Video game and visual art

In this week lecture we learnt about the history of video game. We are the generation who were born in the age of digitization. So, we might be the witness of the development of the video game. When I was in primary school, my father brought me a Nintendo’s Family Computer. Super Mario and Battle City are the classical games in that time and I spend a lot of time to play it with my friends or families. After that, when personal computer popularized, I started to play video game on computer, such as, Monopoly, The Sims and so on. After several decades, these games didn’t disappear rather than developed in to a flourishing stage with the development of the technology.

Nowadays, the 3D models or visual art have become the common technique in video game, which is the reason that I’m still interested in video game and enroll in this course. The superior visual effect can satisfy the need for gaming experience. Lots of video game companies invested huge money in role or setting design. For example, The Bioshock is invested about two million dollar. On top of the story, its image is spectacular.



However, some people might think games just for fun, which means they don’t need such beautiful or artistic creativity designed in games. Similarly, the definition of art is also not clear, because video game combine music, animation and text. For many people, video game might be considered as low culture instead of high culture or art.

The article gives a answer that the games might be considered as a language which is a tool of expression and change. This expression is not only about storytelling, but also include the artistic style. For example, The Bioshock is set in 1912, which means the style of clothes and building have to be designed back to that period. The designer team includes professional art designer. Therefore, the artistic value might be a part of video games aesthetics.

Finally, video game is hard to define weather it is art or not because of its feature of multimedia. However, I agree with Keith Stuart who thinks it more than just for fun. They are can be seen as a form of communication between designers and gamer. Furthermore, its visual design is also in the professional degree. Thus, video game trend to develop into artistic or more professional  work instead of just for pleasure.



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