“Human, you’ve changed nothing. Your species has the attention of those infinitely your greater.
That which you know as Reapers are your salvation through destruction.
You have failed. We will find another way. Releasing control.”
-Harbringer
Nowadays, it doesn’t take much to say that sculptures, paintings, instrumental pieces, dances and films are works of art. How eager we are to admire a magnificent portrait or a glorious bust; a graceful dancer or a touching movie. We find ourselves attracted to the character and emotion behind these masterpieces- drawn like bees to the most sublime flowers. The elite pride themselves in such civilized tastes and display them with extravagance. However, treat video games with the same idolatry and you’ll get nothing but looks of contempt, indignation, and even disgust.
This belongs to the vulgar and tasteless crowd, they’d say while they glance at a game screen where a man’s head is torn to shreds by a combat shotgun at point-blank range. They hear nothing but how these technological outlets do nothing but indulge in the violent and perverse behavior of the depraved and uncivilized. Yet, just as most people found themselves entranced by the pointless violence of countless action movies throughout the age of filming- they do not dare to question that film is, indeed, an art form.
The Shawshank Redemption, Shindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, The Pianist: nobody dares to question the art behind them. Nobody would doubt that these are movies that bring out our humanity; forced to see these characters as if they were real- calling out to us and demanding a warm place in our hearts and minds. However, dare to mention the likes of Mass Effect, Fallout, Dragon Age, or Final Fantasy and you might as well have blasphemed their ancestors back to the classical ages of Rome and Greece!
Despite all of this emnity, while staring mindlessly at the screen of rolling credits, I recover from what I am not ashamed to call the most profound emotions that have ever struck me out of an artistic medium. Nothing I had seen would compare to that experience- no film had ever gripped me at such a deep and personal level; no orchestra had ever awakened this heightened inspiration; nor had any cast of character connected themselves with my own heart so strongly. Nothing had ever made me care about the fate of not just one race or people, but an entire galaxy, so much as this.
What brought about this feeling of elation, you ask? Interactivity. Allow me to use the very recent example of the Sci-fi epic series, Mass Effect. This is a Roleplaying shooter game, where you take the role of Commander Shepard, a man -or woman- whose history you would be able to choose, along with the single event that made him so famous. You can alter his facial appearance- something that adds to the overall digital personification. Right from the start, you are given an emotional bond with this character by making it a digital manifestation of yourself and being able to choose what made a difference in his life. How long these small details go to giving us better emotional satisfaction! And to think that this is only but a snowflake on the proverbial tip of the iceberg!
The game also frequently presents you with a series of dialogue options that will greatly influence and shape, not only the events of the game, but subsequent ones as well. At the beginning of one mission, one of your comrades is enraged by the course of action, which will result in either you killing or calming him down. Later on in that same mission, you are given a choice between two teammates- Lt. Kaidan Alenko and Ashley Williams- and you must rescue one and leave another to die. This has immediate impact in that first game. Especially more so if you’ve underdone the pains to get to know them better. This affects us even greater, when we realize that we won’t see our fallen comrades in the second installment- they’re truly dead and we can’t press restart to bring them back.
That is what lures me into these games- you’re not just given a gun and told to shoot everyone until you encounter a big monster to blow up and you’ve won. You can dig so much deeper than that- you can talk to the crew and get to know them. You see that they’re not just heroes fearlessly facing the barrel of the rather suicidal events, but real characters with their own intricate histories and personalities. They’ve experienced shame and regret; they obsess over a criminal that slipped through their fingers because of the bureaucratic crap in the security forces; they suffer from having to kill their own mother while chasing down a man that threatens to destroy the entire galaxy. And you’re not just watching it; you’re there, making the decisions on whether or not to damn a race to its extinction or to save it; you’re the one pulling the trigger to kill the mother of one of your teammates while she despairs at her new allegiance; you’re the one who makes the choice of which teammate you save and which you would abandon to death.
No single movie can ever grant you that level of personal investment; you don’t truly feel what’s at stake when you’re watching the Sith taking over the Star Wars galaxy unless you’re there making the choices. You don’t truly care unless you experience these characters and bond with them to an emotional level. If the galaxy is doomed to destruction and you’re the one able to prevent that, the developers have granted you a handful of faces to attribute it. You can’t put a face on a galaxy- in the end, the casualties are all numbers unless you have an emotional stake; an investment; a personal attachment to their fate.
When my save file was carried over to the second game, I was thrilled to see the old, familiar faces. I didn’t have the option of adding any but two of them to my new squad, but it felt great to see them. I can’t describe how thrilled I was to see that old friend with whom I came close to shooting each others head off. To see him uniting the different clans of his people and building a bright future for his race was joyful- I couldn’t stop smiling and my heart fluttered for a while.
Having encountered my love interest from the first game, I couldn’t help but feel pity to see that once gentle person being consumed by rage and vengeance. How I wanted to whisk her away from such plans and take her through suicidal missions all around the galaxy just like the good old romantic days.
When it came time to assault the enemy base, I had already developed emotional bonds with my new crew. I interacted with them and gotten to know the stories and emotions behind these suicidal heroes. They were each shareholders of an emotional investment- I had grown to care for them as individuals, and would do this last mission just for their sake, not just the galaxy.
And that last mission was nothing like any other I’ve played before. You have a real sense of what’s at stake- if you don’t make the right decisions, your crew members will die and those that perish will not be seen in the subsequent games. If you don’t adequately prepare and earn the loyalty of your crew, YOU will die beside them and you won’t be able to carry on the same character to the next game. The fate of the galaxy is at stake; the fate of your friends is at stake; your fate is at stake. And to go through the heart of enemy territory and escape without any casualties- there is nothing that comes close to describe that feeling. Not only did I achieve the impossible, but I made sure my friends and beloved comrades lived to tell the tale as well.
You want to ask me if video games are an art form? A way of expressing human emotions? I say video games like these are the unification of all forms human expression- art that has come together to deliver an experience unlike any other. One where the sculptor would give life to an entire race and species- one individual at a time; where the painter would create cities and planets and the anthropologist beside him would craft entire cultures and societies to live out of these grand edifices; a universe in which the writer would weave all of the events together in an intricate web of life. An art that combine’s film’s cinematic qualities to bring life to this theoretical world and music’s grandeur to heighten that already incredible elation into a truly epic experience.
In order for those of you that aren’t familiar or interested in video games, allow me to give you a glimpse of this final and epic scenario. This is a video showing the last scene from the final mission. It’s the last part of a six-part series depicting that last mission, as played by another gamer. WARNING: If you are interested in video games and considering buying and playing this game, I reccomend not watching it.
Gah, video games. I will take this moment to vent! I’ve never been good at playing them, I’ve always been one to watch others play… and I actually enjoy it. Lately, I despise it. Why you might ask? Well, one of my housemates plays Modern Warfare. He gets SO excited and annoyed and upset; that he starts screaming, yelling, and cussing; it’s absurd. Okay, I am done.
By the way, you have a way with words. i really enjoy your style. I feel bad for not reading your previous entries, I will do that later.