The Case for Video Games
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- čas přidán 26. 02. 2020
- Video Games are fun, but are they art? Heck yes. We explore the history and present of video games and what sets them apart as a means of artistic expression. To learn about many other alternative means of expression, preorder a copy of You Are An Artist: bit.ly/2kplj2h
#videogames #gaming #videoart
Thanks to our Grandmasters of the Arts Tyler Calvert-Thompson, Divide by Zero Collection, David Golden, and Ernest Wolfe, and all of our patrons, especially Rich Clarey, Iain Eudaily, Tom Forwood, Patrick Hanna, Andrew Huynh, Eve Leonard, David Moore, Jane Quale, Gabriel Civita Ramirez, Constance Urist, Nicholas Xu, and Roberta Zaphiriou. To support our channel, visit: / artassignment .
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The video helped me put a finger on why I keep coming back to Art Asignment videos and why they move me so much. The topics are interesting and accessibly presented, sure. But the main appeal for me is the deep compassion and kindness that Sarah's videos convey. It's a way of looking at the world and especially at what humans do and experience that does not shirk mentioning problems and challenges, but never ridicules or degrades others. In a way the Art Asignment videos are exercises in consciously experiencing human dignity; in others and ourselves. So thank you Sarah and all the others who contrinbute to the videos. I can only aspire to cultivate such an open and wholesome mindset.
This is the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me or my work. A lot of the credit for this one goes to director and editor Brandon Brungard, who collaborated with me on all aspects of this! I’m pinning this comment not to brag, but because I don’t know how else to say thank you.
@@theartassignment Strongly agree! A willingness to engage in good faith and with the assumption that there is value is such a generous and empathetic way to see.
You're in the new vlogbrother video! 😄
@33ranjit Your comment inspired John’s video
czcams.com/video/EKQns8tqM_o/video.html watch this.. John made a video inspired by your comment. Way to go Ranjit.
I am a gamer of 30+ years and one of my degrees is in Art History. I have had some of the most poignant experiences while gaming. They aren't really any different than film/books/music to a degree now as far as the range of the medium.
Some games can provide a pathos/catharsis that you can't find in any other medium. I think it is important to have an open mind rather than being dismissive about them. I travel the world visiting museums and architecture but I also enjoy playing a provoking video game that provides me with a different facet of the human condition. Great video!
Would you be willing to share some examples of such moments? :)
I think I get your point, but pleeease, pleeeease, let me disagree anyway. Videogames can be art, that's beyond discussion (nothing can't be art). But I really really think they very different than film/books/music. I feel the same for videogames and poetry and theater too. Whatever a videogame make me feel, it was precisely because it was a videogame (with sounds and button-pushing and graphics) and nothing more. To put it in Kundera's words from The Immortality: "What is essential in a novel is precisely what can only be expressed in a novel, and so every adaptation contains nothing but the nonessential."
@@jeffrycoello8944 My comparison was really referring to the range of creativity and purpose. Games can go from kitsche to avant garde for those who appreciate the medium. It's just like all the other mediums aforementioned but of course each have their respective nuances (sounds of eating popcorn at a movie isn't a very viable argument against the merit of experiencing art is it, or what about small talk at a gallery viewing). There are games that are visual novels in and of themselves so that point can be a bit malleable considering what your definition is of the "essence" of a "novel". Your quote basically just parallels the argument why video game movies suck, they are meant to be experienced as games.
Agree. And what I meant for "essence" is that you can't alienate from de medium. That you have to decode written words in a novel, or the active responce of videogames. And, and what I meant with the quote was that "adapt a novel" is a figure of speech, you can't adapt a novel, you adapt its plot. But what you get after the adaptation is an different animal.
watch vids I know I’m not the original poster, but I am a huge consumer of media in all forms, and no media has given me more intense, long lasting emotional impact than video games. If you still want some examples I would be more than happy to share some of my favorites.
Another thing that I think is worth mentioning when talking about video games as an art form are mods. This is something that is unique to games, you can't just walk up to the Mona Lisa and add a mustache (unless you want to get into serious trouble), but with games, if you prefer the dragons in Skyrim to look like Thomas the tank engine, there's a mod for that. You want your Sims to be naked? Mod. You want to romance the straight character Cullen from Dragon Age Inquisition with your gay inquisitor? Mod. There are even mods that turn a game into an entirely different game, new characters, new story, new everything, like Enderal. It adds a whole new level of interactiveness, not only can you interact with the game within the limits the developers set, you can bypass those limits completely.
But that's pretty much what Duchamp did! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.H.O.O.Q.
That's exactly a good reason why they aren't art. Art is the vision of an individual.
@@sonicgoo1121 Cool, I didn't know that. Thanks! But my point still stands, since drawing a mustache on the actual Mona Lisa would be considered vandalism. Since games don't exist as one original "actual" thing, but rather every copy of the game is just as much the "actual" game as any other, you can mod your version anyway you want, without it affecting others.
