Tuesday, April 20, 2010

A Case for Video Games as Art, or Roger Ebert is an Idiot

If you're a fan of video games you have no doubt run across some media site, blog or irritated tweet referencing a recent blog entry by noted film critic Roger Ebert who wrote that "Video games can never be art."


Even Ebert admits that "never" is a bit of a weighted word, but I am absolutely shocked that a film critic would feel this way about an emerging medium and be completely wrong in the process.


He spends most of his time refuting a presentation made at USC by Kelle Santiago, a video game producer and designer, who catalogues various (perhaps not the best) examples of video games as art.


She lists downloadable games Braid, Flower and another I'm not familiar with - Waco Resurrection. I'm not sure how she goes about her argument suggesting each as art, but Ebert is quick to to consider Santiago's three examples as "pathetic."


Ebert is also quick to forget the struggles the film industry faced during it's infancy. The 15-second long reels in Edison's Kinetoscope were viewed as nothing more than minor amusements and were certainly not considered art-worthy by any means. It wasn't until the first Academy Awards in 1929 until motion pictures were considered an art form - nearly 40 years after Edison introduced his little gimmick.


Ebert also spends considerable time toying with the definition of art, but forgets the division between unfairly classified "high" and "low" art - film is still considered the latter.


I would bet that a commonly held interpretation of art could be explained as a piece of creative word that stimulates not only thought, but challenges either the limitations within its medium or society to some degree.


Video games are the only interactive medium allowing the player a choice in his or her actions. Yes, it's a game with a motivation and goal, but video games are becoming much closer to film than Mr. Ebert would ever dare to consider.


Take the Metal Gear Solid or Final Fantasy franchises for example. They both feature less gameplay than cinematics a majority of the time. The interactive nature of a video game in this case create a closer emotional connection to the story that transcends film. After all, to reject video games as art is to reject film as art.


As for the inability to compare any video game or game creator with great art or artists, you have to examine what each had done for the industry. When you look at how video games and video game artists have stimulated the medium, names such as Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima and Will Wright come to mind as do Super Mario Bros., Metal Gear Solid and The Sims.


I'm Sorry Roger Ebert, but you're wrong and I'm sick of the image of video games as a mindless medium for teenage boys.


Video games are art.

Friday, April 16, 2010

UK Woman Claims the Nintendo Wii Made Her a Sex Addict

You read the headline correctly, Amanda Flowers (perhaps a fake name) says that a fall while playing Wii Fit has turned her into a sex addict.

She was allegedly diagnosed with persistent genital arousal disorder after damaging a nerve while falling on the Wii Balance Board in the process of playing Wii Fit.

She now claims she needs to satisfy her delicate disorder 10 times a day and the slightest vibration can trigger a reaction.

Yes, the 24-year-old is single.
No word on if she plans to file any sort of law suit against Nintendo (imagine how that disclaimer would read).

Depending on how you look at it, one more reason why more women should or shouldn't get into gaming.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Gears of War 3 Premier Trailer


I don't claim to know much about the Gears of War franchise other than it is one of the premier series' on the Xbox 360.

However, I do know that the April 5, 2011 release of Gears of War 3 is slated to mark the end of the trilogy.

With the teaser trailer "Ashes to Ashes" launching today, development studio Epic Games is looking to wrap of one of the most successful series' on the Xbox 360 to date.

It looks like it's "Brothers to the End."


Tuesday, April 6, 2010

April showers bring more data storage? Xbox 360 and PS3 see media storage upgrades

Spring has sprung, we've hopped past Easter and now the Summer is only about two months away so there's only one thing on the minds of folks in the video game industry - data storage.


Confirmations are fleeting everywhere that an Xbox 360 firmware update will finally allow 360 owners to use USB flash drives for additional media storage. That means game data and other media can now be backed-up and stored outside of the Xbox 360.


But just wait a minute.


Much like the PS3, the size said external media storage devices cannot exceed 16GB and must be larger than 1GB. That quickly dashes one's hopes for circumventing Microsoft's pricey hard drive upgrades by attaching a 1TB external hard drive.


To add insult to injury it is unclear if third-party flash drives are even compatible with the Xbox 360 as Microsoft announced Xbox 360-branded flash drives manufactured by SanDisk. To make matters worse, these 8GB and 16GB USB sticks are priced at $40 and $70 respectively. That's more than twice the price of most USB flash drives.


If you need to back-up your Xbox 360 on an external drive, try your 4-year-old plastic flash drive first.


The Blu-ray Disc Association also announced an upgrade in the storage size of new Blu-ray discs called BDXL.


These high capacity recordable and rewritable discs use three to four recordable layers allowing 100GB to 128GB disc capacity. This a major increase from many existing 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray discs.


A press release by the organization lists the upgrade as ideal for commercial segments such as braodcasting, medical and document imaging enterprises. Why not games?


Since the Blu-ray disc is the physical media format of the PS3, why not integrate upcoming video games on this mega-Blu-ray beauties?


This could also easily pave the way for cross promotion and conglomeration between media by packaging a Blu-ray copy of a popular film release with the video game tie-in on the same disc. This coupling could also easily work the other way by pairing the upcoming expansion to last year's Street Fighter IV with the critically acclaimed (not really) 1994 film starring Jean-ClaudeVan Damme.


The association also announced the IH-BD (Intra-Hybrid disc) format. The IH-BD incorporates a single BD-ROM layer and BD-RE layer to "video, but not overwrite, critical published data while providing the flexibility to include relevant personal date on the same physical disc" according to the press release.


I'm not sure what the gaming application is here, but I'm sure it could mean something.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

VGF Magazine issue 2 April 2010 is active


It's not an April Fools joke, it's official, the next issue of VGF Magazine is active today!

I'm very pleased to introduce the 12-page follow-up to November's first issue of the magazine. This issue features Scott Daly, a former high school classmate of mine, who is a student at the College of Creative Studies in Detroit, Mich. He illustrated the zombie cover as well as designed the layout for pages 3-6 which include the Third Annual VGF Awards.

You can order your issue through MagCloud.com for $2.75. Your copy will be mailed directly to your mailbox.

Here's what's included in this issue:

REVIEW: Assassin's Creed II

FEATURE: Third Annual VGF Awards

REVIEW: Final Fantasy XIII

FEATURE: Bizarre Video Game News

OPINION: What the Apple iPad means to gaming

...and more

Order your copy of the latest issue of VGF Magazine today!