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Games Entertainment

Videogames as Art 174

Posted by michael from the de-gustibus dept.
Philip Kollar writes "AllRPG has just posted Games As Art, Part 2. In this article, I attempt to create a viable list of things that come together to make a videogame art, rather than just entertainment. I also explore how these three concepts (writing, design, and interactivity) have been used in other forms of media and how they're being further explored in the world of gaming."
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Videogames as Art

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  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @01:35PM (#8986244)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I wish I were an artist, but I became craftist instead. Programming is a craft. Crafts have the aspects of creativity, and artistic skill that programmers take pride in. They do not have the artistic intent, however.
      • The art's in selling it, baby.
      • I appreciate good craftsmanship on something I can own and use. I have little or no use for pure art.

        Being married to one of the SCA seneschals has exposed me to a lot of very nice craftsmanship, from the clothing, leatherwork, sword makers, potters and most importantly of all, brewers of ales.

        Likewise modern craftsmen have all turned into case modders, and although I've seen some boring ones, I've seen some really nice work. And the craftsmen, not the artists, are steering the PC gaming industry in way
    • People like to consider their work as some kind of "art" form. Writers, Painters, Muscians. Back in High School my anatomy teacher considered surgery an artform. Most of my fellow geeks would agree that seeing a piece of code take shape could be artistic, and other engineering venues like architecture.

    • Snob (Score:3, Insightful)

      by theLOUDroom ( 556455 )
      I'm sorry, but this is contemporary art. As much as I agree with the author's premise that video games is art, his writing style bears no reality on the current status of art as a discipline and offers about as much insight as my grandma would on the state of open source in the computing disciple. Comparing it to hollywood, which has it's own artistic foundation totally removed from the authors writing, is grotesque.

      Holy frickin art snobbery batman!

      Really, there is a shitload of good art in videogam
      • "As much as I agree with the author's premise that video games is art, his writing style bears no reality on the current status of art as a discipline and offers about as much insight as my grandma would on the state of open source..."

        To which you reply: "The medium does not decide if something is or is not art." Huh?

        The parent agrees, games can be art -- she just doesn't think this article measures up to anything like "the status of art as a discipline."

        I used to work in a modern art museum. If we'd

      • Holy frickin art snobbery batman!

        Really, there is a shitload of good art in videogames. In fact ANYTHING CAN BE ART.

        Yeah. I just recently installed a freely available copy of THE ELDER SCROLLS: ARENA [elderscrolls.com]

        And was blown away by the quality of the music composition. IMO it's superior to most of the music that's featured in todays films. Not only that, but it's entirely MIDI based. Kinda John Williams 'esque. Really great.

    • I agree (Score:4, Insightful)

      by TwistedSpring ( 594284 ) * on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @02:50PM (#8987088) Homepage
      This guy clearly doesn't know his Art from his Elbow. He claims that videogames combine design with interactivity and that that has never been done before. Of course it's been done before, in absolutely every user interface ever created. Plus the quality of the article is dreadful, the writing is haphazard and, while the guy has a point, he has executed it extremely badly. Video games are a collage of art; art is in every texture, every mesh, in the plot and writing, in the music and sound, in the concept art, even in the code, but it's how all the parts come together that define the piece.

      I believe that some games are more art than entertainment; games like Myst and Syberia were both extremely artistic graphically and musically. Some games are too artistic; the original Unreal FPS didn't satisfy a lot of people because it was simply too art-driven, it was beautiful but slow with long periods of not enough stuff to shoot. Does that mean it's art in the videogame genre, or does entertainment factor into whether the game is art or not?

      The point of the above is that there is a difference between interactive art and video games. It is intensely difficult to class video games artistically, most people see only as deep as the graphics. I don't think art necessarilly has anything to do with entertainment, which is what the interactivity provides. Art is possibly the antithesis of entertainment.