@@Pantano63 Why do you define art that way and why do you think that makes video games not art? Movies are usually made by multiple people, are they not art? If a sculptor and a painter work together on a project, is it not art? And talking about modding: Why does the possibility to change a work of art make it any less of a work of art? Commenter @Sonic Goo just pointed out to me that Duchamp drew a mustache on a copy of the Mona Lisa, regardless of whether or not you think that is art, does this transformative work make the original it used as a base stop being art? If no, then why is the existence of mods a reason why video games aren't art?
@@ichbinben. Duchamp was already part of the era of decline in the plastic arts. Essentially a meme. So his doing something doesn't necessarily mean it's example to follow. Video games aren't art the same way board games aren't art.
You bloody legend, I've been trying to convince people of video games validity within the art world and you've summed up my arguments beautifully.
I wholeheartly concur with both your comment, and the video as a whole
I know you said about Seaman that "Not everything is a winner," but I played that game when I was a kid, and he'll get into really deep conversations with you, and he actually made me feel better about myself. You see, he asked me if I liked myself-to which I said no. We talked about my weight problems, and he actually convinced me that being overweight isn't the end of the world. I weep when I look back on that game, it's a true masterpiece.
I am very glad to know of your important Seaman experience! Apologies for poking fun at it--hope you'll forgive us :)
@@theartassignment Oh, of course! Everybody's opinion on art is valid, I just wanted to share my experience with others.
@@theartassignment While I didn't have quite that same experience it REALLY is a super deep and interesting experience I strongly recommend you try, particularly given your early commentary in this video suggesting you don't "game" much.
wow, now i have to play this game!
The host is so intelligent and her insight of art has made me fall in love with The Art Assignment and art all together. I'm so thankful for her giving me all this information that I can absorb quickly and critically. Their something so special about her.
She pinned the comment what it is.
For those not familiar with the Gesamtkunstwerk, I suggest you watch Brian David Gilbert's perfect Pokérap.
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Wah.
You show an amazingly wide range of games here, old to new, indie to main stream, all kinds of genres... thank you :)! You actually included so many of my favourites from the past years (The Witness and The Return of the Obra Dinn are awesome).
Yes! I was planning to comment myself on The Witness - it really does seem like the kind of thing that would appeal to Sarah in particular. I haven't got done with yet, have sunk hours and hours into it probably...a good half of my time is spent just staring at those gorgeous visuals.
And I won't lie, I fan-girl screamed when Final Fantasy 7 made an appearance, and World of Warcraft, haha - both are among my favorite narratives in games.
The only one I thought was missing is Thomas was alone. What a masterpiece of Mondrian-esque minimalism and storytelling!
Do the puzzles in The Witness get better/harder?
I find the easyness offputting.
@@jacobscrackers98 Ohhhhh yes they get harder. Maddening in a couple spots. And a LOT of the trickiest ones are hidden in plain sight. It's fabulous.
There's even a sound-puzzle section which drove me bonkers for a few hours.
@@jacobscrackers98 Yes, definitely! I had to sketch most of the later ones on paper to solve them. And I was so blown away when I discovered the first Puzzle, that wasn't on a panel. Eventually gave up on the secret level (the one with the loud classical music) after hours of trying though...
LAN parties are still a thing! There is an annual LAN party at my best friends college. I went to it once, it was a lot of fun! Someone brought there vr headset and had it set up for anyone to play.
Dude... we still play farcry 2...
Before every LAN party everyone makes their own map- I usually recreate the house we're playing at.
And oh boy, that game is still a winner.
Alongside call of duty 4
@@oby1 I spent half the time making my way through Persona 5 and the other half playing Smash Bros with my best friend all in all a good time!
I'm not a big gamer (i just lack the coordination!) but i recently played a game called "what remains of edith finch" that was absolutely a piece of art. I kept thinking, wow this game is like a graphic novel! but really, there was no other way to tell quite that specific story in any way other than a game and i'm so glad i got to experience it.
You should try The Beginners Guide. It's really different from What Remains Of Edith Finch story wise but it's also a story I don't think could be told in any other medium.
You should also try "Firewatch"
@@TheRealDaWood I really want to play that and also Gone Home!
I don't have any coordination either! I found out about Edith Finch, Life is strange, and lots of other games I can actually play through the youtube channel GeekRemix! They're really good at finding games with more story than buttonmashing.
Yes! It's so good! I wish more game developers were so creative and inventive with their storytelling
In my home city of Montreal, the art history department in one of our universities (Université de Montréal) offers a minor in "video game studies". The cours description says its looking into "the different facets of video games: its history, its connection to other arts, its narrative, its scripting, its design, its playability..." (my translation)
Amazing work as always and great video!
