I’M TAKING ON WHAT WILL LIKELY PROVE to be too much; but that’s just my nature, I don’t think that I can change it, at least not anytime soon, and stuff gets done nonetheless. So much has changed over the past year, not just in the world at large, but in my own personal life as well. I’ve chosen to take on a much more global perspective than I once had, and I’ve chosen to take time to refine my art and writing into something a little more refined. A few years ago, I thought that my life’s work would be more chiseled out by now, but between numerous setbacks and bad decisions lay the death of my grandmother and a massive, incapacitating shoulder injury.
In over one year of “semi-voluntary” unemployment, I’ve had the chance to spend many-an-hour playing video games… and I’ve decided the following: a video game is art, video games contain art, and “video gaming” is now pop. Running “my own company” is kinda neat like that; I was in too much pain to work every day, my medications made my moods difficult to control and predict, so I simply chose to “shut it down.”
I would feel bad for those few around me at the time whom had to “suffer through” and put up with it, but they were paid well and the accompanying perks greatly outweighed what they had to do at the time. But no, life was not so great… spending too much time on World of Warcraft for nearly a year solid before the crash didn’t help, either.
But now, a few years out from my cataclysmic self, I’ve gained perspective. It sure hasn’t been too financially profitable! Going without a paycheck (but still having the same bills) is a recipe for pain and displeasure, and now that I think about it, how I’m able to spend any time playing video games (or writing this, for that matter) is a bit beyond me still. I suppose that that puts my newfound-perspective “in perspective!”
While maintaining an attempt to not be egomaniacal about it, I will say this: I’ve always had a natural draw and high-aptitude for “the arts,” the only element missing being music. Visually and linguistically, my pursuits have been like a roller-coaster collision. It’s never been “easy” per se, but I don’t think that much of value (generally) is. Life is challenging, and in and through challenge, comes true reward and occasionally, if one is lucky enough… some “fun.”
In that way I find that video games, the well designed ones, are a great metaphor for the type of life that I’m referring to. The game is hard, there’s a hero’s journey involved somewhere and great storytelling along the way. There’s a love affair, a seductress, an archenemy and a nemesis, friends, spies, backstabbers… law enforcement, crime, money, power-ups and progression. And that’s about where and when I decided that a video game “is art;” when something imitates life so well, portrays it so deeply, and involves someone so intensely that he or she gets “sucked in,” it’s art in my book. (Henceforth, I shall refer to all individuals unidentified specifically as “she” instead of “he or she,” “one,” or “they.” It’s bothersome to me when she says or writes “they” instead of “someone.” It’s a new peeve, and instead of using the more popular “he,” I shall use “she” like in them’sick-ass Vampire stories! Please understand that it is not my intent to be or appear sexist, or have my work “read” as such. Please understand it’s merely an attempt to save words, balance the scales because on average “he” is used more than “she,” and constant use of “he or she,” “she or her” and “hers and his” is annoying. Don’t hate, appreciate.)
In the same way a person can get drawn into a painting and sit in front of it on a cold, uncomfortable museum bench, so to can a person become involved in a video game, staring with unequally-dilated eyes, glazed and strained. Actually ducking and dodging in-game bullets, tilting her head up at static glass to “look up” in game. Or leaning in a driving game—I want to tell her, “leaning doesn’t make your car turn more!” In my head I scream, “You’re looking up (or down) at a screen that isn’t moving! It doesn’t tilt! You can’t possibly get a ‘better angle’ by doing that!”
But in truth, and somewhat surprisingly, actually saying any of that is almost always useless. She knows that her angle won’t improve and that an analog thumbstick controls the car. But the game breaks that fourth-wall-barrier. So if movies and television can be art, a video game is definitely art.
And the media is improving. With the XBOX 360, I would tell Kristen that “tilting the controller and leaning won’t enhance her driving.” Mentally, maybe it does something… perhaps letting herself believe in the false “reality” of what’s happening makes it more “fun.” With technical improvements and the decreasing cost of high-tech components comes improvement however, and if she were to play a Playstation 3 driving sim, the same statements about her “technique” would likely be false. She’d also tilt the PSP while playing Ridge Racer, and not only does that not help, it actually makes watching the screen that much harder. Ad a gyroscope and all of that changes. There’s an accelerometer and a motion-censor-‘thingy’ in the iPhone, so it’s certainly possible that a new handheld could detect movement.
I’m going to finish my first entry by saying this: I have a lot more to say about video games and the extensive technologies involved in them. Back in high school I tried to make one with a friend in C++ only to figure out midway that C was the standard and that learning about class-structure in the beginning would’ve saved us time, energy and lines.
In today’s world we have terms like “uncanny alley” to describe the queezy-feeling and response to the weird-false-reality of human expressions portrayed in some games. We have controllers like the “Wiimote,” but even before such total-detection was the analog pressure-sensitive PS2 controller. It allowed gamers to experience more through tighter control and amazingly, the ability to capture a player’s subtle differentials in pressure allowed programmers to understand and use her intent. There’s a big difference between sneaking down a hallway and sprinting at breakneck speed, and the advent of analog create the difference in a character’s stride-speed. With pure-digital eight-way, “Mario” would run at the same speed regardless of pressure, the only measurement and instrument of change was the amount of time the player presses the button. Now, we can take minutes to creep down a hallway that the character can bolt down in two seconds. How hard a player pressing a button changes a punch from a jab to haymaker, grandmother’s-driving versus leadfooted-Dukes-of-Hazard.
I won’t even get started here on force-feedback. My next “gaming post?” How about some Microsoft vs Sony… a lil’bit-a’history repeatin’ with a twist. Instead of the standard console flame wars, I’ll take it from the perspective of control enhancing experience: tilt & pressure versus pressure & feeback. Aren’t you excited?! I can’t wait.