IGN Editorial: Blinded by MARIO

[Kasz216]

Masakari said:

Kasz216 said:

Masakari said:
I'm of course speaking in overall terms, just used story as an example. I think people read way too much into Mario, Nintendo isn't out trying to make citizen kane when they make it, they just do some good level design that results in fun gameplay. Case in point: I fail to see what you are saying that Mario compares to Beowulf.

So a game where a fat plumber jumps platforms and gathers powerups and coins somehow equates to an epic long form medieval poem?
I'm not sure i'm following that train of thought, and I don't mean this with sarcasm or anything, I really don't get what you're saying.

Because if you're saying it's a "classical" way of doing entertainment, that just means it's meant to be immediate and satisfying, I fail to see classical literature in there. In fact, Mario is anything BUT literature, and I don't mean walls of text.

Like I said, I think people read too much into Mario that they end up projecting stuff in there that just isn't there.

The fact that you can't see it explains the problems you have with the genre.

You seem to not understand the general basis of videogames as an art in your attempts to try and compare it to other forms of art.

 

It'd be equilvent to trying to judge a book based on it's pictures... since that's how you judge a painting.

Actually, no, that's not the sole criteria in judging a painting. I'm an artist, mind you, with a classical background, and I work in the videogame industry.

I understand videogames as an art, I just don't think a videogame is solely about the gameplay. While one of the things that sets games apart from other media is player input, that isn't it's sole defining characteristic.

But further discussion is a moot point, we both have different opinions. Mario isn't a masterpiece, it's a good game with limited goals, and people project stuff to it that just isn't there.

And the whole "comparing games to movies thing is wrong" is just a fashionable thing to say, all art forms and media have different characteristics, but they have always adapted elements and cross-polinated with each other, it's called synergy. Saying two different media are different and cannot relate is an extremely oversimplistic way of putting things. Besides the fact you are putting way too much literal meaning into this, I already said a cinematic game and cinema are two different things, in no part of my posts did I say games needed to be like cinema. That just gets you the interactive movie that is MGS4.

Art is defined by it's well... defining characteristics... in which for videogames would in fact be the gameplay, level design and conveying the expierence through the gameplay.  These are things mario does extremely well.

Another great example is Left 4 Dead.  This is actually a REALLY good example of an artistic game.  There is little story, there is no deeper meaning... but what does it do?   It conveys the feelings of a zombie apocolypse really well... and that's all it does.

For someone "trained in classical art" it's distressing that you don't realize that the point of art isn't always to have "a higher deeper meaning" but the important part is what it evokes.  Classical music for example don't have any deeper meanings or truths, but are soley about the feelings they envoke while playing.

For someone who is "in the game industry" it's distressing you don't realize the main facets of well... a game.