With videogames unabashedly mainstream, and titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 earning over $1 billion, or as much as the highest-grossing movies, it’s interesting to see whether videogames are evolving towards being considered art.
You could certainly make that argument for the artistic value of some ‘indie’ games (Braid and Limbo come to mind, although some like The Path may be trying too hard). And even some more mainstream titles do try (like Shadow of the Colossus, though I don’t think most succeed.
Now I like playing videogames, and I love the fact that many games are tackling more complex themes and storylines, and there’s certainly a potential for them to create some stunning interactive art.
But I’m also interested in seeing how they influence other media. There’s an entire generation now that’s grown up with videogames, and seen them became a part of popular culture. These experiences should increasingly influence different forms of art and entertainment. (I’m sure there have been individual examples over the years, but as gaming becomes mainstream, I would assume so should its influence.)
Games have certainly made a huge impact on Hollywood, with most modern action movies having a certain hyperkinetic sensibility that’s probably best described as being ‘videogame-like’. And both the Scott Pilgrim comic books and the recent movie version (Scott Pigrim Vs the World) are full of little details from the videogame world, .
But what about art and photography? This idea of videogames as a source of other artforms drew me to Robert Overweg‘s photographs of virtual videogame worlds, which I found out about through Gizmodo.
In the end of the virtual world, he captures eerie images of the videogame worlds with their abrupt endings, as in the image below.
A more recent exhibit features videogame glitches as art, as in the surrealistic image below.
I think it’s a really interesting idea, and the galleries are well worth checking out – of course, if you’ve actually played the games in question, it’s also kind of funny 🙂
I also recently read about a magazine called Kill Screen in Ars Technica. 
The name itself is a videogame term, and the idea is to have a literary magazine based on videogames. I haven’t read it yet, although I did check out their sample PDFs–I just really like the idea. The average age of videogame players is 35, according to this news report based on a CDC study (which also says they’re overweight and depressed…but that’s another story, for another time :)–this means more disposable income and possibly a taste for reading about videogames that extends to more than just reviews and previews, which is pretty much what all you get in current gaming magazines. Of course, I have no idea if there really is a market for Kill Screen, particularly since print magazines in general aren’t doing that well, but I’m certainly curious to find out.
As the videogame industry becomes just as big as movies and music, there’s certainly scope for some quality writing (and other art) based on them. Here’s hoping for more of it.
[Via Gizmodo and Ars Technica]