Video Game Evolution

Video games have often been seen as creators of the violent mind, something that creates a killer. This opinion is usually formed by people who have not played video games, it is formed by an observer. Will Wright stated that if you were to just observe people in a movie theater, never seeing a movie before, "You would conclude that movies induce lethargy and junk-food binges." This type of mentality prevents someone from seeing the art and usefulness of video games.

In 2000, Henry Jenkins wrote an article called, Art Form for the Digital Age, in the article he argues that video games shape the culture and are not taken seriously, similar to jazz, Broadway, and the comic strip were when they were first getting popular. I agree on many of his arguments, but there are a few that are outdated. One that is still true today is, "The compute is simply a tool, one that offers artists new resources and opportunities for reaching the public; it is human creativity that makes art."

One of my professors once said that computers are really quite dumb, they are fast. Computers are created to do simple arithmetic super fast. Everything the computer does it programmed, it is up to the "artist" to program this, to make it what they want.

Contemporary games can pump us full of adrenaline, they can make us laugh, but that have not yet provoked us to tears. Any may have argued that, since games don't have character of human complexity or stories that stress the consequences of our actions they cannot achieve the status of true art.

This is an outdated statement, one that shows how much the development of video games has changed.

This is a recent example of how far the creation of story telling has gone, there is a human complexity, you are going to have to deal with the consequences of your actions.

Another example of how story telling has improved:

The actress in this video game is Ellen Page, a famous movie actress, is acting for a video game. Jack Kroll once argued,

that audience will probably never be able to care deeply about pixels on the computer screen as they care about character in films: "Moviemakers don't have to simulate human beings; they are right there, to be recorded and orchestrated..."

We have reached a point in society that video games are expected to either have an amazing story line, be a multiplayer game, or both. It is important in today's society that you are effecting the emotions of the person playing the game. Games have budgets that often surpass movies now. Video games are seen as an art form, just look at the rewards given out, they include best actor/actress, best story, best graphics. It is very similar to the movie industry as should be respected as such.