      Basically my definition of art is anything that inspires one or ignites emotions. I've actually shed tears after finishing some video games (not because it was "so beautiful" but because it's often such a relief). So I guess that if a video game can be appreciated and provokes emotion in the observer (good or bad) then it can be classed as artistic.

      However, I'm opposed to classifying video games as works of art, because if they do get to that distinction then they'll cost $3,000 a piece. Come to think of it, the source code probably costs more than that to license :) all we own as consumers is a copy.
    • Art must provide an insight into your relation to your world.
      This happens in a context for which you must have some feeling or understanding for the art to mean anything to you. For example: European mediaeval religious art appreciation requires some feeling for the society and other art of the time.
    • As far as them being art, they sure are. And I also think the are a sport. I would rather watch some professional gamers play against each other on TV than watch a baseball game or anything like that. I predict that in less than 20 years, gamers will make huge contracts and a lot of money playing for the masses.

  • Video game art... (Score:5, Funny)

    by hookedup ( 630460 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @01:36PM (#8986250)
    About the only art I get out of games is trying to write my name on walls with bullets....

  • Emotional? (Score:5, Funny)

    by qewl ( 671495 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @01:37PM (#8986258)
    If the storyline in a videogame can truly create memories, then there has to be more behind the games than simple entertainment.

    Yea.. the emotions.. I almost.. cried everytime one of my ninja turtles got killed when I was a child. I'll never forget. *tear*
    • I cried many times during FF IX...ahh FF I, still my all time favorite :) I remember playing Resident Evil II. I was living off-campus, all my friends were out. I was creaped out, kept turning around and looking behind me. -A
    • "Yea.. the emotions.. I almost.. cried everytime one of my ninja turtles got killed when I was a child. I'll never forget. *tear*"

      The day my yellow claw Tempest shooter was pulled down into the platform, I became scarred for life. May he (it?) rest in piece *sniff*
    • I did cry at the end of Silent Hill 2. That was pretty brutal.

  • Art Examples. (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Star Control 2. If only for the graphics, story, and dialogue.

  • Heh (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PhrostyMcByte ( 589271 ) <phrosty@gmail.com> on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @01:39PM (#8986289) Homepage
    When i was forced into a computer art class, I sat around coding opengl demos while the others were in photoshop. the teacher accepted it and gave me a better grade :)

  • art != game (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jimius ( 628132 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @01:39PM (#8986291)
    I wouldn't define interactive art as a videogame. A videogame is primarily for entertainment and an art piece is not (a different kind of entertainment at least).

    So it's either a game or interactive art, not both... If it's an artsy game it's still a game
    • Saying that all interactive art is not video gaming is not the same thing as saying that all video gaming is not interactive art. Logic 101.

      Rob

    • Defining art (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Ra5pu7in ( 603513 ) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <ni7up5ar>> on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @01:51PM (#8986458) Journal
      Art is very hard to define clearly (much like humor) because it depends on the reaction of the audience as much as the creativity of the originator. However, a dictionary definition is "the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects". Certainly there is a conscious use of skill and creative imagination in video games. Some games have even felt like more attention was put on the aesthetics than on the gameplay -- putting these even closer to the definition of art while losing out as games.
    • The two are not mutually exclusive. Just as not all that is done with paint is considered art, not all video games are. But, like some work that is done with paint is considered art, it is equally logical that some video games can be seen as art. There are those who consider movies art. Lets take, for instance, Toy Story. That is definitely art, in my opinion. Now, lets take a video game like Diablo II. Have you watched the movies that play when you beat a level? Are those any less deserving of bein

    • Re:art != game (Score:5, Insightful)

      by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) ( 613870 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @02:29PM (#8986884) Journal
      A videogame is primarily for entertainment...
      Similarly we must reject the works of Shakespeare as unworthy of being considered Art because, believe it or not, his plays have been known to entertain one or two people.
    • Maybe older games couldn't be classified as good art, but the newer ones- Far Cry, Doom 3, Half-Life 2 could most definately be. Everything except for the engines were worked on by artists. The beautiful graphics, surround sound, complex maps, and immersive storylines all show it.