I took an elective on games as an art form at my university (since it's such a large subject of study over there) a few years ago and from what I recall, the appeal/uniqueness of videogames as an art form - compared to stuff like books where you can read all the details and imagine it, or movies where you can see and hear it - is that videogames set up a world and a set of rules and then let you personally experience the consequences of your own actions within the world/rules.
Very fun course, would love to see more games-as-art analysis.
Nice
The variety of clips and editing show just how seriously you all took this topic of video games - bravo!
Antonin Scalia said that? Wow, it's like that Clickhole article, "Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point."
Haha, I thought exactly the same thing.
Antonin Scalia is a First Amendment Justice.
@@raoulwallenberg5735 I'm just saying that it's surprising to hear such a shitty person say something that you agree with.
@@LiberalSquared I get the feeling you're getting at, but if it helps you humanize Scalia a bit more, he and Ginsberg were basically BFFs despite their vastly different attitudes on, well, virtually everything concerning the law and government.
@@LiberalSquared I'm not familiar with that guy. What exactly did he do?
Thank you for being so respectful about gaming and gamers in a time when many people think we are the pure evil and mass murderers because we play games.
I love video games since I was 7 and got the old (then already really outdated!) C64 of my father to play with it.
And I love the games because I can explore new worlds like I can do in Books or movies or Paintings, but in my pace and my often it's my choice what I want to explore next!
I'm so glad that games nowadays often are seen as art and not only as a quirky thing only freaks and nerds do.
Your opening and closing remarks are paradoxical.
I think the closing is more truthful, your average adult has firsthand experience with video games, to the point where associating them with loners, loneliers, and mass shooters just doesn't make any sense.
Then again there was that whole "gamergate" fiasco that had a bunch of people running around going "Gamers aren't aggressive you..." fill in the blanks with "C" and "B" words for like... years.
In grad school in 2011 for my MFA in fine art, I failed my final review because I was told the interactive side scrolling exploration environment I created was "not art"
Considering the colloquially understood defintion of _"fine_ art" I can imagine why you would be given a failed final anyway. It'd be like somebody asked me to make a Mario game and I made Shovel Knight.
I am impressed by the wide range of video games showcased in this video. Shows that the people behind this video actually care and are not just saying it to pander to an audience
Thanks to BDG I already knew what a gesamtkunstwerk was going into this.
Thank you for this.
I'm finishing my 4 year degree on Game Design, in the city where Lemmings and Rockstar began, and I can't imagine not seeing games for what they clearly are - an exciting, rewarding artistic experience.
Making them, with incredible people, and putting them into the world, has been a privilege.
Games are art. Games matter.
I love that I can put it on any video, randomly, from this channel and it’ll always be a great and kind watch. A comforting channel for creatives.
this video was so moving. I so appreciate The Art Assignment’s willingness to take novel forms of art seriously. y’all also clearly articulated all the great and awful things about video games!! this is so hard to do! thank you for this!
Oh my god I dreamed of this episode ever since you started. Thank you so much.
but why did this video make me feel like shedding a single, happy tear? i’m no gamer, just mario kart and dated pokémon games and smash bro of course.
games are great bc my siblings and cousins can still enjoy something we all enjoy despite age or skill :):)
I really like this art games, my favorites are night in the woods, firewatch, hollow knight, etc.
Have you tried The Beginners Guide and The Stanley Parable?
@@charcoalangel7536 i didn't play it sadly, but i love these games
Yeah my faves are hollow knight, stanley parable and Oneshot
then you should try "Ori" there's 2 games, one of them got released like a month ago or so
@@chusoskever2649 they look really good
"You can learn the rules of sports, and play them with less risk of injury" - shout out to John's FIFA injury 😂
I got so excited watching this video! I've watched The Art Assignment for years and I've always felt like this channel has a complex, nuanced take on all the subjects it covers, so I knew this was gonna be great. There's just so much more variety to video games than a lot of people realize. Heck, my mom, who would always get way too nervous playing video games, is now completely obsessed with Pokemon Go! It's just a matter of knowing what's out there that fits your interests.
A video game that really reached out to me (I even did a literal art assignment on it in my art class) is the final ending of Nier:Automata. I won't go into it to avoid spoiling those who haven't played through it, but for what it's worth, it was inspired by Coca Cola's "Small World Machines" social experiment to bring India and Pakistan 'together'."DO YOU THINK GAMES ARE SILLY LITTLE THINGS?" had never felt like such a loaded question to me until that moment.
It's very nice to see an art channel that focuses on 'traditional' art forms tackle and validate video games as an artistic medium. I find that while experiencing games can be as fulfilling and educational as more widely accepted forms of art, listening to discussion of this art on CZcams can be just as fulfilling. Whether that's in the form of game-design focussed channels like Mark Brown and Adam Millard, or channels that dig into the themes and messages like Jacob Geller. The latter of those really inspires me to think of my art in new ways in much the same fashion as the Art Assignment, and I encourage fellow viewers who appreciate art, gaming, and the way they interplay to give him a watch.
