Dear Roger,
I recently noted that you had revisited the concept of video games as art in a column you penned for the Chicago Sun Times. I read the column, and I have a few comments to give you in response to your article.
In order to do so, I’d like to use, by way of illustration, a trip that my husband and I took a few years ago to the Seattle Art Museum as an example. While walking through the various rooms filled with sculptures and paintings, we came upon this one white canvas painted…white. I looked at it rather confused, and then joked to my husband that it was a white canvas.
He immediately launched into a long blathering about how important this work was, that it was a culmination of a whole genre of paintings that had reached this perfection of simplicity, and on and on.
I looked at my husband, and said, “It’s a fucking white canvas painted white.” I obviously did not “get it”.
And so, I say to you, Roger…you don’t “get it”. And that is all right. But when you try to tell everyone else that they shouldn’t “get it”, and are fools for trying to, then you’ve stepped over that line you shouldn’t cross.
Because art is indeed in the eye of the beholder. Art isn’t just about the expression of an idea through emotion. It is also about the reception of that idea through emotion by those experiencing the artwork. The number of people who actually experience an emotional response because the idea that the artist wanted to express had been conveyed determines the ratification of the artwork. In other words, the more people who consider it art, the more “art” it is.
By that definition, it is no wonder that you don’t consider games to be art. How can you? You haven’t played them. To you they are but summarized text on a screen. They are a few words that someone on a video mentioned. You don’t know something is art by the fact that you know it exists. You have to experience it.
I doubt that you would be willing to experience the world of video games to see that some of them are works of art. However, if you were, here is a list that I would give you to start out with:
Bioshock: Bioshock is a game of despair born from the madness of genius. The art of the game in my opinion is less in the visuals than in the audio. Listening to voices of the characters in the game gives you a story of an idyllic 50′s life merged with an insanity laced with despair. You begin the game following the voice of the one character you think will help save you, only to discover it is the one character who represents the madness of everything. And, still, there is a bit of hope in the little sisters…but only if you work against your own selfish best interests. Sound like a Pulitzer Prize novel?
Braid: you actually brought Braid up as an example. You dismiss the idea of learning anything by going back in time to correct your mistakes, and snidely state that the prose is on the level of “a fortune cookie”. While I’ve read prose far worse that is not only published but given critical acclaim, I won’t state that the prose in Braid is, or is meant, to receive acclaim from any dusty critic in a University (or 20th century newspaper column). It is, however, vague enough to make you think along with the gameplay about the past (and the future). Players have interpreted the prose to mean many things, up to and including a commentary about the creation of the atomic bomb. BTW, Roger, would you consider Shakespeare to be art? If so, I think you should reevaluate your thoughts about “quality prose”.
Machinarium: Machinarium is, in my ever so humble opinion, a compilation of extraordinary artwork and beautiful sound. I listen to the soundtrack regularly…it is a zen experience. The artwork is a futuristic steampunk industrial world where only robots live. There is nothing artistic about the gameplay. The puzzles of the game are fun, and sometimes quite difficult, but nothing unusual. But playing the game is a pure delight, and creating a story in your own mind based on the intensely intricate visual art and beautiful music is wonderful and evocative.
Now, obviously, not every game is art. Just so, not everything you see in the cinema is art either. I don’t know anyone who considers “Snakes on a Plane” to be art. But “Dr. Strangelove” is a fantastic piece of artistic satire.
In fact, I would not consider most games (or most cinema) to be art. But just like in any other form of artistic expression, be it books, paintings, sculpture, poetry, theater, cinema, or music, there are some games that rise to the top, as it were, and convey an idea through emotion that really drives home that idea. And these games should not be discounted, just because you still seem to think of “games” in your mind as “events of competition with goals that people engage in”.
I do hope, Roger, before you die, that you have the opportunity to try out a game that will express an idea to you in a way that engages you emotionally, that gets you to really think about something. I still do hold out hope.
Hmm. Maybe that would make for a great game?
Sincerely,
Omaha Sternberg
Host, producer, editor
iGame Radio podcast and blog
Appular announced today the release of Hand of Greed: Dodge the Blade for the iPhone. Players must gather coins and gems while avoiding the spiraling blades or swinging guillotines about them. A cut spills blood onto the screen, but picking up a ruby will heal you. Gather everything on the screen before you lose all of your health or the time runs out. 
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