  • First videogame with a plot (Score:3, Informative)

    by Pluvius ( 734915 ) <pluvius3@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @01:40PM (#8986319) Journal
    Let's go way back now, and be honest: what's the first videogame that you remember that had a plot worth remembering? I mean something that wasn't just throw-away. My answer (big surprise here) would be Final Fantasy VI.

    Yeah, it's pretty hard to forget that big collapse in storytelling about halfway through.

    As for me, the first videogame with a real plot that I can remember was Ninja Gaiden [classicgaming.com]. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a PC game that I'm forgetting earlier than that. I guess it depends on your definition of "throw-away."

    Rob

  • Music in games (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dom1234 ( 695331 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @01:43PM (#8986350) Journal
    Is it me, or music in every new games suck ?

    I think almost every old game that had great succes had great music. Think of Final Fantasy I, II and III, Dragon Warrior (main theme inspired from Debussy's Passepied frome "Suite Bergamasque #1"), the original Metroid, etc.

    And even older games, with very few audio capacities, had cool themes (often Johann-Sebastien Bach inventions, stuff like that).

    It seems that the less they had technical possibilities, the more they had to rely on art (great melodies) in order to make games attractive. Or maybe it's about the old paradox that limitations stimulate creativity ; such as Beethoven being deaf and composing great symphonies.
    • Four Words: Rock'n'Roll Racing for SNES.
      Kick Ass!

      • Woo. Best game ever!
        Produced by the company that later became Blizzard.

        Slick attractive artwork, inovative playing angle, cool explosive weapons, and of course songs like Born to be Wild and Peter Gunn. Sounded good too, considering it was coming from a SNES box.

        Larry: Ouch!, Woah!, Ouch!, Woah!
    • Rez, the first Jet Set Radio, Headhunter...
    • I agree that melodies arn't as important in games as they used to be. In the arcade days the beeps and midi type music seemed to be used as more of an advertising jingle to attract you and bring you back.

      RPG games often use tricks like tying melodies to characters and leveling up. It's hard to argue with that formula because it works as in the same way that it works in the Star Wars movies.

      Deus Ex: Invisible War comes to mind when I think of recent games. They released the soundtrack for free on the net i
    • The best music I remember from a game is the original Doom. The midi soundtrack from E1M1 was stellar, and every time I hear it, it brings back great memories.
  • Anyone who played Final Fantasy VII on their PS-X/PC knows what I'm talking about.

    Those movies were such vividly rendered with amazing music to match. The art work done was probably the best I've ever seen in any Final Fantasy game. Some of the effects done during game play stood out like no other RPG. Ahh, the memories ...

    Sunny Dubey

    PS: I've been trying to get FF7 working with wine, but have had no luck (I think I need /dev/sequencer support). Anyone else try ?
    • Anyone who played Final Fantasy VII on their PS-X/PC knows what I'm talking about.

      And they'll also know how annoying it was to watch that "art" over and over and over and over when you summoned... so while it might have been "art" it was also a "major pain in the ass that slowed down gameplay". Frankly I'd rather do with less "art", which is why I loved the Infocom games.

    • Oy, FF VII left me cold. But I've already written that too many times -- I think you're only allowed to say the same thing three times on the internet, aren't you? Unless you're Stallman?

      Final Fantasy games are basically space opera, without the space part, but also not quite opera (scene in VI notwithstanding). And when you factor out the travel and all the fighting, there's actually not a whole lot of story there, either. Dragon Quest/Warrior games have a lot more text in them.

  • why should art matter? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bigbigbison ( 104532 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @01:44PM (#8986361) Homepage
    I wrote about this over on my blog [popularculturegaming.com] a while back. Basically, whenever this question coes up I have to ask, "Why should we care?" Why does it matter if it is art or not? What do we get out of that? The people who say it isn't, will never say it is. The people who say it is, already say it is. What does calling it art do for the form?
    • It legitimizes it. Until video gaming is accepted as art, it will always be considered (at best) a pastime for children or (at worst) a leading cause of violence in children.