I have cried at video games, cheered and just stared in awe. Perfectly sums up why I keep coming back.
This has now became my favourite Art Assignment video :D
5:05 ...and finally, the original PokéRap,, is NO gesamtkunstwerk! --YES I WENT THERE --I'LL SAY IT AGAIN!!
BDG!!!
What i really love about this Channel is that you always try to see the Art behind everything. Thank you for your being an open-minded inspiration
Story telling in games is a wonderful thing, but my favourite games are the type that allow you the most creative freedom to build your own worlds (like The Sims, SimCity, Creatures, Animal Crossing,...) My memories of these games are of feeling the same way I do when I am making art in my real life studio; a thrilling, buzzing creative flow.
Everytime I think about how meaningful videogames are to me I think about sharing games with my father as a young neurodivergent kid who struggled with communication, of the few first friends I made bonding over them, of the long depressing nights I spent crying over my favorite games, and while I gave them up for a long time because I was told gaming wasn't for people like me, I'm glad I'm getting back into them and getting moved and heartbroken by more and more games ❤️ I wouldn't be here without videogames honestly
I have more to say but here's no the right place, I just wanted to jot down some of it in hopes others could relate
Have wanted for a long while for this channel to cover this topic and done in such a way that does justice to all parts of the topic! Love it!!
Thank you for making this Case video. Video Game is Art. I don't care what Art Snub says about it. It is Art.
Quoted this video in one of my research papers for school! This is a fantastic channel and its' great for video games to get this level of recognition !! Keep on keeping on !!
This is the first video I have watched by this channel, ANDDDDDDD .... I love this.
Brilliantly presented with such a serene setting and voice, it's simply splendid. Definitely deserve that sub.
This would be so interesting to revisit with the increase in games that have been made into movies and shows.
There are countless youtube videos about video games.
This is the most comprehensive and topical take on the subject, from my perspective.
Thanks for making this, it really encapsulates how I feel about games.
Also, I'm thankful this isn't framed this with "Are video games art?", and I feel like we're on the same page about the answer to that question.
I'll be sharing this one for sure.
And finally, shoutout to Brandan (sorry, not sure how to spell), there are sooo many great games represented here. Even more than the usual Art Assignment video, I really believe that anybody could truly love something shown in these 13 minutes. (But no mention of Undertale!)
Recommend you follow this up with "The Case for CZcams", since there is a lot left unsaid here about video games and their relationship to to CZcams and Twitch. Not to mention the immense artistry that goes into videos like this, and other brilliant artworks like "history of the entire world, i guess" or the memetic conceptual art that is surreptitiously sharing the "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video.
And while I'm writing out a bucket list, there is a "Case for Podcasts" and I'll save you my gushing over "The Anthropocene Reviewed" as one of the most impactful pieces of art I've ever experienced.
As someone who studies game design at university I just want to say thank you!! It's so refreshing to see someone appreciate this media. It bugs me that some people can't see past fps multiplayer stereotypes and "addiction" articles...Games is a unique format that allows to communicate your ideas, thoughts and stories to a degree in which player can actually change the outcome and interact with gameplay and narrative!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this video!! Love your channel. Wasn't expecting you to release smt about games but I'm so GLAD you did!!
To be fair, as a business culture games are much more concerned with the "addiction" side of things and often much less with the malleability of narrative interactivity. Heck, even setting aside corporate predation. Some of the most lauded over games give the player virtually no control over the storytelling. You can do almost nothing in The Last of Us that you weren't likely to do the first time you played, and you won't get a different ending, that's for damn sure. Now they're making it a TV show. It's rare to find a game designer who makes you go "This wouldn't work any other way than this." This is why I'm so disillusioned with GTA, they hold your hand at every turn, it might as well be a movie, because they rarely create characters interesting enough for a TV show either
@@futurestoryteller I will have to agree with you on this one. Big corporations with mass market can't afford being creative and inventive. They need to stick with the program so that their product would sell. It's a damn shame but this is how business works. My hope lies within indie games and independent creators. Because they mostly do it with love and care for this media and they experiment with mechanics and unique story telling. (Also, yeah, this handholding is annoying as hell)
P.S. I'm not a native speaker sorry for grammar mistakes.
Your English seems fine, and even if it isn't I can assure you I will not be the one to notice, as I'm quite often sleep deprived and prone to mistakes of my own.
