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SvennoJ on 05 April 2013
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vfguy said:
Ebert HATED Transformers 2 and 3. Very funny reviews.



I think what complicates videogames as art is the way games are consumed. If the viewer could edit, rearrange, and change Citizen Kane to their own liking, would it still be art?

Do some games have artistic merit in how they look? Yes. In the stories they tell? VERY rarely. Games have never made me cry or tear up, while many movies and books have.

Even the best game stories wouldn't rate as movies or books (see any MGS, GOW (either one), FF, or whatever.

Have we had a Citizen Kane, Godfather, Chinatown, or any other masterpiece that truly says something worthwhile about the human condition? Not yet. I don't even think we have had a Birth of a Nation yet. Games with interesting stories often rely too much on other media like film, television, or books.

Games like Braid and Journey do show that we are getting there, but we aren't there yet.

It is early days yet.

I have never felt a sudden sense of loss and loneliness when my mysterious partner disappears, nor a sense of joy when we understand each other through simple motions as in Journey.
I have never felt as nervous during a movie when I have to leave my partner behind as in Ico.
I have never felt a sense of guilt for my actions during a movie as in SotC.

And then there are all the wonderful worlds to get lost in, even in simple games like Dear Esther and Proteus.
Or different ways of story telling like Thirty flights of loving, To the moon or The company of myself.

I have felt more emotion and introspection from certain games then from Citizen Kane, Godfather and Chinatown. Sure, there have been other movies that did that better for me then games, but art is a personal experience. Movies far more often evoke emotion, no surprise with over a hundred years of movies. Same with books, which have been around far longer.

Yes, it still is early days. Yet plenty games have already managed to evoke that feeling of having witnessed something special just as much as a good book or movie can.