      Rob
    • >Why does it matter if it is art or not?

      Because it gives a legitmate name to something.

      Is it a piece of retro-art referencing the state of forced maturation of the post-GenX youth in today's modern society or is it a Fisher-Price toy from Toy's R Us that goes "whooop!"?

    • What does calling it art do for the form?

      One important difference it will make is whether it is considered protected speech. "Art" is protected, whilst "video games" are not.

      I'd like to comment that if we're gong to consider throwaway sitcoms with no redeeming value "art," surely games can be considered art as well.
    • Because art is cool.

      It can tell us real things about the world instead of the recycled Weekend Special stuff most RPGs shovel. It challenges expectations instead of slavishly following genre. And it aims to produce works that will transcend their age, instead of being almost forgotten in five years.

      And art makes fundamentalists mad. Hooray!

  • I dig it (Score:5, Insightful)

    by deathcloset ( 626704 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @01:47PM (#8986407) Journal
    if movies are considered an artform then indeed, why not games?..well, some games at least- but some movies, spy kids, not really artsy.

    there are many parallels .
    • "but some movies, spy kids, not really artsy." But Spykids 2 becomes art when Steve Buscemi, as the mad scientist terrified to leave his compound because the island is crawling with monsters he created says the line "Do you suppose that's why God lives in the Heavens? Because he lives in fear of His creations?".
    • Because most games are about as relevant to real art as Spy Kids is.

  • Rez, synestasia (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bludstone ( 103539 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @01:48PM (#8986414)
    Ahh. The old "videogames as artform" conversation. Ive had this one with many people. Usually the younger individuals say, yes, videogames are art, just like movies.

    Its the elder generation that hasnt grasped that a game can be artistic as well.

    Then I put in the game "Rez."

    Rez is the best argument Ive ever seen for videogames as an artform. It is unique, beautifully stylistic, and incredibly interactive. You could say that this is just another rail shooter, but that doesnt integrate the way sound, vibration, and visual effects all tie in together. This concept of interactive musical and visual integrated together was originally concieved by Kandinsky, which he referred to as "Synestasia."

    Please read this review [ign.com].

    Even my parents found the game to be incredibly artistic and beautiful. I cannot reccomend it enough.

  • typically its the other way around (Score:4, Informative)

    by dbombarc ( 208030 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @01:49PM (#8986428) Homepage
    Usualy when I see the words Videogame and Art together, someone is talking about art that is inspired by video games (like the Paper Rad [paperrad.org] comics or the Brick Attack [pickleshine.tk] fashion stuff). So its nice to see art being attributed to the source.

    There was a magazine in Japan years back that was basicly applying art and film theory to video games. Does anyone know what this was called?
    • My first thought of videogames as art is always Max Payne. It is the closest I have seen yet to a movie style of game. Yes, there is action you control, but there is a very specific story that is being told. It evokes emotions like no game I've seen (the level in MP2 in the abandoned amusement park still keeps me on the edge of my seat). It is the closest thing to an interactive movie that I've seen yet.

  • Mike Oldfield's Music VR project (Score:3, Interesting)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @01:51PM (#8986463)
    This is a good place to bring up Mike Oldfield's Music VR (Maestro) project [mikeoldfield.com], a game in which you explore a landscape of often-beautiful often-abstract imagery, with Oldfield's music in the background.

  • Role Playing Games: some random thoughts (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dulles ( 86837 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @01:52PM (#8986473)
    Consider the case of Role Playing Games: what is the difference between Literature as Art and RPGs as art? Not much, insofar as they both tell a story. Consider the plots from various Final Fantasy games (I think 7 specifically, as it's the one I played the most): they are not necessarily simple stories made only to provide a backbone for the game.