I wrote for a game once, I'm not going to pretend it was ever bound to go anywhere, just some guy I met while he was making one by himself, and I managed to talk my way onto the "team" with a story pitch. I also fantasized about making games as a kid, but to be honest I never had any real ideas. I don't know if I could be the kind of person I'm talking about: who makes people feel like "this could only work as a game." The aforementioned pitch involved an essential interactive element, but it was mostly about meta commentary. If you're interested, I remember most of it:
In his game, an RPG, you could choose classes that would designate you a "good guy" or a "bad guy." One of the "bad" classifications was "Assassin" and one of the good classifications was a group of female Warriors we'll just call "Amazons" I conceived of a simple quest where you, as an Assassin are tasked with finding a colleague who disappeared on a routine mission and finish his contract if necessary, to kill an Amazonian warrior. Then erase all trace of him. With enough searching of the "Amazonian homeworld" you discover "an Assassin's" body in a shallow grave beside the bodies of four women in Amazonian armor. In the man's posession you find a map to his safehouse, and a conspicuous wedding ring. At the safehouse you can find evidence that he is your missing colleague. At this point you might be given opportunity to return to your homeworld and write off the quest. The other Assassin died fulfilling his mission, and his target was likely among the dead beside him. However you *might* have found in his safehouse a secret compartment containing a secret journal which indicates he had a longstanding romantic relationship with his target that preceded his contract, and that he had no intention of carrying it out. He and his wife were married in a cave under a waterfall. You could go to the waterfall, where the wife is protecting her... daughter.
She explains that when some of the Amazons learned that her husband was an enemy spy they tried to kill him _and_ their child. After the husband was killed trying to surrender peacefully the wife killed the four women who'd come to execute them, and fled to their wedding place. She begs you to leave her and her daughter alone. You are then prompted to complete the contract or leave the quest permenantly unfulfilled. You can only kill her in combat, and if you succeed you are given the secondary option to kill the child. If you refuse... the daughter will drown herself anyway, because you murdered the only family she had left.
It was at the height of gaming's binary morality fad and the point was basically "You wanted to be a bad guy, here's how you be a *bad* guy - hope you feel good about yourself, you monster!" I must admit. My tendency toward genre deconstructionism was not always appreciated by the game's original author, but he liked that one a lot.
I hope the folks at extra credit see this. It will make them happy, I think. They’ve been saying for years how video games can be art. This is a wonderful case for video games. 💜
I love the idea of the art assignments! Great job bringing interaction and learning to your channel and viewers! That's the type of content I love!
10:00. Thank you. Thank you so much for everything in this video, truly excellent and it's very humbling to see someone look critically and unbiased in this medium
For Sarah, and anyone who isn’t really a gamer (but wants to try one out), I really recommend GRIS. It’s the only game I immediately preordered the art book for. Beautiful art, music, and storytelling with simple controls and my favorite part - you can’t die in the game, so there’s a lot less frustration.
I love gaming, and I’ve always wanted to do art for games, but I’ve always had this conflicting idea of “would I really be a professional artist if I focus mainly on pop culture type art, and less of the art you’d see in a museum, or would I be just some amateur at it, with what I’m doing never actually being art” and this solidified it a little more for me. I’ve always had a fascination with games that had a great art style, or creative mechanic, or the ability to add a touch of yourself in it- or a blend of all of it- when all that comes together, games really do make an art form, like Undertale, despite it’s... “simple” style, it’s one of the most artistic games I played. Each boss battle I have fought felt like art. Asgore as an example, he breathes heavily, head bent down, he can’t even look at you, not even when swinging his spear, he’s so ashamed of himself. The mechanic, you can’t mercy him, because he doesn’t believe he should be spared. The music just shows his pain, his regret, his heartache, and yet his dedication to his people, his faded belief that what he’s doing is the right thing for his trapped kingdom. All this comes together to form a battle that I just don’t want to stop talking about, because of how well it was created, and one that I want to keep going back to, just to enjoy it. There are a million more examples too! Such as Sky: Children of Light and Abzu’s calming visual art style, music, and gameplay, but also it’s hidden intensity. I should stop going on a tangent now though! This was a great video!!
my god such a deep dive from not only the players viewpoint but developers on all scales, extremely inspiring for an newbie developer
I'm glad you mention What Remains of Edith Finch, but I wish you would've shown it a bit more. That game deserves so much more recognition than I think it's gotten and remains a remarkable testament to the human mind and the vast complexities of family arrangements. That game is as equally tragic as it is immersive and I urge everyone to play it at least once in their lives.
I was just thinking, Where's the new video. Well here it is. 😁😁
Yesssssss I saw your story with the pic of monument valley and was HERE FOR THIS
This was amazing Sarah! Thank you so much for delivering respect to the medium. More specifically I enjoyed that you didn't exclude the more mainstream "artistically accessible" games, as they all deserve a seat at the table.
The Art Assignment is one of the very best channels on CZcams. I am glad they finally made a 'case for' video for Video games.
