gamer himself, he is also an artist.  I need to get a point of view from a person who actually creates artwork and manages designs for a living.  He can relate with the game developers perfectly.

Gibs, Barry.  Telephone interview. 21 Mar. 2007.  Former Co-Worker of Kurt Beswick in Quest and used to be the lead game developer of Digitalo Studios.  He made a game called Devastation.  Where I can get my ethos, I can get information about the issue from someone who has actually been on the field.  I think this my most valid source.

Jenkins, Henry. “Art Form for the Digital Age.” TechnologyReview.com.  2002. Technology Review.com.  Online Posting  January 11 2002
<www.technologyreview.com/read_…>.  Henry Jenkins from the MIT published cite technologyreview.com discusses the rise of videogame as an art form.  He talks about how videogames’ problems and controversies as a new art medium are similar to other mediums such as motion pictures.  The information on how videogames effect modern society is useful to my argument.

Kroll, Jack.  “’Emotion Engine’?  I Don’t Thinks So.”  Newsweek 6 Mar. 2000.  19 Mar. 2007 < www.findarticles.com/p/article…>.  A Newsweek Magazine article that explains how videogames are not art.  They are a waste of time and game creators are not artists.  Short argumentative article that pays little attention to the opposite view.  The perfect counterargument to refute.

Smuts, Aaron. “Are Video Games Art?”  Contemporary Aesthetics.org.  2005.  Online Posting.  2 November 2005.  <www.contempaesthetics.org/newv…>.  An author named Aaron smuts tries to find what goals videogames accomplish to be classified as art.  He observes the issue from on a scientific basis and observes the facts.  It provides great logos for my information.

Trautmann, Eric.  The Art of Halo Creating a Visual World. New York: Del Rey Books, 2004.  Sums up what game developers of Halo go through.  The skills of various artists and their work are explained.  Illustrations of their work show what they do.  I can see the amount of work they can do and how developers work together as a team.

Trautmann, Eric.  Foreword.  The Art of Halo Creating a Visual World.  By Jason Jones. New York: Del Rey Books, 2004.  Briefly sums up what kinds of people are involved in making a good game.