Upon the eminent start of my 2nd quarter of ITT, I've been
thinking quite a bit about my chosen career, that is video game design.
I've been thinking about the place of video games in society, and where
they will be in the future. I firmly believe that video games are
quickly maturing into a respectable, artistic platform, and are not
just a pass time any more, and they are not just "toys".
Art, in
my opinion, is any form of self-expression, whether it be speech,
music, film, writing, painting, drawing, sculpting, or photography. If
a persons thoughts are recorded or at least provoked in some way
through any one of the mediums, however subtle of obvious the
reflection is, then a piece of art has been crafted, and under no
circumstances should that art, however vile or immoral it may seem to a
critic(s), be censored by the opinions of on-lookers. If a writer
wishes to include content in his/her text about a topic that would be
controversial to the general public, then the only obstacle the writer
should be confronted with is his/her own conscious; that goes for any
type of art. This concept of non-censorship has been completely
abandoned with respect to the medium of film, and video games, yet no
rating system has ever been in place for books or music. The reason for
this is simply that the medium of film and video game is young, and the
progressive nature of these mediums has yet to be truly and completely
accepted, both are still widely considered to be nothing more than
entertainment. This is why the mature television shows are shown late
at night, and this is why rating systems are in place. the ratings are
supposedly meant to safe guard the malleable minds of children from
ideas that the majority of society deem as immoral, inappropriate, or
sinful. Somehow, some where along the road, concepts like murder,
death, sex, anger, vengeance, temptation, torture and foul language
became vices, and maybe they are, and maybe its a good thing that
parents are shielding children's eyes from these things, but when
censorship becomes the responsibility of society rather than the
parents, then human nature, and the potential of the human mind is
gradually suppressed to the point where art is more about social
entertainment rather than social commentary.
The art of film
(this includes Television) has within it a lot of potential and many
different aspects of this medium allow for interaction with the viewers
in unique ways. Cinematography is a very deep well to explore,
involving camera angles, special effects, lighting, scale, the set, and
sound effects; all of which can be combined together to establish
certain feelings in the viewers, or certain reactions. Film can utilize
several aspects of its nature to convey a message in a very unique,
intense, and immersive way. To immerse an audience into a storyline so
deeply, that they feel like they are part of the fictional world, part
of the fictional story; this is one of the ultimate goals of any medium
that tells a story, and the medium of film can capture an audience in a
phenomenally deep way. Film takes advantage of one's eye sight,
hearing, and thinking capacity in the conveyance of the story line, so
the potential to dramatically affect a viewers mind set is there. A few
films/television series that truly master immersion and honest
self-expression on the part of the creators, are Daren Aronofsky's
Requiem For A Dream, Ridley Scott's Gladiator, Christian Volckman's
Renaissance, Joss Whedon's Firefly, Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica,
and Yimou Zhang's Hero and Curse of the Golden Flower. I have shed
tears in certain movies or TV series (and I am not ashamed to say so)
because I was so rapt by the characters and the world they live in that
the tragedy they faced, hit close to home for me as well. (SPOILER
WARNING)-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7zQfYFDHyk
- this moment in Battlestar Galactica Season 3, brought tears to my
eyes, because I knew what Saul had been through, and I know that he is
the real hero. (OKAY NO MORE SPOILERS).
The reason I mentioned
the medium of film was because is has so many parallels to the medium
of video games. The only difference is of course that video games are
interactive, it's that difference though that fascinates me. Take for
instance a good horror film, one that is actually scary, suspenseful,
and one that will leave you with unnaturally vivid nightmares after
viewing it. I don't know about you but I'm drawing a blank here. The
few I did come up with are more aligned with the psychological thriller
genre. I have argued the point many times before, that video games pull
off the horror genre much more successfully than Films do. This is
because the interactive element helps to immerse the player even deeper
into the plot, and considering the player makes his own choices about
where to go and how to get there, the experience is a lot more
meaningful and scarier. In a horror film, it is often the case that an
unintentional dramatic irony develops early on simply because the
viewers are not participating in the plot and have no say over the
choices the characters make, so the audience is inevitably going to
arrive at the conclusion that a monster will definitely turn that
corner because if it doesn't then there is no movie. Although the genre
does not contain some of my favorite video games, Survival/Horror is
perhaps the genre with the most potential to genuinely affect the
player mentally during the game and after he/she is done playing. Now
since I am tired of writing, I will just sum this up by listing some of
the more recent games that are helping to define video games as a
medium for true artistic expression:
Psychonauts
Okami
Killer 7
Indigo Prophecy
Silent Hill
Beyond Good and Evil
Breakdown
Half-Life
Crysis
Rez
BioShock
Otogi: Myth of Demons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZySNXLnCtQ