Video Games: Art?

While moving my way across the internet today I stumbled upon this article talking about the soon to be opened Smithsonian Exhibition:The Art of Video Games, and I found that this article brought up an interesting idea: Can video games as they exist now be considered an art form? While there is no doubt the medium is no where near developed as the realms of literature and theatre (even the relatively young medium film for that matter) it seems that certain aspects of art in select modern video games cannot be ignored.

However, there are professionals out there from across different mediums that discredit video games, such as professional movie critic Roger Ebert who claimed that video games could never

be art. It is undeniable that the vast majority of the population would agree with him; many people today still associate video

games with either the 32 bit adventures of an Italian plumber on the Super Famicom, the rampaging done by TJ in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and what ever the current Call of Duty sensation is. Despite the fact that gaming is becoming more mainstream and a more acceptable form of entertainment, there are sadly still many people out there who are deeply misinformed on the fasted growing entertainment medium in the world. Hopefully I can change a mind or two... or just get people to play some fun games.

Case One: Portal 2

Comedy is probably one of the hardest genre's to get right. The movie market is saturated with comedies, yet there are maybe one or two a year worth seeing . To get comedy right you need just the right amounts of intelligence, heart, and a presence in reality. The recently released Portal 2 has all of these components and they come together in just the right ways to take it from just a great inventive puzzle game to a hilarious inventive puzzle game. Portal 2's comedy doesn't rely on simple slapstick or poop jokes, instead busting out it's comedic chops with interesting and funny characters, witty verbal jokes, and occasional meta jokes about the nature of gaming itself. Portal 2 made me laugh heartily several times in the roughly ten hours I spent in it and had me smirking and chuckling the entire way through. What the game may lack in deeper meanings and themes that characterize great art it makes up for in fantastic characters and genuinely great humor.

Case Two: Metal Gear Solid

What is the meaning of the work as a whole?

I am sure I am not alone in my hatred for this phrase. I have had to explain the meanings of events, places, and people made up by dead guys more than I care to remember. While the realm of themes and messages are inherent and natural when it comes to literature, it seems like an alien concept in the realm of gaming. After all, what could Mario possibly mean? If asked to write an essay about Super Mario World I would probably come up with something about sea turtles and dragons. Hardly compelling stuff. Thanks to games like the Metal Gear Solid series, however, if asked to write an essay about the meaning of a video game, I could very easily do it. The Metal Gear Solid games deal with innumerable and complex themes ranging from the ethical effects of transhumanism, the New World Order, the solider's place in the world, the politics of nuclear war, the perversion of dreams and ideals, the nature of war heroes and legends, the effects of the military industrial complex, how genes dictate our life, and the list goes on and on. The games cover one story leading from the Cold War in the 1960's to a future semi-cyberpunk war of 2014 where proxy battles are fought all over the world to fuel a world economy dedicated to maintaining a constant state of war. The games are dotted with fantastic moments of drama and storythat rival great films and some novels, all while maintaining a fantastic and fun gaming experience. One of the best instances of this is a famous scene from the fourth Metal Gear game where the lead character is forced to walk through a microwave tunnel to disable a gigantic Ai. The player watches and controls him as he walks through the tunnel suffering extreme pain and burns as the top of the screen shows his comrades fighting to stay alive. It is a great scene with a lot of emotion and shows the player what is exactly at stake if he/she doesn't make it through.

Case 3: Bioshock

With recent years has come an enormous change in the quality of art assets that games employ. Gone are the days of moving blocks and choppy, blurry textures. Now games can approach a quality unforeseen, quality that challenges animated films. Literal artistic merits have grown exponentially in recent years and no games show off this growth than Bioshock. Bioshock is a dystopia story rooted strongly in the objectivist movements of Ayn Rand and her novel 'Atlas Shrugged'. The game takes place in an underwater city called Rapture that was originally created to house the most brilliant scientists, artists, and thinkers in the world. Rapture is a beautiful and interesting place to explore, utilizing the idea of destroyed beauty to the fullest effect. It draws inspiration from forties ideals and art deco styling all with a slightly horrifying destruction and atmosphere placed over it that completely immerses the player in the world. Rapture is clearly a city that fell from greatness and the melancholic beauty of your surroundings reflect that.

