In the essay, “The Play’s The Thing,” Daniel Radosh spends eight-hundred
and sixty three words trying to tell us that video games are not an art form.
Radosh should ask the artists, both graphical and musical, if what they do for a
living is art or not. If we count animated movies as art then we must also classify
video games as art. There are two reasons that video games should be seen as art
and they are the continued progress of cutting edge graphics and a deep impact
story and how finally they can coexist in the gaming industry and with platforms
like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 it is easier to achieve a more realistic
atmosphere. He writes “Thirty-five years after Pong, fans and critics still debate
whether video games can legitimately be call art.” He goes on to point out that the
game “Halo 3” hasn’t changed his mind that games are not art. This is drawn out
by Radosh’s statement “Games boast ever richer and more realistic graphics, but
this has actually inhibited their artistic growth.” Most people outside of the video
game industry (and some within) often compare video games to movies. This is
because with the increased power of the video game console developers can now
enlist cinematic cut-scenes into the game to give it a more movie like feel. Later
in his article, Radosh says that “ They (video game developers) will need to stop
pandering to the player’s desire for mastery in favor of enhancing the player’s
emotional and intellectual life.” The majority of his essay has to do with the
recently released game “Halo 3.” He mentions that Halo’s publisher , Microsoft,
received advance orders for 1.7 million copies and will make a reported $170
million in sales the first day it is released, which tops the biggest opening
weekend of any blockbuster movie. He then asks “Is this really as good as video
games can be?”
Radosh seems to think with the game designers ability to render any
environment within a game, they will focus more on graphics to enhance the
gaming experience rather than story and characters. There is an instance in
gaming’s history that proves both cutting edge graphics and a heart pounding
story can co-exist. Final Fantasy VII (released in 1997 for Sony’s PlayStation) was
the first game to use 3D computer graphics which made the game look light years
beyond any other game at the time. Not only did the game look amazing, but it
was the first to use pre-rendered cut scenes which helped tell the games story in a
movie like form. Radosh says that “These cut scenes undermine the sense of
involvement - of play - that is games authentic métier.” In the past games have
used a method of cut scene to essentially keep the player involved. These
“Interactive cut scenes” keep the player involved in the experience. During these
cut scenes, a button will show up on the screen and the player must press the
correct button or combination of buttons to trigger the characters actions. With
this new form of cut scene the designer can further explain the games story
without taking the controller out of the players hands. With platforms like the
PlayStation 3 it is now possible to achieve a more realistic gaming experience.
Let’s go back the Final Fantasy series for a moment. In Final Fantasy VII there
were elaborate cut-scenes in the game but no voice acting. Now with the latest
game in the series, Final Fantasy XII, there is voice acting and plenty of it. Even
though video games are still in their infancy compared to movie we sometimes
forget that event films went through a silent era.
He goes on to say that “Film achieves its artistic potential by offering
experiences that are emotionally and aesthetically profound - stories that resonate
deep inside of us, reveal truths about humanity, and alter our perception of the
world. It’s hard to think of a single video game that can match the artistic
accomplishments of the most mediocre Oscar bait.” I can think of one game
whose story resonated very deep and impacted myself to take harder look at the
world around me. That game was BioShock. Released in August of this year,
BioShock took the player deep underwater as Jack whose plane crashes on a Mid-
Atlantic seabed. To survive, Jack must swim to a nearby lighthouse and take a
bathysphere down to a secretly developed underwater city. The underwater city
named Rapture was supposed to be a Utopia and the only place on Earth that
could support individualism. Andrew Ryan, the man who constructed Rapture has
this impact statement to say within the first ten minutes of the game “ I am
Andrew Ryan and I am here to ask you a question: Is a man not entitled to the
sweat of his own brow? No, says the man in Washington. It belongs to the poor.
No, says the Vatican. It belongs to God. No, says the man in Moscow. It belongs
to everyone. I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose
the impossible. I chose…Rapture.” Within the first minutes of BioShock, it
already has the gamer thinking of humanity, and how as much as we think we are
our own individual to the governments and the Vatican we are simply part of the
crowd.
Admittedly, video games are not for everyone and even in the future games
will not get the proper respect from critics in both media and film. With this fact in mind I do not believe it is proper for some one who does not understand games to critique or knowledgeably have a discussion whether games are art or not. So until the mainstream media sits down and plays a Final Fantasy or BioShock game then their opinion is not truly valid.
