Heyo
Veteran Member
I'm not a gamer but I might know a thing or two about a medium that had, for a long time, the same problem of being (or being perceived as) shallow: comix. They were smut, a danger to the youth, cheap, worthless.
And, to be honest, most were. There were some classics that today are seen as early masterpieces, Little Nemo, Felix the Cat and some which are or aren't comix. (Wilhelm Busch is considered illustrated poetry or, maybe, a precursor to comix?)
The game world has them, too. Pong, Rouge and Pacman will always be "classics".
But then came a long streak of cheaply produced mass products with no artistic value. Formulaic stories, exchangeable graphics, just the same as the one that sold before. That goes for comix as for games.
Comix only really got out of it with ambitious story tellers who intentionally didn't produce for a mass market (and subsequently weren't called comix any more but graphic novels). I don't know enough about games to say if there are graphic novels of gaming.
And, to be honest, most were. There were some classics that today are seen as early masterpieces, Little Nemo, Felix the Cat and some which are or aren't comix. (Wilhelm Busch is considered illustrated poetry or, maybe, a precursor to comix?)
The game world has them, too. Pong, Rouge and Pacman will always be "classics".
But then came a long streak of cheaply produced mass products with no artistic value. Formulaic stories, exchangeable graphics, just the same as the one that sold before. That goes for comix as for games.
Comix only really got out of it with ambitious story tellers who intentionally didn't produce for a mass market (and subsequently weren't called comix any more but graphic novels). I don't know enough about games to say if there are graphic novels of gaming.