Comments on: Oedipus Rex: The Video Game http://www.litdrift.com/2009/05/06/oedipus-rex-the-video-game/ Storytelling in the 21st Century Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:02:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.2 By: Games for the Literati and Books for Gamers | Brews and Books http://www.litdrift.com/2009/05/06/oedipus-rex-the-video-game/comment-page-1/#comment-1542 Games for the Literati and Books for Gamers | Brews and Books Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:24:50 +0000 http://litdrift.com/?p=420#comment-1542 [...] storytelling in games has evolved to something nearing the level of film and prose - albeit in an interactive rather than inevitable [...] [...] storytelling in games has evolved to something nearing the level of film and prose – albeit in an interactive rather than inevitable [...]

]]> By: Michael Rudin http://www.litdrift.com/2009/05/06/oedipus-rex-the-video-game/comment-page-1/#comment-793 Michael Rudin Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:50:37 +0000 http://litdrift.com/?p=420#comment-793 Fascinating take on how close video games are to becoming art. That we're having the discussion at all certainly exposes one of video games - and one of any art form's - greatest benefits to their audience and peripheral ones: they engage. We're questioning what's keeping video games from becoming art, forgetting that the process of questioning it at all suggests it's close, getting closer. A story, be burned into film or printed into paper, is inevitable in that it cannot be reburned, reprinted. The artist's message is out in the periphery for the audience, and he/she cannot take it back. But the audience, from there, can do whatever it wants. It can align with the artist or manipulate it into something else entirely. The audience's right is to reinvent the story - to what it wants, needs, doesn't matter. Video games' interactivity isn't a short cut away from inevitability so much a short cut to the audience's ability to own story. And as owners, nobody can dispute video game fans are as fanatical and dedicated to their form as any in existence these days. All these things add up to a DIFFERENT art form, affecting its audience in DIFFERENT ways. More importantly, it's evolving. To your point, video games are still figuring their form - and audience - out, and we will all be lucky when the right mix of 'inevitability' and 'ownership' explodes onto the marketplace. Fascinating take on how close video games are to becoming art. That we’re having the discussion at all certainly exposes one of video games – and one of any art form’s – greatest benefits to their audience and peripheral ones: they engage.

We’re questioning what’s keeping video games from becoming art, forgetting that the process of questioning it at all suggests it’s close, getting closer.

A story, be burned into film or printed into paper, is inevitable in that it cannot be reburned, reprinted. The artist’s message is out in the periphery for the audience, and he/she cannot take it back.

But the audience, from there, can do whatever it wants. It can align with the artist or manipulate it into something else entirely. The audience’s right is to reinvent the story – to what it wants, needs, doesn’t matter.

Video games’ interactivity isn’t a short cut away from inevitability so much a short cut to the audience’s ability to own story. And as owners, nobody can dispute video game fans are as fanatical and dedicated to their form as any in existence these days. All these things add up to a DIFFERENT art form, affecting its audience in DIFFERENT ways.

More importantly, it’s evolving. To your point, video games are still figuring their form – and audience – out, and we will all be lucky when the right mix of ‘inevitability’ and ‘ownership’ explodes onto the marketplace.

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