Derived Regulation

No artistic expression for video games

Sep 1, 2008 00:40

For Space Invaders' 30^th anniversary, French-American artist Douglas Edric Stanley superimposed the classic game onto pixelated images of the World Trade Center. As the alien armada marches downward it leaves gaping holes in the towers from which humanoid figures are seen jumping to their doom. In a press release, the Computerspiele Museum called it an articulated and critical commentary about the current war strategy, but the predominantly negative reaction to the piece led Stanley to turn his work off.

As a semi-retired gamer currently enjoying his new Nintendo DS Lite it appalls me when video games are deemed not to be a viable medium of expression, or yes, even art. It's as if they're supposed to remain toys for kiddies, the overtly violent and the twistedly perverted. Can they be art or avenues for expression? Sure, why not?

I am horribly ill-equipped to properly define art, but even the most uncouth of us will eventually read, see or hear something that'll make him stop and think wait, there's something more than what I'm getting here... Art transcends its peers within the medium; compare Tolkein's work to The Da Vinci Code.

Books have traditionally been the medium of art and expression, even ascending to heights where it is called literature, a term still reserved for the written word. Then there's actual art, as in paintings and sculptures. Movies established themselves as an art form with Citizen Kane and even comics are on their way, thanks to the Hugo Award winning Watchmen. As for video games, well, we were too busy shooting each other silly.

Video games though have something the other media don't: Interactivity. Prior to video games, narratives were always delivered down a one-way street. We sat back while the author(s) did all the talking. There is now an opportunity to include the player's actions in the narrative which, if the game is submersive enough, will leave a mark that hits much closer to home.

In 2005, Midway released a remake of the arcade side-scroller NARC. As a narcotics officer, the player is given the choice of confiscating drugs as evidence or *ahem* using said drugs. The game was programmed with consequences: Using drugs would enhance the character's abilities but they'd run the risk of getting addicted.

I'm not promoting NARC for literary awards (or for video game awards for that matter) but it did attach consequences to the player's actions. Extending this concept, having a completely different narrative unfold because of the player's actions, as opposed to the current crop of "good ending VS. bad ending", would hopefully raise the standing of video games as accepted art forms.

The screenshot of Space Invaders was taken from Wikimedia Commons and is released under the GNU Free Documentation License, ver.1.2. The image was resized and cropped for this post.

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