Video Games as Participative Art
Posted By: Sally Vox
Filed Under: Opinion on March 6, 2010
One foggy Tuesday morning, Activision’s Modern Warfare 2’s sales broke the record in sales for the largest opening day gross of ANY form of media (book, movie, play or otherwise). It was astonishing to me that a video game would hold this title, and not something more “old-fashioned” such as a movie or a play. But then I got to thinking…maybe it isn’t so surprising that video games have grown to become as ubiquitous as movies when it comes to mainstream culture.
Once seen as a fringe hobby, the video game market has grown exponentially since the inception of the Commodore 64 and the Atari home entertainment system. It enlists the aid of hundreds of artists, voice actors, movie actors, directors, sound designers, engineers, and programmers to create gripping worlds never seen before. Sound like something similar? Movies are the same way—they are a collaborative artform, one which mixes the talents of a large group of people and creates a product that is more than the sum of its parts.
Video games have become almost an evolution of the movie making formula—it allows for a level of immersion that movie directors can only dream about. While watching a movie is a passive consumption of art, video games are an active participation in a story, fantasy, or world. Rather than simply listening to a story, many video games allow you to create your own—to become an active participant in the fabricated artiface of a computer rendered universe. It’s power to lull participants into a sedated trance has an eerie twilight zone feel to it…people have neglected their real, physical bodies, instead tending to their digital avatars on World of Warcraft or farming digital crops in Farmville. But I’m not here to complain, rather, I see video games as a new canvas for budding artists.
The Lumiere brothers played the first feature film, L’arrivee d’un train en gare de La Ciotat, in 1896 in a small french town. It was a 50 second long clip of a train coming into a station. Legend has it that people were so freaked out by the moving image projected on that dark wall that they ran to the back of the room in fear. Now, whether or not this is true is irregardless—the point is that media (and art) seek to create modes of consumption that more fully engage the audience. Many people thought that these moving pictures would be a fad that would die out (Hey! Like 3D!), citing that plays were real people, and what could be more real than real? Boy were they wrong.
Movies gave people an opportunity to experience things that plays could only dream of. Lavish sets could be developed alongside stunning vistas, which would have been impossible to recreate on a small theater stage. One could literally be transported to the actual streets of Paris, complete with bustling tourists and crackheads looking for rock money (well maybe this came later). More importantly, the close up was born. Unless you were superman, watching emotions in a play was an exercise in squinting. Emotions had to be extreme, words fierce and flamboyant, speeches were overacted and wordy. Movies changed all that—it allowed for subtlety. Subtlety is MAGIC. It allows for us to suspend our disbelief…it allows for media to captivate us on a SUBliminal level, evoking primal reactions (screams, tears, laughter) from our highly evolved personas. One needs to only look at where movies and plays stand today to see which is the more popular medium. Movies touch something innate in us; video games can do the same.
Art, in a sense, requires participation, but this can be active or passive. Many modes of art have strived to become more actively participatory throughout their respective developments. Painting has evolved from replication of form (kinda like an oldschool photograph) to the abstract, which requires more critical analysis from the viewer to fully appreciate. Newsprint has evolved into the blog, which allows readers to add their voice to a piece—an empowering (though sometimes backfiring) invention. Video games continually strive to become more participatory—more immersive.
I recently played Heavy Rain, developed by Quantic Dream, a French developer. I can honestly say, and this is from a movie fanatic, that no movie has ever involved my senses as much as Heavy Rain has. Drawing from cinematic theory, the developers have created a game that, in my opinion, marks a new era—the participatory movie. Criticized by many for its simple gameplay mechanics (pressing buttons/ joystick combinations as they appear on screen), Quantic hit a home run with their perfect control scheme. The mechanics are surprisingly intuitive (my girlfriend who played it can attest to that) and become the figurative arms and legs of the audience whilst in this dream world.
Throughout the story, you chase an elusive serial killer, who always seems to be one step ahead of the police. The game unfolds depending on your decisions and your actions: characters can die, and the ending can change based on the smallest detail. As I progressed through the story, I was amazed how every action had gravity. Each fight stopped my heart, each detail missed infuriated, and each kiss satisfied. I laughed, I screamed, I even teared up during certain scenes—and I got the good ending…I can only imagine what horrors the other 22 endings have in store for me. I left the game breathless and in awe—ready to try another path to see what other stories I could create.
Heavy Rain changed my mind about the possibilities of video games. It made me realize that they have the potential not to replace movies—but to become an evolution of them. They can stir the imagination by involving tactile responses and decision making into branching narratives, creating a fulfilling experience that is so gripping that it can become dangerous. We must now tread lightly, for in this new age, experiences can be so real that we forget our own real problems. But with the right attitude, and in moderation, I believe that video games can become the next step for participative art.
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