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Hello Lovlies and welcome to the Looky Here!, the first in a series of posts where I explain why I think a medium that's perhaps underrated should recognized as a legitimized form of art or academia, and help to identify and correct the perceived stigma that hangs around it. In this post, I'll be discussing Video Games.
I know I'm at risk for sounding pretentious or hipster-ish when I talk about this, and maybe I'm fighting a war that's already been won, but from what I still experience with everyday interactions with people who don't play video games, and even some who do (or at least did), I think this is still something that needs to be said. And that's actually a good place to start.
My Experience
Already this is tilting more toward editorial then persuasion but I find it important to first define myself and where I stand in this topic before I move to why. I am, at best, a video game enthusiast. I play and I play often, I form complex opinions and inquires about the narrative and mechanics when I play, I use the experience I had playing to inspire and fuel my own creative output. I actively seek out opinions other then my own to better understand all the angles to approach a video game from, however lightly I participate in the discussion. And while I try to venture outside of my own preferences in terms of genre, there are still places I refuse to go simply because it counteracts my purpose of seeking entertainment (chief among them, FPS's and Sports Games). And when I finish a game that has a lot of depth and plenty to dissect, such as The Stanley Parable developed by Galactic Cafe and released late last 2013, I put down my controller and venture out into the world, eager to find someone to discuss this experience with. These people are few and far in between. When I go to my contemporaries, I find they judge the game against whatever standard template they perceive games should be rather then giving it the freedom to be what it tries to be. When I try to find books to read on the subject that truly explore the implications of video games and what can be done with them, I find it difficult. There not found on shelves at bookstores or libraries. I find there's a fundamental difference in when I ask my parents or friends (for any given holiday) for a video game rather then a book. To them, one is toy and one is a tool.What Video Games Are-Introduction
Video games are a relatively new medium, not even a century old yet. They are something to appreciate and interact with. At the beginning they present a goal to fulfill and end when that goal is reached, in the simplest terms. In this medium, the emphasis is put on the journey rather then the reward. And, more often then not, they are made for entertainment. These are things everyone can agree on.
The Stigma
By and by the wall I usually find myself up against when it comes to video games is that they are childish and don't require much thought. They are seen as what they were originally intended for at their inception, a way to pass the time for people with the time to spend. Not inherently anything to be looked down upon (depending on who your talking too) but not anything to necessarily be respected either. You score the touch down, dance the dance, save the princess, not much more to it. At large the definition of video games is simple. And that's where the problem lies.
Expand
Yes, there are more video games then not that are intended for the use of children; and yes, at face value video games do not demand much thought outside of a given goal. But to ignore the potential of what the game offers is like to read the bible and only see it as a story. There is so much more to it then that! Just looking at what I specifically look for in a game, a seamless and unique combination of game play mechanics and narrative, you get the chance to explore into the mind of the developer, much like you would in a book or movie. Only the developer, in taking you into this world, surrenders a great amount of control over it in letting you explore on your own, make your own choices; giving you a chance to fail, succeed, or even deviate from your given task, gifting you with a certain amount of ownership over the game yourself. And recently great things have come from this relationship between developer and gamer. Now there are titles on the rise that are more aware that you, the gamer, are seeking to know more through the game and as such try to weave a message into the game play for you to decode. Off of the top of my head, I can think of two titles that do this and do this well. One, which I mentioned earlier The Stanley Parable (available on Steam), and two, Journey (available on PSN). Both of these games are meant to tease you with exactly what the developers are trying to get at and leave you to figure out the rest. Taking it at face value is not experiencing it as a whole. Other games that are much less "artsy-fartsy", such as The Last of Us (available for PS3) or Bioshock Infinite (available for PS3, PC, and Xbox 360) have engrossing narratives that invoke emotions and empathy just as a movie or TV show would, only to a much greater extent because in the game, you aren't just watching the character go through it, you are the character going through it.
What Video Games Are-The Conclusion
Stats of the Week
Song: Sunken Secrets (Dire, Dire Docks) by Fishy
Book: How To Do Things With Video Games by Ian Bogost
Word: Perspicacity
Quote: "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree, it will live it's whole life thinking it is stupid."
~Albert Einstien
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