    But that can't be all there is to it, right? Literature is a craft of writing, whereas RPGs do not involve the same amount of writing. So you can generalize and say that the 1) story and 2) presentation of the story make something 'artful'. The presentation in a novel is in the writing style, whereas the presentation in a game is more visual.

    But how can the presentation of the story of an RPG qualify as 'artful' ?
    For me, the real issue it comes down to, when discussing the Art-worthiness of a work is: does it move you?
  • I don't know if this [redvsblue.com] counts as "art" in video games, but it beats the hell out of turning on "paintball" mode and trying to paint the walls green.

  • Well... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by DoctorRad ( 608319 )
    The purpose of art is to question, the purpose of entertainment is to reassure, surely?

    Matt...

    • The purpose of art is to question, the purpose of entertainment is to reassure, surely?

      My interpretation of existentialism has always been just the opposite: look at what is questioned, and then reveal it to be natural, thus exhibiting a story that is life-affirming and beautiful. When you can see something real or someone struggling with what you have struggled with in isolation, and possibly overcome it or learn about it, that, to me, is the greatest art, and surely that is reassuring.

      Perhaps what

  • look to literary criticism, not art... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by grocer ( 718489 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @02:08PM (#8986664)
    I think the question is not "Are games art?" but "What happens when critical thought is applied to games?"

    For instance, Hemmingway's The Sun Also Rises makes critical statements and assesments about values. Hemmingway's writing, however, really doesn't get past "He did this. Then he got drunk. The table wobbled. He left the bar and walked. He went to sleep." Poetic, flowing prose just doesn't happen. The themes that can pulled out of this are worth discussing and dissecting, for their sake.

    I get the feeling that games will end up being like popular music: on the fringe for the most part and worth their plot summary/dialogue but the music (and perhaps graphics) will not be used. Games have elements worth discussing critically. For instance, I have used songs in papers for their lyrical content only. Game graphics could be discussed abstractly, as there is a certain "This has more than a literal meaning" element based on cultural and symbolic meaning.

    Certainly something to think about and play around with especially considering even popular fiction has elements worth discussing.

    IAAEM (I Am An English Major)

  • What is art? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by t1nman33 ( 248342 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @02:09PM (#8986681) Homepage
    That's the real question.

    I like to think that art is the expression of ideas and concepts in a manner that evokes something above and beyond the sheerly practical.

    In other words, if you make a sandwich because you're hungry, it's not art. If you make a sandwich in a way that seems aethetically pleasing, or incorporating particular ingredients that remind you of something, or you refrain from making a sandwich to make a point about world hunger, it's art.

    I'm not a huge modern art buff. I much prefer Constable, Turner and Monet to Pollock, at least as far as painting is concerned. I like things that look like things. But I don't dispute that things which may not be appealing to me aren't art.

    Personally, when I really think about what I do for a living, I'm something of an artist. When I write programs, I try to make the code beautiful, clean, functional, and even visually organized, because that is artistic to me.

    If you go with my definition, videogames certainly qualify.
  • ..which provide entertainment. Bush mazes actually came to mind first (following really funky artcars [artcarmuseum.com], e.g., a VW Beetle painted like a ladybug - these are interactive with a drivers' license.)
    What about the windows on an entire side of a skyscraper used to play Tetris via your cell phone? I think that surely constitutes an artly piece.. it's certainly creative, and the point of it, by no means, is purely to entertain by gameplay; if it were noninteractive, if it was played by computer instead of a person,

  • No seriously... (Score:2, Informative)

    by CertifiedBomb ( 774993 )
    One of my house mates works in an art library and one of the trade journals had UT2K4 characters on the front as someone had done sculptures of them, i will try and upload scans if i can get him to bring it home again.

  • I've been saying this for years (Score:5, Interesting)

    by genner ( 694963 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @02:50PM (#8987087)
    Video games = art
    every bit as much as paintings or scultures.

    Art exists to express ideas or emotions without words. Maybe not all games live up to this defintion but niether does a painting of a bowl of fruit.

    Most of the final fantasies reached this level, as they managed to evoke emotion in the player.

