Art within Games: Part 3 (Final)

   Games as an art form. A lot of people see a game as just a hobby, but can games be artistic? I think it depends on how we define an artistic game. Visually artistic, emotionally, inspirational, or just well build game play? Each person has there own view. The definition of "art" according to Google is "The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power" By this definition the answer is yes, but not everyone agrees.
   According to film critic Roger Ebert, Video games can never be art, and this is because "you can win a game", He doesn't talk about the different visuals and events within a game, he defines his judgment on the basis that you can not win a piece of art and you can win a game, but not all games have a finishing point, an end, that point where you have won or lost, some games go on forever, one that springs to mind is Runescape, an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) that is always being updated and has no one set storyline that when finished is the end of the game. Does this mean that because of this factor, Runescape is a piece of art? Personally i wouldn't say so, and i have spent many hours on it. He later goes on to say that "Bobby Fischer, Michael Jordan and Dick Butkus never said they thought their games were an art form. Nor did Shi Hua Chen, winner of the $500,000 World Series of Mah Jong" But by Google's definition, they are, and i would argue that Basketball and American football are an "expression or application of human creative skill". But Roger doesn't say what he defines art as, apart from mentioning "I tend to think of art as usually the creation of one artist" which could be argued again, that a game is. One person came up with he initial idea, in the same way he says that a group dance is art, as it is choreographed by one individual. So really it comes down to opinion.

   I consider Limbo and Journey to be pretty artsy games, visually Limbo's simple, a black and white side scroller full of puzzles, Journey is also simple but in a different sense of the word, it has a very basic story line and setting, yet it maintains a very detailed and beautiful 3D world to glide and roam around in, some people fail to realize these games actually have a story line at all because there so basic. Limbo's story line consists of you searching for your sister in purgatory and in Journey you spend all your time traveling to a mountain.

   After searching for more games like this to play, i found multiple lists of what are considered to be artsy games, their's games that approach art, ridiculously artsy video games, 10 best artsy PC games and 10 artsy fartsy games for people who like artsy fartsy things. Each of these lists gave me a better insight into what people find "artsy" within a game. And surprisingly the two games that lead me to this topic were nowhere to be found, instead games like Bioshock, Portal and Metal gear solid 4 came up, don't get me wrong there great games but in my opinion there not what i would call artsy. I also found games that i would barely call games, yet do strike me as the thought provoking games that some player consider very artsy, as there not your typical game, such as "The Graveyard" and "Passage". Which from what i'm told, because i'm yet to play them, last about 2 minutes and consist of an extremely, and i can't stress that enough, extremely basic story line. Within Passage you can either walk to the right, or left, but you can only progress by walking right, as you do so you get older and eventually die, the end. Not much in the way of game play, but if that's what passes for an artsy game, so be it.

   After the disappointing result of just searching for artsy games i turned to the BAFTA's, because surely they know what there talking about right? Well kind of, the 2013 winner speaks for its self, Journey, not only did it win Artistic Achievement, it also won Audio Achievement, Online-Multiplayer, Original Music and Game Design, so all in all, a well rounded game, and i suppose the nominees weren't too bad either, Borderlands 2, Dear Esther, Far Cry 3, Halo 4 and The Room. Borderlands remains one of my favorite games, with one of the main reasons being its art style, simplistic almost cartoon like, without finding itself labeled as cel-shaded. Something different from the same boring clone like style in most other games, so i'm happy that made it on the list, along with Dear Esther and the room, but halo 4 and Far cry 3, i don't consider their art style as anything different from other games and in the story line sense there nothing special either, especially Far Cry 3, its just standard settings with standard weapons and standard enemies, there must be another game that could have taken its place, surely! I guess 2013 wasn't a good year for art innovation in games, lets see what next year holds.

    So in conclusion, from what i can gather about artsy games, you either get visually interesting games, from a design point of view, like Borderlands, Shadow of the Colossus and Bioshock. Deep hidden meaning, think more about your life games, The Graveyard, Every day the same dream and Passage. Or theirs the puzzle games, which are also usually also visually amazing, The Room, Braid and Limbo. But mainly what i found out is that when it comes to what an artsy game actually is, it's really up to you!