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Morten Monrad PedersenDenmark
Automa Factory
Automa Factory
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“Video games can never be art” wrote the late film critic Roger Ebert back in 2010, but I forgot about the post until I reread it a few days ago. Personally I think that he was off his rocker spewing nonsense about something about which he was willfully ignorant, and he himself acknowledged the problem in a follow up post. While he didn’t revise his position on games being art he does admit freely that it was a mistake sounding off about something of which he knew so little. If there’s something I respect it’s people who can own up to their mistakes, so in that way Ebert reearned a nod of respect.
One Chance
For someone only superficially knowledgeable about video games I can sort of understand where Ebert is coming from, since most video games only go to emotions like the elation of overcoming a tough challenge or the tenseness that a four player game of Left 4 Dead can generate with no meaning or insight being conveyed, but in my opinion there are games that go beyond this. An example of this is the game One Chance, which evoked a strong emotional response in me. It’s a very simple game that is described by its designer, Dean Moynihan, with the following words:Quote:"Scientist John Pilgrim and his team have accidentally created a pathogen that is killing all living cells on Earth.From a game mechanic point of view there’s not much to it, but the interactivity plays an important part in making the game emotionally powerful because of the choices the game offers you, and I’d argue that the emotional investment you get from making the choices yourself instead of watching someone else make them in a movie makes you much more invested in the story.
In the last 6 remaining in-game days on Earth, the player must make choices about how to spend his last moments. Will he spend time with his family, work on a cure or go nuts?
Another reason the game works well is that it can only played once, so your choices are much tougher than normally in games and you have to live with the consequences, which again increases your involvement. The restriction is of course easy to circumvent, but I recommend not doing so.
Board games
So to me video games can be (and already are) art, and I’ve been of this opinion for some years now, but it occurred to me that I hadn’t considered the question for board games, and while I see no reason why board games can’t in principle be art I can’t think of any games that I’d consider art.
A game like Dawn of the Zeds creates narratives like there’s no tomorrow (and in that game there often isn’t a tomorrow), but it doesn’t make me reflect on emotions or the human condition, it doesn’t stir emotion in me beyond what a video game like the above mentioned Left 4 Dead does, and it doesn’t impart any insights to me.
Historical games might be candidates, since you could say that a game like Israeli Independence: The First Arab-Israeli War which deals with the Israelites being encroached from all sides by enemies is conveying emotion and an experience, but again to me it falls short of something I’d call art, because to me it’s still a game about strategic decisions and rolling dice and it doesn’t stir an emotional response.
As a solitarist I might have a biased view, but it seems to me that solitaire games might be more amendable to creating art than multiplayer games, because solitaires makes it easier to control a narrative and experiment beyond games being competitions.
Bring your own definition
Now the problem I (and Roger Ebert) face is that art is damned hard to define, so I’ll let this be a bring-your-own-definition-post and for myself I’ll stick to an unsatisfactory I-know-it-when-I-see-it-non-definition.
So my question to you is: Have you tried a board game that you’d consider art? If so, can you explain why you think it’s art? And if not, could you imagine a game that you’d consider art?
Thematic Solitaires for the Spare Time Challenged
A blog about solitaire games and how to design them.
I'm your host, Morten, co-designer of solo modes for Scythe, Gaia Project, Wingspan, Glen More II, and others.
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