Crawford

I think games and simulations are the same. They may strive to be different in the case of an army simulation, but they're always going to have game things about them. Crawford says that simulations aren't stylized, but their gaming interface and other things are always going to be stylized. A game menu is stylized. I've been playing Endless Ocean recently which blends simulated boredom with a very game like interface. There's not very much structure to the game, it's mostly just exploration via simulated diving. I know it isn't a pure simulation, but my argument is that it's impossible to have a pure simulation (Flight Simulators will always have game menus to get you into the game etc.) and that simulations vary in how stylized they are. I suppose it's kind of like arguing about genre, though. Nobody knows exactly what is a horror western film or how to define and RPG or whether Metroid Prime and Portal fall into the FPS category. For the purpose of an argument Crawford might have had to make a distinction between simulation and games, but I feel the difference is unnecessary.  read more »

Crawford mentions that fiction is an "untruth that is not a lie." Well, to answer perfectly for all situations: sort of.

Fiction is a lie. But it's a lie without the negative connotations of "lying." Fiction is art, it's entertainment, it's goal is to communicate and evoke emotion. Creative writing students, including me, will tell you that we're all liars. In fact, what makes us good at writing is that we're good liars.

What separates a simple lie, from fiction, is credibility. Dickens describes the disheveled mansion of Miss Haversham in order to lend her credibility. To make her, and the "lie" that he's painting, more believable. Everyone knows the lie: "My dog ate my homework," but if you add certain details, it can sound more realistic. "My dog, I swear he's blind from cataracts and, well--you know--flea bitten old guy, he didn't know the difference..." etc. etc.  read more »

Crawford writes: "Computer games are too trivial, too frivolous to be called art."

This reminded me quickly of what I've read in the realm of criticism, which tries to define abstract concepts, such as "art," "experience," and "emotion." Duchamp's "Fountain" barely seems artistic to some.Duchamp's "Fountain"

I. A. Richards, considered one of the founding fathers of modern criticism, explains that art must communicate. I'm paraphrasing him here, but this same idea is apparent in Crawford, who writes: "Art is something designed to evoke emotion through fantasy." This is exactly what it does. Richards further explains that art communicates, through emotion, an EXPERIENCE. This is the guiding light of art. Now, how well it communicates that experience, and satisfies impulses, determines "good art" from "bad art". I will simply refer to these as "high art" and "low art," respectively.  read more »

When I read through Crawford's article, I instantly had a better appreciation of how far video games have come (and in such a short time!  read more »

In the preface of his book, Art of Computer Game, Crawford suggest that mainstream video games are trival at best. I Agree...to Disagree. He of course makes some important distinctions of art from an artist point of view but he fails to mention art from the eyes of the audience.

I AGREE:

..."that the computer has become a medium for emotional communication."
- The computer has allowed the audience to become part of the art itself instead of just interpreting the art, as it was commonly done prior to the industrialization of computers.

..."more invest of the game equals more emotional value to the audience."  read more »

I have never been much of a gamer. Perhaps anticipating my addictive personality, my parents never upgraded our video game system beyond the Atari 5200. Although I was occasionally able to play Sonic or Mario while visiting my cousin, my early experiences with video games were almost entirely defined by River Raid, Pitfall, SuperBreakout, and the like.

In high school, a friend introduced me to Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and, when I discovered that Eric Idle had starred in two of the games based on the series, I purchased my very first non-educational computer game. Missing, Presumed...!? proved to be infuriatingly difficult, and a walkthrough became my best friend for a few weeks. Even so, the experience was an entertaining one, and I soon found myself playing Simon the Sorcerer, Monkey Island, and other such adventure games.  read more »