VIDEO-GAMING / LP SERIES PART 1 - art games
You may
not know it from this blog, but on my main tumblr blog, I post a lot of let’s
play videos & gaming videos. & I
know this is more of an “art-oriented” blog, but I want to talk about video
games & gaming culture for a little bit.
Because I can. Because it’s my
blog. So deal with it.
Video
games are a medium that isn’t always addressed.
Most art buffs take an elitist stance on the matter [but then again when DON’T they take an
elitist stance on things?] Yes there
are a lot of first-person-shooter games, but even THOSE games have finesse
& quality graphics nowadays. It
takes sometimes hundreds of people just to make the pixels that make up
that man running across the screen with a gun & all the game physics
keeping his world together with all the objectives & environment graphics
& gameplay. People who can’t get
past the PAINTINGS ARE THE ONLY ART THERE NOT OTHER SUBSTITUTES mindset short-sell
video games; they are worth more than those fools give them credit.
Plus there
is such a genre as an “art game;” not every game is a Call of Duty remake or Grand
Theft Auto or all those other games “polluting the minds of American children”
& all that nonsense. Art games are
games that have almost transcended “gaming” to become TRULY art; they are
recognized as being such. They are the
elite. If you want a definition of an
art game, here’s the wiki def:
The term "art game" was first used academically in 2002
and it has come to be understood as describing a video game designed to emphasize art or
whose structure is intended to produce some kind of reaction in its audience.[3] Art games are interactive[4] (usually competitive against the computer, self, or other
players[5]), and they
are the result of artistic
intent by the party offering
the piece for consideration.[6] They also typically go out of their
way to have a unique, unconventional look, often standing out for aesthetic
beauty or complexity in design.[7] The concept has been extended by some
art theorists to the realm of modified ("modded")
gaming when modifications have been made to existing non-art-games to produce
graphic results intended to be viewed as an artistic display… Modified games
created for artistic purposes are sometimes referred to as "video game art."
Art
games are often considered a means of demonstrating video
games as works of art.
2 games
that I’ve become really well-acquainted with, & are “art games” are LIMBO
& Journey. Today I will discuss
LIMBO.
Here’s a bit
of a wiki splurge on LIMBO:
Limbo is a 2D sidescroller … [the]
player guides an unnamed boy through dangerous environments and traps as he
searches for his sister. The developer built the game's puzzles expecting the
player to fail before finding the correct solution. Playdead [the game’s
developing company] called the style of play "trial and death", and
used gruesome imagery for the boy's deaths to steer the player from unworkable
solutions.
The game is presented in monochromatic black-and-white tones, using lighting,
film grain effects and minimal ambient sounds to create an eerie atmosphere
often associated with the horror genre. Journalists praised the dark
presentation, describing the work as comparable to film noir and German
Expressionism. Based on its aesthetics, reviewers classified Limbo as an example of "video games as art". Limbo received positive reviews, but its
minimal story polarised critics; some critics found the open-ended work to have
deeper meaning that tied well with the game's mechanics, while others believed
the lack of significant plot and abrupt ending detracted from the game. … The
title won several awards from industry groups after its release, and was named
as one of the top games for 2010 by several publications.
I had
always heard of LIMBO during its release, but I never really pursued it until around
a month ago, when I saw that one of my favorite youtubers, Markiplier, had
played it [I will be going into Mark in much more detail in my let’s players / let’s playing / gaming
experience blogpost]. He has a playlist
of his gaming experience & you can find here:
I did not
know what to expect when I went in. All
I knew were the aesthetics – the stark blacks & whites of the gameplay
& the relatively simplistic style of the game. There is no dialogue & there are barely
any sounds. But despite the simplicity,
it immerses you. It grabs you &
holds you because it’s so breath-takingly fresh & beautiful. It is pure innovation. & on many levels, it’s just a boy trying
to struggle though all of these tasks.
Just… wow.
These beautiful
screenshots can’t even do the game justice.
Because besides the beauty, there is a dark / sinister element to
it. As I was watching, I was horrified. I blogged that it was:
Because
during the game, other children are attacking you – brutally. The entire WORLD is attacking you; it does
NOT want you to live. It’s almost
unnerving how committed these people, insects, & forces of nature want to
see you fail. You almost want to give in
to failure. You almost want to give up
in life. But something keeps you going, despite
the difficulty of the puzzles & the challengers; something keeps you
advancing. & when you finally finish
the game, you feel accomplished. & I
don’t want to spoil the ending but… your “life” is also up to interpretation. But the game’s ambiguous nature is also part
of its beauty – there is no correct interpretation of the game. The story of the boy & his sister are
entirely up to you. YOU can create the
narrative. Is the boy alive? Was he alive
in the first place? Is he alive and the
sister dead? Or is it the other way
around? Was this place Limbo to begin
with? Or is he in Limbo now? What is reality? What is life?
What is death? Philosophy
majors will have a fun time dissecting the ending / rebirth.
But the
balance between the ultra-violence & the innocence is done masterfully, as
well as the film noire mystery-solving elements. I recommend it this game. I recommend that you play as this little boy,
vulnerable to everything around him, & yet he survives. I recommend that you experience LIMBO &
all of its glory. It’s widely available across
the platforms – PC, XBOX 360, PS3, MAC OS X… so there are no excuses. Why HAVEN’T you played it yet, if you have
the opportunity to do so? Like if you don't play it, the spider will get you.
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