It's official: I still have a career in video games. The Supreme Court declared video games to be an equal to film, music, literature, etc. in terms of their ability to be a communicative medium. So if the Supreme Court takes video games as seriously as they take everything written by Mark Twain, everything filmed by Hitchcock, and every stroke laid down by Michelangelo, why don't video game developers and publishers? Why is the industry so afraid to embrace the artistic qualities of video games? Why settle for making toys for kids/grandparents? And don't say the money; not everything Nintendo makes does well.
I doubt Justice Ginsburg has a lvl 85 Warlock (Scalia might) or has ever been enraptured by the narrative beauty of Bioshock, but even she can see the artistic potential of video games. David Jaffe just bumped this really old debate in his interview with CVG.
David Jaffe versus Steven Spielburg
David Jaffe is actually one of my heroes partly because I am a little racist. I grew up idolizing Kojima (who didn't?) for creating Metal Gear Solid, but let's face it: I am not Japanese, the development climates for Japan and America are completely different. I basically idolized a man I have nothing in common with, besides a passion for game design. That's like Michael Jordan idolizing the Scottish guy who invented basketball. Yes, they both really, really, really love basketball, but that's all they have in common. David Jaffe is basically my Dr. J.
It's not just his games (although growing up Twisted Metal: Black rarely left my PS2) it's how he views games.
"I over-eat when I'm stressed. I'm not present enough in my life to just be with the stress. When it comes to someone working out of a place of ego, it's the same thing. The creative talent and their vision should be enough. The end goal of someone patting you on your head and saying: 'You're an artist now. You mean something'... I'm not trying to be an asshole. We've all fantasized about those moments because we think it means more than it really does. But in reality, it doesn't mean shit."
I do not want games to be art so I can dust off my beret, pack my vintage oak pipe with all natural tobacco created by a small tribe of native Americans, and sit around with hipsters smelling our own farts. I want games to be viewed as an art form because it will change why people make games. As long as games are being made to be sold to retailers, to appeal to demographics, to fatten pockets, they will never grow up and game designers will be forever stuck in their treehouse. Why is Steven Spielburg able to do anything he wants to? Because he has made amazing blockbuster movies that redefined film. Sure, a few games have made HUGE steps in the right direction. Once we make games on par with Speilburg's films, we can get out of our Treehouse and start making big boy games that make big boy money, all while being respected as a medium.
I do think we are getting much closer. L.A. Noire was the first video game to be featured at the Tribeca Film Festival. Colleges around the world are or have built video game design programs. It just seems like everyone really, really wants video games to advance, but they never do due to the current antiquated development process.
Hell, even game design itself is filled with relics of the past. Health bars are leftovers from when machines could not process a 3D model reflecting real damage like broken limbs, blood, etc. The little green HP bar was a mechanical representation of all of those things. "Health packs" don't make any sense at ALL (how do you package and ingest pure 'Health'?) yet they are found in pretty much every modern FPS. RPGs are even worse, suffering from a myriad of relics from Dungeons & Dragons. Str, Int, Agi, etc. are representations of things that can now be accurately reflected in games. The whole concept of gear in general as well: how does a belt make you stronger or more intelligent? It doesn't; via stat gains the belt is a just a catalyst for character growth, because either due to a lack of computing power or the game being pen and paper, showing that your character got stronger was impossible. But now it is. My character fought some baddies and is more experienced in fighting? Great...make him larger, change his muscle tone. All of this feedback to the player should not break the fourth wall, and that's what all these numbers are doing. But I digress.
Point is: yay for video games, now let's keep up the momentum! We will see our Hamlet one day. As I have stated in a previous post about Moore's Law, it will only happen when the technology reaches a climax and a kid in his basement can create something paramount to Bioshock, by himself, much like how a couple of kids with a video camera can create some spectacular amateur films.
