Since the Internet's beginning, there have been online games. From Pipe Dream to Farmville, it's likely that nearly everyone has played a game on the Internet before. After all, if I'm surfing the web to entertain myself, why not play a game? They make for excellent distractions and time killers (not to mention procrastination tools for college students), and that's how I viewed them for a long time.
As I've gotten older, I've started to view games as something more. Video games combine a spectrum of potential communication tools. They're a visual medium, offering tantalizing artwork for our eyes. They're a literary medium, providing intriguing tales for our minds. Most importantly, they're an interactive medium, giving us the ability to personally invest ourselves in the story and images. All of this, tucked away in something originally intended as an entertaining toy.
The Internet is a breeding ground for games that truly take advantage of this potential artform. By taking advantage of online game's low barrier of entry where money is concerned, individual creators design and release works directly to the public. These artists work magic on the computer screen, drawing gamers into worlds and delivering messages to them through experiences, not just through words or through images like other mediums.
These sort of games deserve far more publicity than they receive. They cry out to not only be found and played, but to be analyzed and discussed. By treating these works of art as works of art, we can begin to foster a respect for this growing medium and fan the flames of its potential.
Game artists deserve more. Playing Digital Art is an attempt to give it to them.
There are some really great video games out there. Games with a great mix of storytelling, gameplay and visuals are an amazing experience. Unfortunately, I feel like lately a lot of the new games are made more to be used as cash cows instead of losing yourself in a unique experience. There is still some quality stuff out there, you just have to do a bit of searching to find it.
ReplyDeleteAre there any games you've played that just swept you away with a certain aspect of it or just a game in general that you overly enjoyed? There are way too many for me to name all of mine.
I couldn't agree more. Video games truely are a work of art. They let us dive into our imaginations and bring out ideas that could never be in the real world. I love games with a good story line. It makes the game even more desirable and at times much more time consuming. I am a pc gamer at heart and I do enjoy a classic 2d game from time to time because some of the good ones are really addicting.
ReplyDeleteThis is an absolutely brilliant topic. My video game playing is fairly limited anymore, but I can say when I did play heavily, I much preferred the small independent productions as compared to some of the mainstream titles. Let's face it, CoD's original success was because of innovative gameplay, story telling, and graphics. Anymore the user base just expects and receives new guns, and perks, and updated maps.
ReplyDeleteI also believe your post can be used as a basis to explain much of the success of modern MMORPG platforms.