So in the end, can video games be called art? I have provided examples of the best in their respective fields, but still, does the art present in great games match that present in great literature, film, and theatre? At the moment, the answer is no. Video games are still a young medium, and as such are still growing and changing faster than we can know. These games all have undeniable aspects of art in them, and in the future as the medium evolves all games will. Just as film legitimized from being considered silly pulp to a true artistic medium in the past half a century so will video games.

Below is the opposite of art. It is the worst thing ever created. Seriously, do not watch this.

US versus UK: The Office

The Office is a show that has become hugely popular across the globe. Starting as a small project between friends Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant in the early 2000s, the Office has grown not only into one of the most popular and endearing British television programs since Monty Pythons' Flying Circus, it has also been remade six times in six different countries and four different languages, including a US version, Israeli version, German Version, French version, Quebec Version, and a Chilean version with a Chinese adaptation of the show coming down the pike. The Office has succeed in so many different cultures and places because of the show's easily adaptable format with the idiotic and incompetent boss, the love triangle between the receptionist, her finance, and the laid back sales person, and the egotistical socially awkward sidekick to said buffoon of a boss.

The quality of these adaptations is almost always top notch, and fans have been split arguing and bickering over which one is the best. For the purpose brevity, I will compare only the merits of the American version of the show, and the British original starting with characters and moving on to the overall pros and cons of both series.

The Boss:

Us: Michael Scott

Michael Scott is the Regional Manager of the Scranton Branch of the Dunder Mifflin papercompany. Michael's character is portrayed as moronic, immature, and often times irrat

ional and lacking in self esteem. Much of the humor that Michael Scott brings to the show is his often times drastic overreactions to situations in the office (such as when he locked his entire staff

in the conference room to show them that prison is worse than working at Dunder Mifflin when they joked around about how

prison was better) and his many instances of pure idiocy (driving his car into a lake because his GPS told him to). Michael seeks the approval of his co-workers to an incredible degree, going so far as to grow a goatee because one of them did. He shows genuine caring for his staff (with the exception Toby) and complete devotion to his company, unlike his UK counterpart David Brent. However, despite his obvious incompetency as a boss, he has often times been shown to be an extremely good salesperson who may have been promoted too high up in the company. In terms of character depth, Michael never really passes the level of sympathetic buffoon.

His finest moment: My personal favorite Michael Scott moment on the show is in season four where he has some severe finance troubles and is advised to declare bankruptcy, where he takes the suggestion a tad literally:

UK: David Brent

David Brent is the Regional Manager for the Slough branch of the

Wernham Hogg paper company. David and Micheal share an unfunny and oftentimes offensive sense of humor (David leaning towards offensive) and despite this hold the belief that they are actually very funny. However, the two characters are almost as far apart as possible while still being different versions of the same archtype. Brent, unlike Michael, does not care for his workers, and only acts like he does as a front for the documentary cameras that are filming him. He seeks less their approval and friendship and he only wants them to find him funny. David, like Michael, can be a competent boss at times. His branch was doing better financially than future rival Neil's branch was, and he was almost promoted to a corporate position. However, Brent fell apart when the cameras came into the office to film the documentary that the Office pretends it is. He often hams it up for the camera, letting his actual work duties take a back seat. His ego explodes as he becomes a small time celebrity and at one point he even blows off fixing a pay issue of one of his workers to brain storm a game show he wants to create and host. Brent's humor and depth as a character come from his many delusions of grandeur, his over inflated ego, and his utter ineptitude as a manager. Brent is seen as a jerk of a character, wanting only fame and praise upon himself and not caring for others. He is often rude, inappropriate, and very awkward.

His finest moment: My favorite David Brent moment is an episode in series two when on 'fun day' his boss and rival Neil (who is everything David wants to be) does a dance for charity that gets rave reviews from the office staff. David then attempts to one up him.

David Brent Dance - watch more funny videos

And the Winner is...

David Brent. While Michael is a wonderful and very funny character, David just operates on so many other levels than just humor. He is an inherently unlikeable yet sympathetic character who ruined a good job and a fairly good life to try and showboat around for some cameras. David Brent's various delusions, mannerisms, short comings, and complete obviousness to what he is saying and doing entertain me on a level much deeper than Michael's idiocy. David Brent's saga over the two seasons of the original office is more of a drama and character study than a light hearted sitcom.

Thats all for today's post. Next post I make in the UK vs US version will focus on the second lead characters, that is Jim and Pam from the US version and Tim and Dawn from the UK version.

And to finish off this post, here is a clip where the two bosses finally meet:

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Calling all ears.

