The Art of Gaming

Games can’t be art, apparently.

Well, that’s if you believe Mr. Roger Ebert, who argues this very point in a recent blog post;

 “One obvious difference between art and games is that you can win a game. It has rules, points, objectives, and an outcome... an immersive game without points or rules ceases to be a game and becomes a representation of a story, a novel, a play, dance, a film. Those are things you cannot win; you can only experience them.”

Tosh. Ebert would not be the first to assume that he had the medium of games figured out. Think of some of the stereotypical images of ‘gaming’ which many see as typical of games – sweaty teens turning the air blue, red in the face, pulling the trigger until they black out from malnutrition. Unwashed football fans ripping one other’s personal pride to shreds in Fifa 10. Even happy families playing Wii Sports golf, rosier though the image is, are a far cry from achieving anything ‘artistic’ when they play.

Well, that’s all true. In the same way that much ‘art’ is unfettered nonsense (cross-sections of Sharks, or diamond-encrusted skulls are not art), or many films are less about serious cinematic issues (Harry Brown, Billy Elliot) and more about inane fart jokes and boobs (American Pie, Road Trip), many games are not about serious artistic direction, but simply exist for the purpose of having fun.

This is where Mr.Ebert, I think, is getting confused. Because in the games industry, for every Modern Warfare 2 there is a serious, art-driven title given much less media exposure.

Games can be art despite also serving a purpose. A painting on a canvas is pretty straightforward – some paint, an image and perhaps a subtle dig at society. A film, similarly, can go about creating whatever representations it wants, because all you need to do is watch. A game, as Mr. Ebert quite rightly points out, carries a goal, requires an input. It’s something you can win or lose.

But that doesn’t mean that they can’t be artistic, or that they can’t carry within them a sense of character, of commentary, of inherent beauty. Think about Okami, the criminally-overlooked Zelda-alike which hit PS2 late in its life, and was more recently (excellently...) ported to Wii. The game had a goal; to push through the story, beat enemies and kill bosses. But the execution of that goal, and of individual aims within that game, was nothing short of an artistic masterpiece. At the press of a button, you could call upon a ‘Celestial Brush’, turning the very environment around you into your canvas. Drawing a line across an enemy in ink would do damage, and encircling a dead tree would rejuvenate it, instantly, restoring rich watercolours to its immediate surroundings. Not only did this form a sense of creating art whilst conquering your goals, but the very presentation of each environment was artistic in itself. The graphics were lusciously poured onto a sort of ‘rice paper’ effect, every tree had a hand-drawn look, every enemy seemed to move as if a painting had come to life. Okami is art.

Heavy Rain is another prime example of a different sort of art. Sony’s hard-hitting, gritty ‘interactive movie’ dealt with serious issues, placed the player in difficult moral dilemmas, and did so whilst maintaining an air of mature realism. Its story-telling was at times clunky, the controls could be chaotic, but as a stab at genuine art, serious narrative and exposition, it showed how far gaming has come.

These are perfect examples of games which can be artistic in spite of the need to ‘win’, or to achieve something. But there are a whole host of games which require no such thing. There are games which outright encourage artistic expression and individuality.

You may not have heard of Korg-10 DS. It’s a ‘game’ which allows the player to create music, a sort of virtual synthesiser inside a DS cartridge. Its bleak black and white presentation, low-fi feel and niche appeal didn’t translate into the hottest sales, but it’s a very versatile tool for music creation. This month, a trio of teens took to the stage in Germany to perform a gig using only their Korgs and DSes.

Similarly, Flipnote Studio, the free DSiWare application, is art. It is actually art. The whole ‘game’ involves drawing a series of slides by hand with the stylus and replaying them to create miniature, amateur movies to upload online. Aardman animations, the studio behind Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run, have already created several superb Flipnote animations to help publicise the ‘game’.

Ever since Mario Paint on SNES, gamers have been encouraged to get creative. Even today, in the likes of Littlebigplanet, Drawn to Life or the upcoming Modnation Racers, games have allowed people to express themselves.

Whether that expression is by games developers, creating environments which carry the creativity and beauty of a modern masterpiece, creating narratives which ask the player serious questions, or it comes from gamers themselves, constructing their own artistic creations, the truth is that gaming has never been closer to art than it is today.

Just look at Wipeout HD. What a masterpiece.