You once responded to a comment I made on an Art Assignment video where I discussed a couple of videogames that I personally think of as good works of art. In that comment I vaguely alluded to the concept of "gesamtkuntzwerk" (in reference to Bastion) but didn't name it, since after all, it was just a youtube comment and it was long enough already. So seeing it get its mention in this video made me happy!
Also ordered the book months ago and still can't wait for it to come out!!
I love monument valley! It’s such an experience, like interactive art
You would like Abzu
Now I'm remembering the exhibit my brother and I went to for our birthday at the national gallery about the art of videogames.
I went to that one! My friends and I thought it was gonna be about concept art or something, but we were pleasantly surprised to discover that it made the video games the art themselves! I loved that they had playable games that were examples of some new development in the art form. It's actually what introduced me to Flower, which let me to Journey, my all-time favorite game.
@@karid9041 I found myself going back to Flower during that exhibit
I am deeply appreciative of this video. As someone who has been playing video games their entire life, it means a lot that y'all made this. Gaming has had such a huge impact on my life, I don't know who I would be without it and the credibility that it gives to the idea of video games as an art form is really validating. Thank you.
THANK U!! For someone who works at a frameshop and mainly work with fine art and trying to get my co workers to realize that video games are/can be so much more and should be considered an art form-this helps so much!!!!
Thanks for making this video :) Many people from the artistic world need to see it.
one of the most meaningful experiences ive ever had was when i played night in the woods right before i went to college
I've been playing video games almost my whole life. Some of my earliest memories, besides my parents' younger faces, are of Pokemon. This medium has formed such a massive part of who I am as a person, and it gets exhausting, having to defend its legitimacy as an art all the time. I've never thought about starting a new game as an act of bravery, and it really got to me when you said that. Thank you so much for this video. It expresses why video games matter as a storytelling platform and art form so so well.
I love this channel so much and I'm really happy that you covered video games :)
Love this. It feels like such an open-minded, honest representation of gaming. There are problems in the communities, but in the individual work, we can find humanity. Such a succinct and effective argument for video games as art!
Thank you for making this, without sounding elitist, the games shown and attracted to the masses are NOT what is represented of the entire artform. There are not only so many different takes, gameplay mechanics and genres, there's more ways to tell a story that movies, art and music will never be able to reach. I've always had a deep connection to creation, self expression, storytelling and video games are no exception to these themes. I'm not sure what else to say except thank you for making this video.
Sarah does a great job in hooking us into the topic immediately when she mentions her experience with the game Monument Valley. She mentioned how she was not a gamer and how she feared the addiction that can ensue with it. Her honest answer to her perspective of videogames throughout the video is a sign that she really understands the topic well and has realized the artistry of gaming. The video gives us a nice balance of history and examples compared to modern day videogames and how they aim to achieve what has been done in other mediums. Videogames has been around for many decades now through the form of arcade locales. Sarah talks about how videogames inspire us to create narrative stories that have true impactful meanings. Videogames can test our attituded awareness and help us solve problems alone or with friends. The same way we experience going through an art museum or sitting at home binge watching our favorite series, videogames take that same feeling of beauty, immersion, artistry and makes it into a wholly immersive experience. We see this with the great curated examples of videogames shown in the video. Sarah displays examples of gameplay, showcasing how videogames "perform varying functions and addressing different needs" (1:34). There can be instances where you may have to problem with a friend in order to reach a goal, puzzle solving, test your coordination and reaction time and much more. Many of what is discussed here relates to the growing world we live in where technology is advancing and the way we create art is also evolving. It is not about sitting in front of a screen and developing bad habits. In fact, the artistry used in games can also be absurd and funny. Sarah depicts examples of some not so good games and games that are meant to be wacky and amusing. This really shows the human dignity that not only Sarah and Brandon have, but to the growing amount of creators working together in a shared environment to create a work of art. That is one thing mentioned in this video that many people in our culture are unware of. Videogames should be seen as the "creative output of many". This can range from writers, designers, programmers, composers, artists, modelers, directors, sound engineers, actors, interpreters, marketers and so much more! This video was skillfully-developed in it's use of examples of the range of games shown, all the way to the tidbits of history involved. Watching this makes us open our minds to this realm of evolving artistry in games while also not feeling to assertive in the case of videogames.