What would you do if you experienced a tragic accident, resulting in permanent deafness?

What would you do if your child was born deaf?

Today in my American Sign Language 3 class, we talked about the advantages and disadvantages of deaf people receiving cochlear implants (CI).  So much controversy surrounds cochlear implants, including the question of making such a huge, life-changing decision for a child who may not want to grow up hearing (keeping in mind that the earlier a child receives a CI, the more effective at improving speech and language they prove to be), the fact that CI's are not guaranteed to deliver results to all who receive it, and the disruption and possible extinction of Deaf culture.

So, whether the deaf person be the child of deaf parents, hearing parents, YOUR child, your brother, or your next door neighbor, how should their deafness be "handled?"  Many protest CI's because being deaf is not viewed as a handicap, but a way of life and a culture that could be eliminated by CI's.

I'll leave you with a video that made me angry, frustrated, sad, and enlightened.  It's called "My son is deaf, finally!" The video is 10 minutes long, but you absolutely must watch it through to the end or you won't get the whole message.

Thoughts???

How to Smack Writer's Block Like An Angry Infant's Momma

It is an arid fight for inner peace,
with neither palpable beauty or defined poetry.
In this fight, one sometimes advances
in the night of anonymity,
in the mud of indifference or misunderstanding
under the storms and bombardment unleashed
by the conjugated forces of repressed pain
and denial, the flesh and the seed
of pure evil which lay deep beneath
the surface in each of us.
But it is through this course of action,
the commencement of this fight,
that the wicked seed is slaughtered,
the angels of the heavens are attracted,
and serenity is granted
to those who seek it most ardently.

- I'm unsure who wrote this or from where I originally copied it down,
but sometimes when I'm staring at my computer like a retard,
it's hellfire for my writer's block;
gets to boiling blood pumping through my grape
when it's frozen stuck, and needs to stay nice and frosty
so I can keep packing two thirds of a snowman.

Top ten of 2010

Hey all, as I'm sure most people know, the Oscars are coming up pretty soon, and so I figuredmy first blog post here at the Grove would be my top ten movies of 2010. Also, I'll give you opinions on what I think will win at the big awards show.

10. The American

Because of the advertisements making the movie look like it was supposed to an action packed thrill ride of a spy thriller in the vein of the excellent Bourne Trilogy, I found that I was presently surprised to find that the American was something different entirely. I found a movie not about some super agent running around and kicking the ass of everyone around him, but a movie that was a slow and calculated character study about a man trying to leave his dark past behind and start anew in the sleepy village of Castel del Monte. While not for everyone (namely the girl on my floor who called it the worst movie of all time, sorry Gabby, that honor goes to Transformers II) the movie features beautiful cinematography, great tension, and good action the little bit it is there.

9. The Kids are All Right

The Kids are All Right is a drama-comedy with brains. The movie is at times hilarious, sad, and entirely compelling. The balance between comedy and drama is top notch, never veering too far in any direction. The acting is excellent and you care for every character on screen and their respective struggles. I really enjoyed Mark Ruffalo in it, and because of this movie he has gone from being "that guy from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" to an actor I actually care about. Simply put, the Kids are All Right is a great film; one of the best in 2010.

8. True Grit

Being a big fan of the western genre of movies, and given their sad decline in popularity since the 80's, I was happy to see a new western come out this year (and even directed by the Coen Brothers!). The performances in the movie a brilliant, Jeff Bridges brings a nice edge of comedy to Marshall Cogburn, Hailee Steinfield is one of the best young actresses out there, and Matt Damon is unrecognizable as Matt Damon. Despite being one of the Coen Brother's weakest films, True Grit is still a worthy remake of the John Wayne classic, it brings the thrills, the tension, and the old west action I have been craving since 3:10 to Yuma.

7. Inception

Despite what I may say about Inception being overrated, it is still a marvel of film making. Christopher Nolan poured his life into this movie, never settling for the easy way out (going so far as to build a giant rotating hallway for the gravity crazy sequence). He worked out the script for nearly a decade, and his work paid off with one of the best heist movies in recent memory, and certainly the most original. Being lead by a strong cast featuring the always excellent Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Tom Hardy, Inception is both awe inspiring and thought provoking.

6. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

I cannot exclaim enough how much I enjoy this movie, and while it is no where near the top movie of 2010, it is certainly the funniest. Scott Pilgrim's comedy delivers on all fronts from clever turns of phrase to repeating visual gags that poke fun at everything from videogames to movies to manga. Michael Cera finally breaks out of his role as socially awkward teenager, and becomes a marital arts ass-kicking-bad-ass. Edgar Wright's direction is great, going for as many practical effects as possible, which made the film look great. It is a 60 million dollar movie that looks like it is a 100 million dollar movie. Scott Pilgrim may have been a flop at the box office, but I encourage anyone and everyone to at least give it a shot.

5. The Fighter

The Fighter is an interesting movie, it is more a study of the relationship between the members of a highly dysfunctional family than another Rocky Balboa tale. While there is certainly plenty of underdog boxing matches and watching Mark Wahlberg get the shit kicked out of him, the true heart and soul of this movie is in the family relationship, specifically between the two brothers Mickey Ward and Dickey Ecklund. I have to specifically call out Christian Bale's performance as Dickey Ecklund as being the best of the year. He deserves his long awaited Oscar for it, and it is what elevates the movie to the level of greatness it has attained. He literally lives the part. The Fighter is a smart and emotional boxing movie about what it takes to succeed, and I highly recommend it.

4. The Social Network

David Fincher takes what could have been "that movie about Facebook" and elevates it to a new level. The Social Network is an enthralling tale about the rise of the world's youngest billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, and how he back-stabbed his friends, stole ideas, and threw a lot of legal money around to get there. Jesse Eisenberg breaks out of his mold as the poor man's Micheal Cera, and makes the movie his own, giving Mark Zuckerberg little personality ticks and just a hint (Well a lot) of asshole. Zuckerberg is a fascinating character to watch, and the drama within is compelling throughout. The direction is fantastic, the soundtrack haunting, and the performances compelling making the Social Network my number four choice.

3. Winter's Bone

Winter's Bone is a fantastic and highly original film all around. The sense of mystery the prevails throughout the film is fantastic, and the compelling way the mystery of the movie unwraps around the audience is superb. A great leading performance by new face Jennifer Lawrence carries the movie from one uncompromising and depressingly realistic moment to the next as she retraces her father's footsteps in a desperate attempt to save her family's home. With phenomenal characters, acting, and plot, Winter's Bone offers one of the best movie watching experiences of 2010.

2. The King's Speech

A movie about King George the VI's speech impediment. Sounds pretty boring right? Well, that plot summary does not give what director Tom Hooper accomplished by making this lovable, compelling movie about friendship, family, overcoming class differences, and finally, getting over a disability that has kept you from achieving your life's goals, justice. Colin Firth plays the King flawlessly, giving us a character who has fame, money, and absolute power; yet he makes us feel sorry for him. Another shout out must go Geoffrey Rush who played the King's speech therapist Lionel Logue. Hey portrays Lionel as a kind, knowledgeable working class man with unusual conventions about his work. He is hilarious, lovable, and completely unorthodox. The King's Speech is a move that does not sound great on basic plot summary alone, but if you were to ignore it based on this fact, you would be missing one of the greatest movies of 2010.

1. Black Swan

Black Swan is thrilling, disturbing, heartbreaking, mind boggling, intense, and beautiful. The movie is arguably the best directed of the year, with Darren Aronofsky's brilliant use of lighting, focus, and point of view to give the movie its unique look. The camera often stays close to Portman's character, never letting the audience let go of her or her struggles. I must point out, Portman's Oscar deserving performance carries the movie to its full extent, giving us an incredibly wide range of emotions, depth, and believability. The movie's unconventional take on the tale of Swan Lake, and its slow spiral down the hole of insanity is brilliantly done, nearly perfect. Black Swan is not for the faint at heart though, throughout the movie my heart was beating out of my chest awaiting the next grotesque occurrence that would happen, ever wondering what exactly was going on with this character, and how this film was going to end. Black Swan is everything Aronofsky set out to achieve, Portman's career defining performance, and quite simply, the best movie of 2010.

Special Category: Most Embarrassing Omission

I did not get around to seeing 127 Hours yet. Danny Boyle is one of my favorite directors, and the movie has gotten nothing but praise. Upon seeing it, this list may be slightly revised. Or maybe not... I can be lazy.

And as promised, here is a prediction of the major categories at the Oscars:

Best Movie: The King's Speech

Best Director: Darren Aronofsky

Best Screenplay: The King's Speech

Best Lead Actor: Colin Firth

Best Lead Actress: Natalie Portman

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale

Best Supporting Actress: Hailee Steinfeld

Welcome!

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