(This was originally a facebook status; hence the lack of capitalization, etc. There’s no supporting arguments or evidence or whatever–it’s just a thought I had, and something I want to explore further. Really gotta go to bed.)
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before i forget when i sleep tonight–the history (and possibly the future) of video games closely resembles that of still photography AND film, not just the latter.
born out of entirely scientific endeavors (discovery of silver nitrate’s properties/interactive cathode ray display experiments), then applied to amusement (flip-card peep shows at arcades/video games at arcades), then, eventually, on to high art.
video games are still at that peep show stage–at the end of the day, the most well-read criticism of a given game, no matter how beautifully drawn or scripted or acted the game is, centers on the game’s ability to amuse rather than its exploration of its themes. but to say that video games can NEVER be art (*cough*rogerebert*cough*) is myopic. there’s still the rest of forever to go for the form.
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Sony Computer Entertainment's Shadow of the Colossus (image taken from Kotaku.com)
Peace,
Nic
Nic Park 