This is such a respectful analysis of video games and their place in art. Loved it! Immediate subscribe! 💙
Thank you for this refreshing perspective
Wonderful channels like The Art Assignment are the reason why I continue to learn and improve my English, greetings from Brazil! ❤
greetings from india! good luck with your language practice :D
thank you for this video
(also I got exited when you called out "her story" great game)
I've found that as I get older and play more game I increasingly play games specifically because I'm seeking out artistic experiences, and that the games that stick with me the most are the ones that are fun for the ideas they convey and the artistry they present. Hylics and Hylics 2 are some of the greatest works of surrealism I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Lisa the Painful is a haunting character study that challenges it audience to consider incredibly serious ubject matter maturely while also being one of the funniest games I've ever played. Breath of the Wild offers a completely novel personalized form of storytelling through empathic encounters with its setting and characters that still move me to tears sometimes. I can't wait to see what kinds of artistic experiences this medium will bring in the future
Great video, I’m not a big gamer myself (Just a casual game every once in a while) but I do agree with what you said, you should make a case for comics/ graphic novels (still a very underrated art form)
I never get people saying "films are a visual medium." Films are a narrative medium, a visual medium, musical, otherwise auditory, they require performers, they're theatrical; you can utilize all of these facets or give weight selectively. - Comics are all but exclusively a visual medium. It's all about how it's drawn, where it's drawn and why. They also share a narrative form, but if they didn't then they'd just be drawings.
Even comic strips. Calvin & Hobbes is a great example. Bill Waterson stopped making them, apparently in part because papers were demanding he free up more space on the page. He hated this because he felt empty space was the only way to appropriately convey certain ideas.
@@futurestoryteller Well all lot of experts and critiques agree taht a sign of a great movie is the ability to get the story by the visuals alone, and while the score and the script are very important they aren't essetial to the movie medium (case in point silent movies and documentaries). Comics are also a foundamentaly visual medium the difference stand in the freadom of rapresentation, you can leateraly draw anything and as long as it plays out a narrative its a comic, no metter how abstract or subjective (films need to respond to a certain cannon of rules that define the medium, also comics do but to a different one. ex. panels, page layout, page turning, art stile, word balloons, captions, ecc...). thanks for the reply (I love Kalvin and Hobbes too :) )
Wow, beautifully made and well researched.
That's why I love this channel so much! You are truly an amazing team making all of these approachable and insightful contents! BTW, could u pls do an episode on "The Case of Photography"? I am really interested in this genre of arts and would like to learn more about it!
Beautiful video, clear and concise with wonderful choices for gameplay footage.
I think the most important takeaway here is that Richard Wagner could've been a video game designer.
What of the best analysis I ever saw
If Fez hadn't been shown, I probably would have lost it! Good job recognizing it's worth!
Did not expect it to veer towards and compare video games to opera! That is why I love this channel... always taking my views and horizons and expanding them. Very well said through and through. Thank you for another wonderful video!
I walk past that UNM art gallery every day! I was so excited to see it!
Thank you for doing this video essay, I have a background in theater, and have been saying for years that video games are a valid form of art, the accessibility in your presentation was amazing, I hope that more people can come to understand that videogames can be extremely complex and capture some situations or emotions that other art forms cannot.
fantastic commentary, and KILLER KILLER PRESENTATION DUDE
Really well done.
For me the best part of games is making them, trying to predict/ baby proof on what the player is going to do.
It's an entire game of it's own.
Really fun event I did called the Global Game Jam.
People all over the world meetup and share stories, knowledge, and just really funny nerdy jokes. Then 48 hours to make a functional game.
It gets tough, but you definitely meet cool people there.
One of the reasons I originally got into Extra Credits was because they gave a thoughtful and creative insight into games and game design. I love the fact that the Art Assignment also did a video on this!
Great video! However, something *VERY* important was missing from it. I'm imagining a giant billboard in the middle of the sky, and the person who wrote the script for this video was looking all around them for reasons why video games are a valid medium for high art. The looked to the left and saw "values". They looked to the right and saw "narrative." They looked behind them and saw "beauty". But they forgot to look upwards at that giant billboard in the middle of the sky, which read, "learning".
I could just end this comment here, but why not go on a rant?
To understand why learning is so vital to games, it's important to understand formal systems. A formal system can be anything from organic chemistry to Sudoku to songwriting. In short, a formal system is a collection of interconnected concepts that are abstracted and formed into symbols. All games (not just video games, and questionably all art as well) take place within a formal system. Some games, like The Sims, emphasize playful exploration of a formal system. Other games, like chess, emphasize completing concrete goals (e.g., winning). As the player *learns* and develops a deeper and deeper understanding of the formal system, they make progress or get better at the game. In my view, the ability of a game to facilitate this type of learning is the primary factor that determines whether the game is fun to play.
In short, games are about everything that was mentioned in this video, and all these things were very well said. But even more so, games are, fundamentally at their core, safe spaces for learning.
EDIT: Last month I went to a Michel Angelo exhibit where I live. I can't help but wonder if the reason I was so compelled by his paintings was because I was exploring a formal system by gawking at his art. Although I don't think that aesthetic beauty and emotional depth can be fully explained using the model described above, it is, nonetheless, an amazingly flexible model that applies seemingly to all areas in life (which is a red flag in of itself!)
As a video game developer, I endorse this video. A great take that even surprised me occasionally about my own medium.
