| Desroko said: Again, you'd be a lot more persuasive if you were able to frame this argument without viewing videogames through the lens of another medium. There's no reason why they should be trying to be more like cinema, or literature. That's the opposite of the artistc integrity you claim to want. Video games should develop their own strengths instead of trying to contort themselves into something they're not. They're interactive - when you lose the interactivity, you've lost what makes them unique, and you probably shouldn't have bothered with the form in the first place. And I think you have a rather simplistic and rigid view of human emotional complexity. You cite works of art that inspire negative emotions in the viewer, but it's a mistake to think that you can't feel bad about something and enjoy it at the same time. Requiem for a Dream is one hell of a downer, but it's simultaneously very enjoyable, for me at least. Emotions can coexist. The idea that serious art can't also be enjoyable is pretty shallow criticism. |
RFAD is a downer and while you may find it enjoyable it does the opposite of what video games are seen to exist for. It throws you into an even darker reality than you are already living in while games are seen as a medium to help you escape from reality. That is one major perpective flaw that the industry has set in stone to follow in game design as it simply avoids diving into the realities, shadows and complexities of our existence and instead does the best to make you forget about them. To make you complacent in a virtual world rather than using the tools of interactive media to inspire you think about the things you're trying to avoid.
Wanting a good story doesn't mean I want a movie or a book. A story can be told interactively using the strength of the medium yet not sacrificing any of the dialogue or detail that gives movies or books meaning. That said, story and dialogue are not a necessity in visual interactive media. You can create art and give meaning visually, through actions or game design. Game designers of today however are a generation that is only interested in creating "bigger, better and more badass" rather than anything perhaps not inherently visually satisfying but rather deeply relevant, symbolic or meaningful.
I'm not
