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Games In A Museum?
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<blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 7651196" data-attributes="member: 3887"><p>Everything can be considered to be a "text". And every "text" can be subjected to critical analysis. My favorite David Foster Wallace essay does a close reading of stuff including an episode of old hospital drama St. Elsewhere and the Joe Isuzu car commercials -- I *think* the essay's called "E Unibus Pluram".</p><p></p><p></p><p>I'd say the game designer is person who made the <em>instruments</em>. The DM and players are the rest, who do some surprising things to said instruments when left to their own devices. </p><p></p><p></p><p>What about builder-sim games where the rewards are largely aesthetic -- Sim City, Minecraft, or even wargame-y ones like Civilization? Or RPG's which allow the player to shape the identity of the protagonist --like Mass Effect, where a big part of the game involves *who* the protagonist is, ie what kind of person and what kind of relationships they have? </p><p></p><p></p><p>This is an important distinction. I think the answer, in the case of both pen-and-paper RPGs and video games is: yes (sometimes... well, at least it's not a categorical "no"). </p><p></p><p></p><p>Sure! My gaming sessions are art. Specifically, improv theater (or absurdist sketch comedy). Bad art, to be sure. But the term carries no inherent judgment regarding quality. </p><p></p><p></p><p>For me, *this* is the most interesting question. Are rules & mechanics art? It's easy to see how a chess set with beautifully carved pieces are be art object -- in fact I own a reproduction of the Karim Rashid chess set that's in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's collection. </p><p></p><p>But is *chess* itself --the rules of the game-- art? Are some algorithms art? I used to think the question was, well, nutty. Now I'm not so sure. I've seen/played with interactive artworks in fine art museums that differ from certain kinds of software-toy video games only in their respective media. I've spoken with my wife about the process-focused abstract paintings she did in the 90s, which were essentially paintings of algorithms -- heck, I could probably code them. </p><p></p><p>Anything can be art these days (or so critics like Arthur C. Danto say). Been that way since the 60s (70s?). Why not formal rule structures/games? </p><p></p><p>(note -- I'm not sure I entirely *believe* this, but my internal arguments against this idea keep getting weaker). </p><p></p><p></p><p>This can't be stressed enough. Bad art is art. "Art" isn't a statement of worth/quality -- it's a super-broad category for a certain kind of human-made artifacts (including information/non-physical ones).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mallus, post: 7651196, member: 3887"] Everything can be considered to be a "text". And every "text" can be subjected to critical analysis. My favorite David Foster Wallace essay does a close reading of stuff including an episode of old hospital drama St. Elsewhere and the Joe Isuzu car commercials -- I *think* the essay's called "E Unibus Pluram". I'd say the game designer is person who made the [i]instruments[/i]. The DM and players are the rest, who do some surprising things to said instruments when left to their own devices. What about builder-sim games where the rewards are largely aesthetic -- Sim City, Minecraft, or even wargame-y ones like Civilization? Or RPG's which allow the player to shape the identity of the protagonist --like Mass Effect, where a big part of the game involves *who* the protagonist is, ie what kind of person and what kind of relationships they have? This is an important distinction. I think the answer, in the case of both pen-and-paper RPGs and video games is: yes (sometimes... well, at least it's not a categorical "no"). Sure! My gaming sessions are art. Specifically, improv theater (or absurdist sketch comedy). Bad art, to be sure. But the term carries no inherent judgment regarding quality. For me, *this* is the most interesting question. Are rules & mechanics art? It's easy to see how a chess set with beautifully carved pieces are be art object -- in fact I own a reproduction of the Karim Rashid chess set that's in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's collection. But is *chess* itself --the rules of the game-- art? Are some algorithms art? I used to think the question was, well, nutty. Now I'm not so sure. I've seen/played with interactive artworks in fine art museums that differ from certain kinds of software-toy video games only in their respective media. I've spoken with my wife about the process-focused abstract paintings she did in the 90s, which were essentially paintings of algorithms -- heck, I could probably code them. Anything can be art these days (or so critics like Arthur C. Danto say). Been that way since the 60s (70s?). Why not formal rule structures/games? (note -- I'm not sure I entirely *believe* this, but my internal arguments against this idea keep getting weaker). This can't be stressed enough. Bad art is art. "Art" isn't a statement of worth/quality -- it's a super-broad category for a certain kind of human-made artifacts (including information/non-physical ones). [/QUOTE]
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