Rantings: The Advantages of Video Game Art

This concludes the initial trilogy of me cheerleading art in video games. In the last updates, we covered if video games are art (yes, usually, for those who missed it,) and if video games should aim towards art, both in general and in the narrative sense (also yes.) This time, we cover why, beyond long-term profitability, people should bother making art in video games? Are there any advantages to making video game art? Is a video game really a better art form?

Yes! Wow, these questions are much easier when you have your own blog.

Okay, fine, no, it's not that's easy. It's more accurate to say that video games aren't better art; simply a more complex form. For example, some of the simpler art forms include literature, as it only has one channel to communicate to its audience. A movie has the textual method of books, the visual element books lack (with some exceptions, like House of Leaves,) and the audio method. Video games are another step in complexity. It has the narrative element, the visual one, the audio, and the interactive.

What are the advantages of that last element, though? If a video game is so similar to other modern art forms, why bother? Why make the next Silent Hill when you can make the next Descent, for example? Well, there are various advantages.

1) Immersion. Simply put, a video game character has the ability to make an event more personal than it does when you are merely a spectator. This is especially true in games where the main character is undefined or customizable; it enhances the element of self-definition, though at the cost of characterization and the character's role in the meta-stories of the world. But even games with clearly defined characters force you to react to the world more intimately. Your ability to freely move within it, altering the environment's appearance from your viewpoint, alone gives you that freedom. But this element is strengthened by some of the other advantages below.

2) Risk. One problem with other narrative structures is the results are entirely predicable and unchanging. You might be surprised the first time, but with very few exceptions like the movie Clue, once an ending is known, it will never vary. Similarly, even if you don't know how a story will end, you do know that the result is inevitable. This has some strong narrative elements; a good tragedy or horror story often relies on the inevitability of failure as a narrative device. But on the other hand, if victory is expected, and given how often happy endings are the standard they usually are, then that fear is removed. At worst, the question becomes how will the protagonists get out of the problem and not if they will. Similarly, even a slight understanding of narrative structure will let a viewer/reader recognize the limited nature of conflicts and obstacles in the middle of a story. Video games add uncertainty to every obstacle; it might be the one that ends the hero's story in failure, however temporarily.

3) Choice. The last option is the ability to alter the story. This comes in two forms: the ability to branch the main plot, leading to several different endings, and the ability to focus on what elements of the story matter most to you as the player. Maybe you don't carry about random PCs 3, 4, and 6 in your RPG, but you do care about the minor NPC innkeeper you meet in the first town, so you focus more of your attention on her. It might affect how the game itself unfolds, or it might not, but it affects how you react to the game. Obviously, this is true in movies etc. as you get favorite characters and emphasize them emotionally, but in a game, you transform that into time spent on that character, talking to him/her, even potentially changing him/her in game. Plus, in other art mediums, you can get frustrated with how the characters react to events; they could behave like nitwits in a battle, poorly plan a scheme, or miss the obvious clues needed to solve a mystery. Such things are certainly possible in a video game, as you never have full control in a programmed environment, but you usually have at least some options in combat.

You may complain, however, that at least two of these advantages counter my earlier support of the narrative environment. How strong can a narrative be if you can free alter it at many points. In general, the answer is "very strong," due to the concept of branching paths. Imagine a game where you are only given one choice in its entirety. There's no combat or other uncertainty, just one time where you get to pick between, say, two different buttons to press. From there, the story will continue until its conclusion on each path. This is still a narrative system; it merely has two branching narratives, each enclosed with its own full story and ending.

This is the method most video games use, even if they don't explicitly label the endings as such. In some cases, yes, the branching is a deliberate part of the story. Many games, for example, offer a bittersweet "bad ending" and a "good ending" if certain conditions are met, or games with many potential romantic leads offer different endings based on which one or ones you show affection towards. However, regular gameplay also branches in the form of failure. Every time you lose the game, you essentially "choose" a branched path towards an ending where the hero falls and evil, presumably, wins. Some games spell this own, either all the time or in specific points where especially climatic battles are lost, but this ending is implied in each case.

These branched endings give credibility to the three strengths mentioned above, but there is a risk in over-branching. After all, there are finite amounts of resources and time available to make a game, so by definition every branch requires some investment of these resources and could result in a plot weaker than a branchless game. But this really only becomes a problem when the game becomes so open-ended that the potential endings become nearly infinite, and in that case it is assumed that narrative has been deliberately abandoned by the designers anyway.

Are these the only advantages to video games as an art form? Almost certainly not. Therefore, expect this trilogy to continue on some day from now, as this concept is explored further.