And You Thought 'Passage' Was Depressing

Every Day The Same Dream is an "art game" created by Molleindustria, an independent game developer that creates short, satirical games.  Molleindustria is also responsible for the hilarious McDonald's Video Game that Sheila briefly showed in class.

Depressing

I call it an "art game" because the only challenge comes from trying to figure out what to do next and the only real purpose of the game is to be symbolic.  The player controls a character who can only move left or right and interact with a few objects in a world that is almost entirely grey.  The player does things such as slowly creeping towards work in a traffic jam full of identical cars, sitting in a cubicle in a row of identical cubicles with identical people sitting in them, getting fired, following a hobo to a graveyard, and jumping off of the office building.  If the player performs certain actions they will eventually trigger an ending sequence in which the player wanders through a world devoid of people.  The game is meant to symbolize alienation and the repetitive dullness of the everyday world.

More Depressing

"Art games" like Every Day The Same Dream and Passage are quite unique, focusing more on the message they are delivering than the actual gameplay.  Do you find this unique niche of gaming interesting or does taking much of the 'game' out of a video game render it pointless and uninteresting?

Most Depressing

Are Video Games Art?

This is obviously a very difficult question to answer, and it is further complicated by the fact that there is no simple answer to the other question: What is art?

An argument that video games are art was put forward earlier in an excellent post made by my classmate Christopher.  The post contains a video that rebukes Roger Ebert's claim that video games can never be art because of their interactivity by pointing out the improvisations that can occur in music, especially in jazz.  I would take the argument further.  Literature, film, painting and sculpture also require interaction.  Even when the artist has a specific message in mind different viewers, readers, and players will make unique interpretations of a piece. 

I also believe that the interactivity of video games can be an advantage to them as an art form.  You should see some of the totally insane things players have built in games designed for player creation such as Minecraft, LittleBigPlanet, and Spore.  Even shooters like Halo and Crysis have produced some cool creations.  Click on the links to see some.

The interactivity of video games can also be important when considering a definition of art as a human creation meant to elicit an emotional response.  When we watch a good movie we become emotionally invested in the characters.  Its why we root for them to overcome their challenges and feel upset if our favorite dies or fails.  Consider the emotional impact games such as the Mass Effect Series might have then, games where the player's own choices determine their character's relationship to the others and whether they live or die.

If we consider paintings and sculptures as art, then there is definitely no reason not to regard some of the spectacular visuals provided by video games as art.  Below is one of my personal favorites, and I encourage any readers to comment with a link to their own favorite.

The underwater city of Rapture from Bioshock

So what do you think of the video games as art argument?  Personally, I've always best liked this simple definition: If you have to ask if its art, then its art.