Nostalgia Critic - Are Video Games Art? - That Guy With The Glasses

I think on top of emotional effect what makes a game truly 'high art' is if it is studying philosophies and ideas. Some take academic concepts and works and discuss them. I havent played infinite yet so cannot say it is better or not, but I would say the pinnacle of gaming art is actually the original Bioshock. Why? Well because it has multiple layers.

First layer: It is a fun game. You can play it through as a mindless horror shooter.

Second layer: It has excellent atmosphere. If you take your time and dont run through it, you immerse yourself into a world of creepiness, insanity, and decay.

Third layer: It develops an entire world and history around it, not through simply saying "hey this happened" but by providing first hand accounts and making the events live and breathe.

Forth layer: It discusses choice and the human condition. A major part of the story in the game is about how we can know if our actions are our own free will, are we simply beings that respond to certain emotional/linguistic triggers? Meanwhile, the splicers show what humanity can become if we allow greed to consume us without some form of moderation such as laws.

Fifth layer: Not only does it question the human condition, but it critisises a major academic theory, namely objectivism. Objectivism is Iyn Rands idea that all people should live for themselves and pursue their own desires without intervention by others such as the government (Even Andrew Ryan, the games apparent main antoganist, has his name as an anagram for Iyn Rand. Rapture is a conceptual case study of what libertarian objectivism could result in within an isolated system of elites: All refused to do the "lower job" such as cleaning or repairs, interests overlapped, lack of morallity made murder a common problem, and those like Fontaine who craved power destroyed the system. Add in a single powerful drug and suddenly you have a world of complete chaos.

Thus, Bioshock, I would argue, is the landmark case of how video games can truly be art, not just in the sense of they are pretty to look at and play, but what they represent and critisise.

Source: http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/39451-nostalgia-critic-are-video-games-art

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