A great video and the clips selected/edited were fantastic. I play games but I do not consider myself a gamer, but I appreciate works like these to help people who are not familiar with the medium. I would also highly recommend "A Beginner's Tale" if you have not played it yet.
I've got a case for video games right here!
*Taps plastic container for hard copy of Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga on the Xbox 360*
This is all the proof I need!
What an incredible selection of video games and what a testament to the potential of video games this video is!
When I watch a usual art assignment, I don't know most of the painting or sculptures and learn about some of the wonderful art I didn't know about, but this time I was an expert! Haha! I was ecstatic when I saw "What remains of Edith Finch" in one of the clips!
i remember we had an exhibition on video games in a museum here a couple years ago; you could play a lot of the originals and really get a feel for it. old and young people playing together. it was quite cool. i loved playing street fighter 2 against the kids and whooping their asses, resulting in a mini tournament being held on the spot with a couple of parents and children. chun li ftw ;)
the other nicest moment i had with video games was when i discovered vr art... so much possibilities. the merging of drawing AND sculpting. the physicality of it. i doodled a real scale unicorn drawing i could go around and witness in all it's perspectives. everything i drew after that looked so bland xD
Great analysis and perspective. Thanks for this. 🙏
I'm in awe of the person who researched this.
Also, I'm more confident than before of being a gamer, as I've played a lot of the mentioned ones. (Including Monument Valley, which was just... ah. And the Witness.)
Love this video, it really analizes games in a respectful way as art. I personally don’t play games, because I it makes me feel too stressed. But I envy games, because they can escape into another world.
Such a good video as always, y'all are incredible
I think the Opera comparison was spot on, videogames really are more of a collection of arts, where the whole is so much more than the sum of the parts.
Loved this! Would love to see the case for illustration one day ✨ thanks a lot for the work you do with this channel!
YOUR MIND! that would be so cool!!!!!!
I absolutely consider Katamari Damacy to be not only an example of powerful art, but specifically hitting that idea of gesamtkunstwerk. The music is an eclectic mix of genres and moods all jumbled together in a way that's weirdly harmonious, the visuals are simplified but run the full range from achingly mundane to shocking and bizarre, the gameplay is hypnotic, everything about it comes together to bring a unified, cohesive experience, with nothing being just present for spectacle or because it seemed necessary. Very much like Untitled Goose Game (which clearly has some artistic inspiration therefrom), the mood it brings is sometimes one of stress, but often one of joy and wonder. It's really important to remember that art doesn't have to be sad to be moving, doesn't have to be dark to be powerful, and that being inspired can come in all sorts of ways.
Seriously, the work you do on this channel is so excellent. The perspective you bring to art, and invite us to share, is so open and free and just ready to feel things and to imagine, and I think it's a message a lot more people could stand to hear.
I like video games for lots of reasons but lately I’ve been looking at them as a cool metaphor for that intersection between art and science (/life in general lol). I noticed that “soft” scientists especially emphasize that there are “correct” answers in that field, which is what makes it different from art. Video games often (though not always) have a “right” answer (you can “win”) but for lots of reasons (including those that you so beautifully summarized in your awesome video! Thank you!), video games seem to fall under the umbrella of “art.” AND THEN when you consider that a human created the “answers” (and we have to, in a way, communicate and negotiate with that creator through playing their game), that adds an even more clever level to the art/science/life analogy...
This video is wonderful! When I worked as a high school art teacher, video game development was a consistent part of my curriculum, and I feel that approaching games within an arts context provides critical insights (and yields type of creative work) that you don't find as readily when it's approached in a computer science or general STEM education setting. One of my favorite things is when people who are emphatically NOT self-identified "gamers" have thoughtful things to share about the medium - which is part of why I enjoyed this video so much! Often it was my students who were not familiar with games (and their tropes) who would come up with the most inventive, boundary-pushing, and novel stuff in the class. Also, as a result of a number of gendered social pressures, teaching games in art class rather than a STEM class tends to afford more women and girls access to opportunities to do meaningful work in this fantastic medium, which is great for a lot of reasons.
If there's one gentle critique I'd offer, it's that this video's selection of shared games, while laudably looking past large commercial games into the experimental/independent/art game sphere, focuses pretty heavily on works by male creators. Jonathan Blow, Jenovah Chen, and Shigeru Miyamoto are rad, but so are Nina Freeman, Zoe Quinn, Momo Pixel, Brianna Lei, Nathalie Lawhead and Lea Schonfelder, among others!
Excellent as always!
Wandersong is my favorite game because between the beautiful and unique art style, soundtrack, story, and gameplay, I can't believe some people don't consider video games as art.
As a casual gamer I kind of already knew video games are a form of art, however, you touched on so many aspects I'd never really considered to be a part of video games' artistry such as collaboration and finding order in new games. I really loved this video, so after lurking for a bit I'm finally subscribing!
Wow Sarah, what an amazing video. Thank you!