I’ll say what this means to me

Posts tagged art

ART REQUIRES DUTY.

AND THAT LADIES AND GENTLEMAN IS WHY VIDEO GAMES ARE BOTH NOT-YET-ART AND YET ABSOLUTELY NEED TO EMBRACE THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF BEING ART. THE UNFORMED THEMATIC MESSAGES ARE OUT THERE RUNNING WILD AND EMBRACING THIS CATCH 22 OF NOT-BEING-ART, BUT HAVING THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT IS EXACTLY WHAT PROPELS YOU TO THE PROMISED LAND. AND FOLKS, IT CAN’T JUST BE THE RARE CASE OF GAME HERE OR A GAME THERE THAT TRANSCENDS THE GENRE, BUT THE MOVEMENT OF A COMPLETE AND TOTAL CULTURE. ONLY THEN DO GAMES BECOME A TRUE MEDIUM OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION.

SO SORRY FOLKS, BUT THEY DON’T EVEN BELONG IN THE SAME CONVERSATION AS MOVIES UNTIL WE GET THERE.

LET HULK PUT IT THIS WAY… IN ALL THOSE “BEST OF THE YEAR” GAMES ARE THEME, RESONANCE, AND SEMIOTICS EVER CONCERN OF ANY OF THAT? SOMETIMES YES, BUT A LOT OF TIMES NOT. BUT THOSE THINGS, WHICH ARE THE VERY LIFEBLOOD OF ART, ARE AT THE CENTER OF MOVIE-GOING CULTURE. LET’S NOT EVEN COMPARE TO THE WORK OF THE GREATS LIKE KUBRICK, BERGMAN, FELLINI, AND KUROSAWA. EVEN WITH ALL THE LURID TALK OF BOX OFFICE AND TENT-POLES AND BAD SUMMER MOVIES, THOSE FILMS ARE STILL OFTEN COMPLETELY BEYOND THEIR RELATIVE AAA TITLE GAMES ON MOST ACCOUNTS OF CHARACTER AND ARTISTIC RESPONSIBILITY (YOU KNOW, IN COMPARISON). AND ON THE HIGH-CULTURE END OF THE SPECTRUM? THE OSCARS, AS TRIVIAL AS THEY OFTEN ARE, EMBRACE THE VERY IDEA THAT MOVIES SHOULD HAVE A DEEP AND RESONANT SOCIETAL MEANING ABOVE ALL ELSE. EVEN IF THAT MEANING IS AS CORNY AS “THE POWER OF LOVE!” THE THEME HAS TO RESONATE IN ORDER FOR MOVIES TO WORK.

THAT IS WHY MOVIES ARE CONSIDERED GATEWAYS TO BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN CONDITION. THAT IS WHY WE LOVE THEM. THAT IS WHY HULK LOVES THEM. EVERY YEAR THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF TRULY GOOD MOVIES THAT COMPEL HULK TO GO FORTH AND SPILL HULK’S GUTS ABOUT THE MEANING OF OUR COLLECTIVE UNDERSTANDING AND TRUE PURPOSE. THAT IS WHY WE, THE PROVERBIAL HUNDREDS OF US SITTING QUIETLY IN THE DARK TOGETHER, ARE ABLE TO EXPERIENCE THAT MIRACLE OF THE COLLECTIVE EPIPHANY.

MEANWHILE, VIDEO GAMES ARE JUST A TON OF FUN.

Film Crit Hulk discusses the nature of art and video games (and reviews the Modern Warfare series). I’d quibble with some of the particulars, but this is one of the best essays/reviews I’ve read on games, games journalism, and the games-as-art debate in the last few months. I think there are games out currently that engage meaningfully with modern culture and are, well, art, while the Hulk asserts we aren’t quite there yet (but will be at some point); part of this comes down — as it always does — to how one defines ‘art’ and what one wants in art. But video games are a young genre (much younger that television, which itself is still maturing), and thoughtful, artistic games are still rare. The vast majority don’t even try, and the question of whether they should is an open question to many.