Video Games and Art

[RavenCarver]

The other word I really hate seeing around is "art" and if games are that. That discussion gets very ugly very fast, and no one wins after having it.

I want to test this theory. Seems to me that most discussions around here are usually pretty civil (I think the evolution/creationism thread went better than expected, personally. PS, Don't bring that up here.)

So list some games that you feel are artistic and what qualifies them as such.

After thinking about it, one of the most recent games that I have played that felt really artistic and really well done is Bastion. Good gameplay, great visuals and soundtrack, and incredible narrative.

Also, recently, Limbo. Really dark game.

And last major one that comes to mind for me is Shadow of the Colossus. Also great narrative, visuals, and gameplay. The narrative is exceptional because of what it doesn't tell you, forcing you to think and reason and fill the holes yourself.

Perhaps, to me, thats what qualifies the game as an art form more than a mere game? A game that makes you think your own thoughts, and not being corralled into whatever thoughts the developers WANT you to have.

Another thought I had is how generally you see a higher porportion of "art" games coming from indie devs rather than AAA studios, but that's a correlation, not a causation.

[Cookies]

I think it's a bit retarded to say they can't be art.

2 good examples (as much as I don't like either of them) are:

Okami. This one is obvious, the entire game is like an old school japanese tapestry or painting. The arty graphic style is one of the most significant parts of the game and one that recieves most of its accolation.

El Shaddai. If this isn't art then I'm not sure what it is because it certainly isn't a game. It's got a slightly better than average story and awful gameplay, but the most striking thing about it is that every new stage has some new incredibly beautiful graphic style. The entire game could very easily be described as modern art (and not the crappy stick a piece of blu tac on a giant wall modern art). That's not to mention the cut scenes which look like they are handcrafted by angels (which is appropriate given the setting).

There's plenty more examples, but I think it's clear given that art is generally what you want it to be that many videogames really should be considered art.

[Cherub]

hmmm ''Machinarium'' is a sweet point and click adventure and the background etc. were all hand drawn.

Spoiler:

And of course all Final Fantasy series. I mean, look at Ultimecias castle. There is an Art Gallery.

Many games are really artistic.
And I don't mean just artistic in a way of visuality.
Also the story can be artistic.
Portal 1 and 2 are very good due to the story. during the more or less funny journey you will gather more and more informations about what happened earlier. And the story is imo really good and artistic.
And not to mention the Silent Hill series (SH 1-3). Many mysteries and really artistic story.

And yeah Okami and Shadow of the Colossus were great too.

[Cor Leonis]

There is a slight problem here; art is an incredibly broad term. A narrative of any sort is technically considered artistic, so basically every role-playing game ever made would fall under art. Hell, even Call Of Duty is technically an artwork because of the single-player campaign.

That said, I'll only discuss one game: the Legend Of Dragoon. I recently replayed it when it was released on the PSN a few weeks ago. I must say, it is one of the few games whose story entranced me. The story had the the perfect combination of unique and cliché plot elements to make me want to play for 10 hours a day. The amazing and unique gameplay system also helped, as well.

I think I'll leave it at that; I'd go on all day about the Legend Of Dragoon. I'm curious to what others perceive about "video games as art."

[Galadín]

The top three most artistic game series' would be The Legend Of Zelda, Final Fantasy (of course) and Suikoden.

Why?

Because they:

> have

great narrative, visuals, and gameplay

> are games

that makes you think your own thoughts, and not being corralled into whatever thoughts the developers WANT you to have.

> have

the the perfect combination of unique and cliché plot elements to make me want to play for 10 hours a day.

> have incredible soundtracks that will reduce you to a blubbering baby in 10 years time when you are perchance clearing out your music library and see your collection of OSTs. When listening to them you will recall all the fond memories you have of that time in your life.
> are games that you will always remember because of the engaging characters and awesome storylines and sheer epicness.

I think the people on this forum truely understand the artistic genius that goes into making these games. I have been onto other forums and have seen this topic of conversation before and like it says in the first post, it turned real ugly, real fast. It baffled me, because like Cookies said:

I think it's a bit retarded to say they can't be art.

art is generally what you want it to be.

[Vance]

First of all, ALL video games are art. Because the core of art, and the minimum requirement to be considered art, is creative expression, and that exist in all games. Some of them might not seem very artistic when you play them, but it's important to remember that even bad art is still art.

As for good examples of games that are more obviously art, Cor already mentioned my first choice: The Legend of Dragoon. That game was a master piece from a story point of view. And a lot of the locations were simply gorgeous, with a lot of the later locations (particularly the Wingly areas) very original as well.

Another example is Castelvania: Symphony of The Night. Alucard looked like a moving painting, the backgrounds were beautifully drawn, the monsters were all well designed, the music was wonderful and matched perfectly to each area, and the story, while very simple, was very well done. And that was a huge run-on sentence.

[Zodiark]

Art is basically Creation.
Anything created can be considered art.

Whether or not something is truely 'Art' is purely based on opinion and opinion only. When it comes to specifics, a lot of people have incredibly high standards

Personally, I think Okami was AMAZING. Red Dead Redemption is also considered to be 'Art'.

[Pastulio123]

I'm gonna say Kingdom Hearts. hehe. I played the 2nd one first because a friend told me about KH and I didn't think the II in the cover meant 2. Just thought it was some fancy part of the design. But I guess it's the themes involved and just the story in general that makes me think of it as "art". I mean, that game was so amazing 8'O I even got emotional at times. yesyes.