I feel a very weird mixture of pride and shame towards myself for writing so damn much in a socially frowned-upon context. (The ultra-long comment.)
But what the Hell. That's who I am, right? Someone who writes tooooooooooooooooooooooo damn much. Just an overstuffed bag of squirming words disguised as a girl.
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1. Video games are just as capable of being "art" as the rest of art is.
a. Interesting shapes, color and physical movement--PARTICULARLY in ways that challenge human reflexes--can still be legitimate art when used for something other than storytelling. What about non-narrative ballet?
b. The game Shadow of the Colossus has such powerfully effective emotional content that I can't stand to stay in the room when someone's playing it, let alone play it myself. To borrow an idea from the TV show Friends, I might hide the disk for this game in the freezer like it was an upsetting novel. Shadow of the Colossus elegantly, subtly and tortuously imparts a sense of madness, moral doubt and self-disgust that increases over the course of the game, right up to the conclusion of the storyline. I can comfortably lump it in with the play Titus as a masterwork that I am uncomfortable with. It's also gorgeously illustrated and animated, for what that's worth. Animation counts as art, doesn't it?
c. The first two games in the Fallout series had flawed, rather slow and buggy gameplay but clever writing and fun plots. They did well! I happily replay those games from time to time like I reread favorite books. They leave me with a Douglas Adams feeling and I love them for it.
d. The third Fallout (the recent game for the 360) is TOTALLY art. If nothing else, Malcolm McDowell's "patriotic" radio station was amusingly written and his deadpan delivery of those lines was perfect. I can still get a little laugh reminiscing about his performance. And the interactive, Rod Serling-style interlude towards the ending of the game's storyline? That was awesome! Better than plenty of movies. Fallout 3 is a gem.
2. Who's to say art is completely non-addictive?
a. I DO have an addiction-like problem with the TV series Twin Peaks. Some friends recommended it to me about a year ago and insisted on loaning me their DVD box set. I put it on a to-do list and forgot about it for a few months. But inevitably, I cracked it open and tried the first episode. And then another. And another. And another. I neglected chores and stayed up too late on work nights. Damn you, Twin Peaks!
Now that my husband and I have finished watching Lost, I have begged him to re-watch Twin Peaks with me so I can talk about it with him. I just finished watching this show about a month ago! I'm ready to watch it again? Overeager, even! I'm embarrassed with my own sense of "he HAS to see them all in order and then watch the last episode" urgency. But I'm in thrall. Maybe it's not a cocaine-sized problem, but it's certainly a Grand Theft Auto-sized problem.
b. My biggest addiction-like behavioral problem is creative writing. With an open schedule, I can sit down with an idea and lose whole days. Months. The better part of a year once. My senior year of college I decided to brainstorm an idea about comic books to relax when not being a science nerd. Five months later, I had over 220 pages of extremely detailed brainstorming.
This is still NOTHING compared to the project I adopted as a high school dropout just before college, to try to write down every thought I had as I had it. I pretty much just typed for a year and was definitely more bizarre (and meditative?) by the end of the project.
I am often so preoccupied with the desire to write down new ideas that it negatively affects my ability to function like a normal person. I once actually wrote amusing sentences in pen ON MY OWN LEG WHILE DRIVING so that I wouldn't forget them. While driving! Who does that?! It's creepy and inappropriate.
This might actually be a cocaine-sized problem, and the addictive substance in question is the production of work within a long-recognized art form.
3. In closing, I argue that video games CAN be art and art can have addictive properties.
a. Interesting shapes, color and physical movement--PARTICULARLY in ways that challenge human reflexes--can still be legitimate art when used for something other than storytelling. What about non-narrative ballet?
b. The game Shadow of the Colossus has such powerfully effective emotional content that I can't stand to stay in the room when someone's playing it, let alone play it myself. To borrow an idea from the TV show Friends, I might hide the disk for this game in the freezer like it was an upsetting novel. Shadow of the Colossus elegantly, subtly and tortuously imparts a sense of madness, moral doubt and self-disgust that increases over the course of the game, right up to the conclusion of the storyline. I can comfortably lump it in with the play Titus as a masterwork that I am uncomfortable with. It's also gorgeously illustrated and animated, for what that's worth. Animation counts as art, doesn't it?
c. The first two games in the Fallout series had flawed, rather slow and buggy gameplay but clever writing and fun plots. They did well! I happily replay those games from time to time like I reread favorite books. They leave me with a Douglas Adams feeling and I love them for it.
d. The third Fallout (the recent game for the 360) is TOTALLY art. If nothing else, Malcolm McDowell's "patriotic" radio station was amusingly written and his deadpan delivery of those lines was perfect. I can still get a little laugh reminiscing about his performance. And the interactive, Rod Serling-style interlude towards the ending of the game's storyline? That was awesome! Better than plenty of movies. Fallout 3 is a gem.
2. Who's to say art is completely non-addictive?
a. I DO have an addiction-like problem with the TV series Twin Peaks. Some friends recommended it to me about a year ago and insisted on loaning me their DVD box set. I put it on a to-do list and forgot about it for a few months. But inevitably, I cracked it open and tried the first episode. And then another. And another. And another. I neglected chores and stayed up too late on work nights. Damn you, Twin Peaks!
Now that my husband and I have finished watching Lost, I have begged him to re-watch Twin Peaks with me so I can talk about it with him. I just finished watching this show about a month ago! I'm ready to watch it again? Overeager, even! I'm embarrassed with my own sense of "he HAS to see them all in order and then watch the last episode" urgency. But I'm in thrall. Maybe it's not a cocaine-sized problem, but it's certainly a Grand Theft Auto-sized problem.
b. My biggest addiction-like behavioral problem is creative writing. With an open schedule, I can sit down with an idea and lose whole days. Months. The better part of a year once. My senior year of college I decided to brainstorm an idea about comic books to relax when not being a science nerd. Five months later, I had over 220 pages of extremely detailed brainstorming.
This is still NOTHING compared to the project I adopted as a high school dropout just before college, to try to write down every thought I had as I had it. I pretty much just typed for a year and was definitely more bizarre (and meditative?) by the end of the project.
I am often so preoccupied with the desire to write down new ideas that it negatively affects my ability to function like a normal person. I once actually wrote amusing sentences in pen ON MY OWN LEG WHILE DRIVING so that I wouldn't forget them. While driving! Who does that?! It's creepy and inappropriate.
This might actually be a cocaine-sized problem, and the addictive substance in question is the production of work within a long-recognized art form.
3. In closing, I argue that video games CAN be art and art can have addictive properties.
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