Video Games as Art

In the past 30 years, the world has seen video games come in to the public eye as a way to relax and unwind from the pressures of daily life. Here's a thought, can they be considered as Art? Certainly, but as the saying goes, "art is in the eye of the beholder"; meaning, to one person a video game as simple as "Pong" or "Super Mario Bros." art while the other would say "it's just another video game". I see certain video games as art, but only certain ones that follow my own criteria as to what I consider "Art" and Jason Rohrer's "Passage" is no exception.

The main premise of this short game is to show the stages of life (at least that's what I experienced). The game basically starts with the sprite (you) in its youth. As you progress through the game, you might come across a female character and a heart appears signifying that you and her are in love or married. The female character then also joins you in your journey through the progression of the game. What struck me the most was how both characters began to age as time passed. While the game continued the male sprite began losing his hair and color, his clothes changed style and his overall speed seemed to become slower and slower as time went on (this also happened to the female character). Towards the end if you have the said female character, she unfortunately dies where you both were last signifying another life event and that the game is almost over. Once your character "kicks the can", all that one is left with is a gravestone and the memory of the main character's journey through the obstacles that life throws at us on a daily basis.

I thought Rohrer was trying to prove a major point through this video game. From my perspective, I experienced the realities of life and the obstacles that are in store. I really didn't expect to see the main character to go through the stages of life and experience what you and I can experience in real life. I understand that there are other games that are similar but have more intricate plots, but this game simply shows the player that one is born to experience life and be expected to die at the end. You just can't get that from other video games because it wouldn't appeal to players. Yes, this does include the late Roger Ebert and he had a wallop of an interpretation of the game.

When Rohrer released the game, many players praised Rohrer and labeled his game as "art", and some critics just wouldn't have it. Now, Roger Ebert in 2005 reviewed the movie Doom in which he gave it a rating of 1 star which prompted a few gamers to disagree with the rating. The gamer in question argued that the movie was based on the video game rather than it being an original piece, and well Mr. Ebert retorted  by stating that "books and films are better mediums than games". There is fault to this claim made by Mr.Ebert; video games during the time of the Doom review, were starting to emerge with complex story-lines and scenes, much like their movie counterparts. For example, Half-Life 2 was released in late 2004 and was one of the many successful video games to really capture the player's attention not only as a game, but as an intricate and well-planned story that could be viewed as an action-drama. Another fallacy from Mr. Ebert is his quote "As long as there is a great movie unseen or a great book unread, I will continue to be unable to find the time to play video games." Obviously someone here is a bit of a penny pincher, but with all that aside, I find this to be a bit of a cliché since many can say that they have the time to play. To me, Ebert sounds like a grumpy old man who is afraid of radical change and is too stubborn to sit down and try it. In the end, it's still his opinion and he bases that on his own criteria.

As far as my criteria goes, video games are art. This can range from the 3-D (2-D) characters, to the music, to the background or sandbox environment. For example, the indie Playstation-exclusive Journey is art to me because of it's attention to aesthetic detail and how the story line flows with scenery the player goes through. The musical score for this was also a masterpiece with it also following the story up to the end.

To me, Music and the masterpieces of Bach, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky influenced my tastes and inspirations for art. I think my musical palette is far better developed than my artistic due to the fact that I actually play an instrument. Of the video game scores that I've listened to, I can say that the ones for Halo, Journey and L.A. Noire are the best I've heard. They leave a strong impact in the gameplay and story and frequently change based on any decision made by the player. Now I ask you the same question, are video games art?

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