    Myst convied a cold sense of the unknown.

    Anything that attempts speaks to the soul should be considered art, those that succed should be considered good art, and those that midlessly blow things up should be placed next the picture of the bowl of fruit.

    • words and art (Score:3, Insightful)

      by cloudless.net ( 629916 )
      "Art exists to express ideas or emotions without words.

      Words can be art too when used in a deliberately stylish/expressive way. Think of poems and songs.

  • My Problem with the Premise (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Deraj DeZine ( 726641 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @02:51PM (#8987115)
    People seem to be claiming that video games are art simply because some of them have plots with twists and the ability to tug on some players' heart strings. Some people see nothing wrong with this, but I would imagine that such people would consider black and white (with regard to characters) movies like Terminator 3 to also be art.

    To me, the most artistic (for lack of a better word) movies are the ones that leave me thinking at the end; movies with characters whose motivations aren't as simple as pure revenge; movies with villains that are not soulless evil incarnate. I'm having some trouble coming up with examples, but things like the characters in movies like Princess Mononoke or Insomnia.

    Making a story where you battle true evil is not art, it's mostly formulaic. Making a story that is unpredictable and unique is art.

    (Note: I'm addressing only the plot of games as art. The actual 3D content and graphics classify as art and I don't think anyone could argue against this in many games)
    • I think that the point people are missing here is that most video games are art. Bad art. The arguments being made in most of the posts I see is that the artistic process in video games is sideswiped by corporate interests and the purposes of entertainment. The same can be said for many genres that still have the occasional piece held up as an example of art. "Art" as an abstract concept crosses boundaries. It can be found in architecture, pop music, acting strangely to confound strangers, telling a

  • all I can say... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TechnoFreek ( 758758 ) <<mf.liamtsaf> <ta> <keerfonhcet>> on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @03:24PM (#8987802) Homepage
    is that art is relative to both the artist and the viewer.

  • Art is merely communication. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Art is merely communication; a medium plus a message.

    Painting is an art, music is an art, public speaking is an art, etc. There is good art and bad art, of course, and the message can be anything from "life is meaningless" or "people are suffering in [insert country]" to "have a nice day" or "enjoy your leisure time".

    Are video games art? Yes.

    Are video games GOOD art? Well... maybe, haha. Like any other art form, I think it depends on the individual piece.
  • I think it has been long ago since the concept "art" was something that people could take without questioning. In fact, it is so much open for questioning as to make it virtually meaningless. If the term "art" has no meaning then this discussion, interesting as it may be, has no point.

    I have a personal story too. One day I went to have lunch in a museum. Some of the exhibition rooms were open, so I walked inside. Oops, I thought, this must be being worked on, because all I can see is *strings*, just a fe
  • Video game art seem to be a popular trend amoungst the art 'establishment' at the moment.

    Velvet Strike and a couple of other video game-based installations were part of the 2004 Whitney biennial. Also there have been a number of exhibitions of classic arcade games at various art galleries around New York in the last year or so.

  • If video games were "art" ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by figa ( 25712 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @04:20PM (#8988788) Journal
    The best games would only be available a couple times in your life at blockbuster museum shows. You'd have to pay admission, wait in line, and then only get a glimpse of the game from behind someone's head for a few minutes.

    Lesser games would be scattered across the US at regional musuems. In the Southwest, you'd only be able to see Deerhunter and Redneck Rampage.

    Only a select few people would be wealthy enough to own games and actually play them on demand. Everyone else would own demos or screenshots. Full games would be limited to editions of a few dozen and distributed through galleries. They would be prohibitively expensive. To have good access to a variety of games, you'd have to move to New York. Fans of vintage games would be advised to move to Paris. Games would rarely be available at night or on Mondays.

    Most people would experience games through expensive coffee table books filled with screen shots. Books on all the cool games would either be perpetually checked out from the library or stolen. Screen shots would not be available on the Internet, and game digital reproduction rights would be carefully controlled by Bill Gates or Mark Getty.

