Games, art, and the relevance of their relationship

Over the past year, the games as art debate has quieted down to the point where only the most stubborn naysayers and traditionalists remain loyal to their narrow definitions. As the dust settles, it's time to take a hard look back at what truths the heated argument revealed about our medium and its community... And in many cases, those truths are not flattering.

The most common question brought up by gamers in the heat of debate was a deconstruction of the entire argument. "Why do we care if the mainstream media sees games as art?", or "Why do we even want to define games as art?" I've seen defenders of artistry in games labeled "pathetic" within gaming communities for needing to validate their hobby. I've seen respected game critics dismiss the entire debate and wonder why it's so important that the medium be seen as an art form at all.

The ignorance in these views stems from the fact that artistic ideas and innovations are what drive a medium forward. Taking a deeper look at games and the meaningful experiences they hold the potential to provide is going to improve the medium, not hurt it. The folks over at Extra Credits put this idea into words better than anyone else (as they often do).

It's almost as if the core gaming community sees art as some high-brow concept they neither have nor desire any part in, and so they fear its insertion into their precious, private medium... As if the word "art" itself conjures up images of museum galleries and stuffy English gentlemen smoking pipes.

Obviously, art is more than that, and more inclusive than that. Avoiding any conceited attempts at defining it, art typically represents some piece of the human experience—even if the artist intends to transcend them, we are all limited by our experiences as humans. If we are human, we can understand art. And because it can be perceived and analyzed through an infinite number of critical lenses, it's up to us to discern our own meaning from art. Even Ebert admits it comes down to individual opinion... The exclusivity of a piece of art, any piece of art, depends entirely upon whether or not we can view it or interact with it and gather some personal meaning from the experience. This could be a primal, impulsive response, or it could develop slowly over hours of thoughtful reflection.

There isn't a single person, even the hardest cynic in the gaming community, that can honestly claim they haven't felt an emotional response while playing a game. It doesn't have to be a deep, life-changing epiphany—for example, the acclaimed Zelda series was born out of Shigeru Miyamoto's memories of running around the Kyoto countryside as a child. If you played any of the games and experienced even the tiniest shred of excitement at discovering a secret in the woods, or a sense of wonder exploring an open field, or even nostalgia for your own adventurous youth... Guess what? You just gathered personal meaning from a representation of Miyamoto's human experience.

And it was still fun, wasn't it?

If it's all you're looking for, there will always be mindless games that will let you blast the heads off aliens... Just as there will always be mindless popcorn flicks to watch with your friends on a summer night. And there's nothing wrong with that! Escapist entertainment plays an important role in our culture, especially during difficult economic times. These type of games (or films, or books, or music) aren't going anywhere.

But it's not pretentious to analyze games as an art form, to look to the future and consider what sorts of unconventional experiences we can provide through their interactivity. Nor is it pushing the medium in a direction that conflicts with its aim to provide fun gameplay, our sacred staple.

In fact, great games are born when designers take risks and craft experiences that resonate with the player in innovative ways. Consider the consequences of choice in Mass Effect, or the bold, living backdrops in Assassin's Creed, or the sharp dialogue in Portal... All of those design choices were intentionally made to trigger an emotional response in the player. And did they cause the games to be any less fun? Or lose some part of what games should be? If anything, the opposite is true, as those are some of the most critically successful franchises of this generation.

So why is it important to look at games as an art form? Because that viewpoint has given us titles like the ones listed above. Remove the art label and you're invalidating the work of countless developers who sculpted the gorgeous world of Skyrim or scored the atmospheric environments in Red Dead Redemption.

The exciting thing about being indie developers is that we are on the front lines of this fight. We don't have to deal with any red tape or deadlines or annoying producers; we can lead the rest of the industry towards an innovative and artistic future. When an indie game finds success—look at Limbo or Minecraft or even FarmVille—the big publishing companies pay attention and start thinking that a little innovation might just be bankable. The story of how Portal came to be is probably the most inspiring example out there.

Not every game has to be "artsy" like Braid or Flower. But the innovations titles like these make in interactive storytelling are important steps in the advancement of games as a medium, all the way up the line to the biggest blockbuster. If you're sick of seeing the same muddy brown shooters year after year, we need to start seriously analyzing games as an art form and what types of experiences and emotions they truly hold the ability to deliver. The doors will swing open to entire genres that we've never seen before, to puzzle mechanics that will make our jaws drop in their ingenuity, to more complex characters than can be found in any other medium because we're the ones interacting with them.

New forms of artistic expression are never recognized as such, or fully understood, right away. It's unsurprising that games are no different in their infancy. What is surprising is the amount of people inside the gaming community (and even the game developers' community) who don't understand why this battle is an important one.

Innovative ideas are what drive the medium towards its deeply powerful potential, and those ideas are born when designers thoughtfully analyze the experience a game is meant to provide. If, say, Bioware didn't think of games as art, the world would have missed out on some amazing experiences.

Until next time, take care and happy holidays!