Can Video Games be Art?

Over the past few days I've come across a number of blogs which have broached this subject. Its the kind of argument which brings up a vitriolic rage in many a gamer and comments on the subject can go into the thousands (see Roger Ebert's post here). I plant my feet firmly in the "games can be art" camp.

Unfortunately, it comes down to that all-to-often carted out stumbling block - definition. I view art as an interpretation. RightGamer at DominantGenes (RG falls firmly on the opposite side to me, agreeing with Roger Ebert in his assertion that games can never be art) states the following:

Professional painters, musicians and cartoonists are all considered artists regardless of the quality of their pieces and no one would try to dispute this. Now professional game designers and developers are not generally associated with being artists but if the final product truly is a piece of art like some gamers claim, then why not label these people as such?

I argued that whilst these above named professions are largely considered artists, I cannot make the same sweeping generalisation about their work. Justin Bieber is most definitely a musical artist, but I would not say his work is art. *Swoosh* That was the sound of a thousand angry tweenage girls all partaking in a sharp intake of breath. I'm also fairly sure that there are a significant number of people who would not consider Tracey Emin's work art, or Jackson Pollock, or Michael Jackson, or Banksy, etc etc. What it boils down to, is that art is an interpretation.

Its a wishy-washy Postmodern argument I know, and as Social Scientist I'm loathed to bring it out. But when applied to a medium such as art it is hard to ignore. I don't think you could cite a piece of work which can be universally and objectively called "art" - there is no essential element which exists which pushes a piece from "object" to "art". I could rant on about signifier and signified, perception, consensus, habitus, Bourdieu, Foucault, Baudrillard, Magritte, ceci n'est pas une pipe... But ultimately you cannot ignore that each and every image we see in this world, however critically acclaimed, is seen through our eyes, and each and every image is then interpreted by our brains - it is changed and twisted and then out pops a conclusion. Whether that conclusion is that it's art or not is not objective, it is wholly subjective.

Of course, that means that Ebert and RG are entirely correct - to them gaming cannot be art - their definition doesn't allow it. But to me, gaming can be and is art - Portal is art, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is art, Half-Life 2 is art, heck... Final Fantasy VII is art - these games speak to me on a visceral level, they evoke emotions through characters and visuals which far outstrip the vast majority of paintings and films.

The other option is that art has some existence which is external to those actors involved in its creation. That it somehow pre-exists interpretation. I just cannot bend my brain to consider that there exists anything in our society which has not been created by the people who exist and have existed within it. There is no society external to the actor. So, there is no art external to the actor. Art is something which sits deep within our soul; it is for no-one else to decide on our behalf.

Werewolf: A Family game of Betrayal, Deception and Murder

Early last year I came across the following article on wired.co.uk: Werewolf: How a parlour game became a tech phenomenon by Margaret Robertson.

Robertson introduced me to a game which, since then, I've played with my friends whenever we've got enough people together in a room. If you have the chance, give the article a read, but I'll describe the rules to you here and hope you can spread the word. The game is called Werewolf.

Now, I understand if you've stumbled across this you might have already heard of the game under a different name, perhaps Mafia (as one of my friends had heard) but I'm lead to believe there are a number of subtle differences and nuances which arise if you play the game correctly, so it might be worth following on regardless. Robertson describes the rules simply as:

Its core premise is simple -- a room is split between villagers and werewolves, and the former aren't aware who are their enemies, determined to eat them. Can the werewolves eat their prey before the villagers identify and lynch the werewolves?

Here's a bit more detail:

1) First off, you'll need a decent number of people. The minimum is probably 5, but more is preferable. Each player is assigned a category, in the simplest version either you are a villager or a werewolf. With a group of 5-7 you'd need 1 werewolf, 7-10 probably 2 and more than 11 you'll probably want 3 werewolves. No one other than the person themselves must know who is a villager and who is a werewolf (this is easily done with cue cards for each player - telling them their character). You will also need one narrator who knows everything.

2) The game is split into 2 stages; night and day. During the night, everyone closes their eyes and "sleeps", the narrator asks the werewolves to open their eyes and silently agree on one villager to horribly maul and leave bleeding and spluttering in their fields to die a slow and agonising death before the sun rises. When the deed is done, the narrator asks the werewolves to close their eyes and then announces the morning has arrived and everyone wakes up. The narrator informs the villagers who has been killed and they must sit the remainder of the game out.

3) The entire group must then agree on one person out of them to lynch. The trick is that the werewolves are also allowed to vote, but obviously no one knows who they are, so they must try to convince the villagers that one of their feeble peasants is the bloodthirsty killer. So, with their lynching target agreed upon, the accused is strung up and the narrator informs the group whether they killed a fellow villager or successfully targeted a werewolf. Night falls again and the werewolves are free to choose another to kill.

4) The game continues as such until either all the werewolves are dead (and the villagers win), or the werewolves outnumber the villagers (and the werewolves win).

Sounds simple enough, right? Right, it is! The rules in and of themselves are simple and straightforward, you can't go too far wrong. However, what happens when you begin to play is something else entirely. You might play one or two day/night cycles before it happens; but it will happen. You will go into "Werewolf Mode" - a state of consciousness where everything is relevant and nothing is irrelevant.

"Why are you so adamant that Josh is a werewolf? What are you hiding?"