    Video game developers would be ignored or considered outsiders unless they have a master's degree from Yale or UCLA. Most developers would have to move to New York or LA if they wanted to be taken seriously. When their most challenging work was attacked by policy-makers, they wouldn't have a billion-dollar industry to lobby for their rights or foot their legal bills. Only a handful of developers would ever make a steady income writing games, and even the best would be obscure until they're nearly dead. The biggest distributors would tacitly refuse to release their work until they're dead or so mentally disabled as to be considered dead. Developers would resort to providing cheap wine and triscuits to get people to play their games.

  • Art (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Reorax ( 629666 )
    Anyone who has played Xenogears can appreciate video games as art. (Unless you didn't like it. But then you're crazy, and none of your opinions are valid.) Though the dialogue (it's a translation) isn't so great, the story and music more than make up for it. It's something I wouldn't have an issue with recommending to an English teacher. Planescape: Torment is along the same lines, but with a much more well-written text. Most of the game can (re: SHOULD) be done through conversations, instead of killing ev
  • I attempt to create a viable list of things that come together to make a videogame art, rather than just entertainment. I also explore how these three concepts (writing, design, and interactivity) have been used in other forms of media and how they're being further explored in the world of gaming.

    I also demonstrate my ability to write a very boring, cookie-cutter introductory paragraph.


    -Colin [colingregorypalmer.net]
  • One of the reasons I collect classic coin op is the artwork. Some of it is hokey, most is simple but attention grabbing, and some of it deserves to be in museums. Star Wars, Millipede, Crystal Castles, Tron; all these games have beautiful artwork.

    And I know, the article is about the game itself, not it's packaging, but this *is* game art related. :)

  • Programming as Art (NOT just games) (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Bob the Hamster ( 705714 ) on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @06:01PM (#8990121) Homepage Journal

    I have long thought of programming as art. Not just game programming, which I do as a hobby, but also to a certain extent the business/database programming that I do in my day job.

    Of course, I have had a hard time rationalizing this out loud or explaining it to anyone. When I sit down and write a object-oriented wrapper to procedural database commands, or write my own login/session-key code, I *feel* the same way I do when I am doin art-- Art is a big part of my life. I write [hamsterrepublic.com] and draw and sculpt [hamsterrepublic.com] all the time. Everything I truly enjoy doing is art... except programming. Why then does it feel like art when I am doing it?

    Most people define art in terms of art-appreciation. Nobody ever looks at or admires the scripts I write on the company mail server. So for the longest time I rejected the idea of actually calling programming art.

    But lately I have been getting a better appreciation of minimalism. I used to hate abstract art, and minimalist art, until I actually started to do a little bit of it. To the non-artist, art is in the appreciation, but to the artist, art is in the creation. Recently, a teacher of mine, Jay Mccafferty [markmooregallery.com] was telling me about his favoured field of art, "Process Art". If you follow the link, you will see a couple of examples of his work-- he freely admits that they don't look like much, and that if you didn't frame them and put them up in a gallery, nobody but him would know they were art, but that isn't the point. The point is the process of creation. He spends a lot of time on his art, and puts a lot of thought and emotion into them. Most of this is invisible to the causal observer. "Artistic Entropy" if you will; lost data. But the end result is still kinda pretty, isn't it? I think so anyway.

    So I applied that concept to the idea of programming-as-art, and it really fit well. Nobody at work who uses my inventory control web-app is going to see any of the parts of code that I am really proud of. Things that took me days of hard work are going to flicker into their browser in a few seconds-- But that isn't the important part to me. The part that matters to me, as the programmer/artist was the process of writing it. The experience.

    Or something like that ;)

  • Shameless self-promotion:
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    I founded the site in December 1996. Enjoy!

    Super Mario Bros. Theme: Beep boop boop, boop boop boop boop, boop boop boop boop, boop boop, boooop, boop boop boom. The midi files are a lot more expressive.

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