So as an avid gamer, I was always quick to defend video games as a legitimate art form.
But I’ve come to realise that maybe I don’t actually treat games like I do, say literature, for example. When I’m reading (particularly if I’m drunkenly stumbling around in “the cannon”) I just take it for granted that I’m supposed to be analysing the hell out of it. The nerdy references, what the text means etc. and I’m no art student either, I just read books. But that’s the way culture has pretty much taught me to view the “arts” in general.
Cinephiles gush about film theory and the various artistic movements and call backs prevalent in the medium.
So again, there’s this almost osmosis style of understanding that movies are often an art form. Criticised as such.
But though I greatly enjoy playing games and I could probably analyse many in a similar way, there’s a disconnect. Perhaps born from societal expectations. When reviewing games, gamers typically focus on things like game play mechanics, graphics, characters and story. Maybe also how flexible or nonlinear it is.
But there’s no real discussion about critical theory. Indie games sometimes bring up good discussions, but gamers simply don’t talk about games the way that cinephiles discuss movies or book worms talk about books. Even I don’t really discuss games in the same manner I would if I were gushing over Oscar Wilde.
Is it just because games are a new medium? Can they be explored in the same manner we fight over say Shakespeare?
Or is this simply their fate?
But I’ve come to realise that maybe I don’t actually treat games like I do, say literature, for example. When I’m reading (particularly if I’m drunkenly stumbling around in “the cannon”) I just take it for granted that I’m supposed to be analysing the hell out of it. The nerdy references, what the text means etc. and I’m no art student either, I just read books. But that’s the way culture has pretty much taught me to view the “arts” in general.
Cinephiles gush about film theory and the various artistic movements and call backs prevalent in the medium.
So again, there’s this almost osmosis style of understanding that movies are often an art form. Criticised as such.
But though I greatly enjoy playing games and I could probably analyse many in a similar way, there’s a disconnect. Perhaps born from societal expectations. When reviewing games, gamers typically focus on things like game play mechanics, graphics, characters and story. Maybe also how flexible or nonlinear it is.
But there’s no real discussion about critical theory. Indie games sometimes bring up good discussions, but gamers simply don’t talk about games the way that cinephiles discuss movies or book worms talk about books. Even I don’t really discuss games in the same manner I would if I were gushing over Oscar Wilde.
Is it just because games are a new medium? Can they be explored in the same manner we fight over say Shakespeare?
Or is this simply their fate?