"You've voted for Sarah three rounds in a row!"

"Why so quiet? Come on, perk up - afraid you'll say something you regret?!"

"Honest to God, I'm not! I don't know what to say, I'm not! AAARRRGGGHHH!"

The times I've played with friends I have learnt more about them than I had for the past 5 years. Robertson puts it aptly when she says:

It's your best bet of finding the most interesting people and of emerging the next morning with a couple of intriguing job offers. Rather than spend a fortune on funky business cards or hours memorising people's blog posts, the most effective way to connect in the tech industry may instead be to kill and eat them.

What I love about this game is it exercises your brain muscles. You can try to read every player's expressions throughout the game, see how they react to lynching their friends and allies, see whether they are particularly vocal about a particular suspect, or quiet when the blame is thrown at them. You can attempt to remember who each person votes for as a werewolf, try to remember who votes together and who never votes at all. Or you can keep schtum and hope no one notices the blood dripping from your fangs.
Whilst, on the surface the game is so simple; underneath there lies an undercurrent of real visceral investigative work - real brainboxing and mind-fu'ing. Above the simple villager/werewolf dynamic, there are further twists you can introduce once you get the hang of the basic rules. There are numerous characters you can assign to people, here's just a short list:

Nude Katy Perry Chocolate Sauce Bonanza!

I apologise for the title, its a social experiment of mine. If you've come here expecting some extra-marital cocoa based fun-time from Mrs Brand, you're going to be very very disappointed. Although, if you ask nicely, I might send you a picture of myself eating a Topic bar. Damn I love Topic bars.

So, I finally managed to get a hold of Little Big Planet 2 on Wednesday. I had scoured the shops on the way home from work over the past few days and had, each time, come away with nothing but a cheese twist and some mussels in garlic butter. Thankfully, Tesco relented and gave up its secret hidden stash of everything I want and so the other day I came home with Little Big Planet and a jar of peanut butter - it was going to be a good evening.

So, I sat down on my sofa - after a pretty crappy days work, I might add - and slipped the disk into the machine and my Little Big Planet life whirred itself back into existence. Immediately I was lulled into a semi-slumber like state as the voice of Stephen Fry floated through my tellybox and into my ears. Fry introduces the game over images of people going about their day, shopping and drawing and talking and stuff and with each thought that passes through their imagination little shapes and doodles float up into the air and out to the sky. Stephen tells me that these little lost nuggets of imagination float away to Little Big Planet - my heart swells, tears form in my eyes... this is what it was like to be a child.

Thats the feeling that LBP1 and 2 both swell up inside my tummy, that indescribable feeling of being warm and clueless, childlike. The bright colours and soothing music is reminiscent of those early morning childrens shows which consist of nothing but moving shapes and soft piano plinking.

I have come to a realisation that what I really appreciate in a game is attention to detail, I am thoroughly looking forward to Guild Wars 2 because the art is so beautiful and LBP2 fills my veins with the same visual heroin. Each of the levels I have played so far have been beautifully designed - even the introduction level is witty and welcoming.

The first "level" just has you literally running through the credits as you get used to the controls. Being a LBP veteran as I was; I was able to import my Sackboy (saved from nudity as he was dressed as Monkey!) from the first game and Stephen skipped a lot of the controls stuff. As you dash through the intro level the heads of the crew from Media Molecule dance around you; they burst with hearts and stars; or fly around on rockets or stuck to the front of giant Sackbots. As you reach the end, you meet the antagonist of the piece, the evil Negativatron - he begins sucking up all of Craftworld and you are only saved by Larry da Vinci and his giant grabber dealio. From there I've gone through a training program to join "The Alliance" and fought my way through a bakery/castle scenario - throwing jam globs at passing cake monsters. The single player campaign looks as if it is going to be a blast (although, I've heard the final boss is a complete pain in the arse), there are new items to use like the Grabinator, Jump Pads and Sackbots, and I can't wait to see what else the MM team have in store for me.

Whilst the campaign is fun, if you know LBP you will know it is in the user-created level department that the games really shine. In LBP1 I tried my hand at creating a level (its still up there if you fancy giving it a go,  - all the levels from the first game have been ported to the new one! PSN: Distilledwill) it was called "Gobbler's Lair" - it involves you jumping and swinging your way to the center of the monster's lair and then jumping down his throat, negotiating your way down his gullet, past his lungs, through his stomach and then climbing his chest cavity to his heart to finish him off. In the first game this took me about 10 hours total to make, over the course of about 3 weeks. I won't lie; it was a complete pain in the arse. Nonetheless, it was incredibly satisfying to get it all finished and see that people are playing it. I've heard good things about the creation system in LBP2, that its far more user friendly and expansive. So - keep a look out, there may be a "Gobbler's Lair 2: Momma's Home"! There's even a new community website where you can search for new levels and create your own profile: http://lbp.me/

There are gripes, as with every game - but not many. The movement still feels a bit fluffy and your jump is floaty, but thats just how the game plays and you get used to it. Other than that, I've not come across any major problems so far. Even if I did, I'm not sure they'd matter, I love these games so much because they have an air of friendliness which is missing from the majority of games nowadays. Closing comments: it's about as fun as an afternoon bathing in chocolate sauce with a naked Katy Perry on my arm. Oh yes.