Can a Video Game be Art?

Here’s a relatively uninteresting article by Grant Tavinor called Video Games and the Philosophy of Art.  Can video games be art?  I don’t know.  Can a tree be art?  Can a car be art?  Can a rear end be art?  Certainly, under certain circumstances they can all be art.  But forgive my asking why do people spend so much time discussing a question that is equivalent to, ‘Can a hairbrush be art?’

In most cases I think a video game can only be art because of the player.  Any video game, no matter how crappy, can be art in the hands of… well… an artist.  Artists make art.  If you ain’t an artist you can’t get no art.  An artist can load up a copy of Grand Theft Auto on their Xbox 360 and walk into that gigantic world of violence and stand perfect still on a virtual street corner doing nothing but stare at a lamp post for days on end and turn that video game into art.  It’s magic.  Not theory.  Magic.  You know it when you see it.

Here’s a film with my own use of a video game as art.  Well, I think it’s art, but you may think it’s idiotic.  Check it out.  You’ll know it when you see it.  It contains extreme violence and nudity (just like video games!).  It’s intended for an adult audience. There’s my disclaimer.  Here’s the film.

Zombies Overrun Washington, D.C.

ZombieOutbreakI knew this would happen.  I was right all along and I’m prepared.  For years, I’ve told anyone who would listen that eventually the zombies would completely overwhelm our defenses and take over.  Well, they are apparently running rampant through the streets of Washington, D.C. this very minute.  I’ll be alright though.  I saw it coming and have barricaded myself inside the office.  I’ll stay here over the Thanksgiving holiday since the tables have obviously been completely turned and we are all about to become the main course at a zombie feast.

The windows are boarded over and I have enough water to hold on for at least three weeks.  Thank goodness for these kind computer programmers who are somehow tracking the movements of the zombies as this infection spreads unchecked just the other side of my own door.

Machinarium Game Designer Sketchbooks and Trailer

03_machinarium_concept_art-thumb-960x704-26671Boing Boing has posted a set of fascinating sketches by Jakub Dvorský and Adolf Lachman, the designers of the upcoming point and click adventure game, Machinarium.

This game looks marvelous. It’s made by an independent game producer who also made a popular game called SamarostMachinarium is about a little robot who’s been thrown out to the scrap yard behind the city must return and confront the Black Cap Brotherhood and save his robot-girl friend.  I think I’ll give it a try.  Although I usually find it much easier to build a puzzle game than to actually play one.  They always leave me feeling stumped and dumb and I just end up quitting.  But this one looks so beautiful that I’d try really hard just to see the next picture.

Puzzle Game: Tomb of the Mummy II

TombOfTheMummyIIWant to ruin Halloween?  Sure.  Why not?  Give it a try.  This puzzle has driven many players totally insane.  I’m actually not kidding.  I’m dead serious.  It’s really hard.  It can warp your helpless mind and make you smash your computer.  I have received more hate mail for this little puzzle than for any other reason.

Why don’t you try it?  Go ahead… see if you can solve it.

You won’t regret it… for a while.

Browser Game: Frankenstein – The Creature Must Die!

FrankensteinAdLgIf you wonder what it might have been like to be Victor Frankenstein working in his laboratory to bring life to the stitched together parts of dead people… wonder no more!  You can be the brilliant doctor as he fights off a mob of angry villagers and tries to harness the power of lightning to animate his dead creature.

Enjoy splattering blood, flying brains, bats carrying explosives, and unlimited firepower in this action-packed horror spectacle.

WARNING: This is a frightening and violent horror game. May not be suitable for young children. Parents must use their judgment.

CLICK TO PLAY

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Our little game is based upon the wonderful work of totally original horror and philosophy by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus.  It was published in 1818, when Shelley was 19.

If you are going to read one great horror novel, this is it. Here’s a book scan of the novel at the Internet Archive.  Here’s a download text version.

Here’s an excellent blog devoted to Frankenstein.

Dante’s Inferno: The Game

Improving upon the most boring character in the history of world literature, Electronic Arts is going to release an action game called Dante’s Inferno.  From the looks of the preview, this version of the Dante character is much more interesting and capable than the literary original who is the main character in the Divine Comedy trilogy consisting of the epic poems called Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.  Author Dante Alighieri wrote himself into his epic poem as a rather stolid, questioning dullard who follows the ghost of Virgil around in hell.  He whines about all the people who did him wrong in life and coincidentally runs into almost all of them during his sour-grapes tour of Satan’s domain.  But this video version of Dante kicks some smokin’ butt.  This is the Dante I’ve been waiting for and I am going to relish using my Xbox controller to stomp around and cut the heads off some nasty devils and repentant sinners.

It’s probably best to at least read Inferno before playing so that you can agree with me on how to improve the irritating main character.  But I will credit Mr. Dante Alighieri with one major achievement: he seems to have invented multi-level game play.  His version of hell is a series of rings that descend toward the most terrible of sins and punishments.  That’s pretty much the definition of modern computer gaming.

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