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RPG Evolution: Are RPGs Art?
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<blockquote data-quote="Bedrockgames" data-source="post: 9016759" data-attributes="member: 85555"><p>It is late and am about to go to bed but will answer this as best I can. I used to take the position that you do (RPGs aren't art, but the illustrations, the maps can be). However I feel that was a dishonest position for me to hold* because when I examine my reaction to RPG books, the way that I myself design, I have to admit it is very much my reaction to other forms of art and how I approached things like musical composition, writing stories, etc. To me art is partly a mindset. Before I might allow myself to call RPG design a craft, but not an art. At the end of the day, I think the distinction between those is somewhat blurry (both take a degree of technical expertise, practice, etc): i.e. playing guitar is a craft but it is also an art, making furniture is a craft but also an art, etc). For me it is about how I react to RPGs. When I think of a book like Law's The Esoterrorists, Skarka's Hong Kong Action Theatre! or Nesmith's black box for Ravenloft, my response to those was similar to how I responded to a book that moved me, a song that moved me, a painting that moved me. And it was an involved response because I was reacting to things like the atmosphere created, the brilliance of ideas in the games, the aesthetic of the prose and mechanics, etc. </p><p></p><p>I do think these are often collaborative works of art: you have illustrators, mappers, and other contributors. So it is in some sense more like a movie production or an album. </p><p></p><p>It is subjective, and it is hard to arrive at a definition of art everyone agrees upon, but I think the overall effect RPG books can have in terms of their emotional resonance, the beauty they can convey, creative expressiveness, etc certainly qualifies them. I understand our reluctance to label them such (especially since it can seem a bit stuffy or snobbish). </p><p></p><p>In the design I see very little difference in approaching an RPG book to other works of art. I was heavily involved in music before getting into game design and I think it involves a lot of the same kind of sense of vision, passion, expression of emotion and ideas. And this operates on a number of levels (from how the game feels in play to how the book feels as you read it). And it is again very true this isn't a one person effort (you are working with other artists and they contribute vast amounts to the look and feel). So it is a group effort (which also isn't unlike music). Even little decisions like how a header might change to impact the reader can be, in my view, an artistic choice. </p><p></p><p>How well each individual RPG succeeds is another story (and also very subjective). But I think the important thing, at least for me on that front, is how it makes me feel when I look at and read it, when I immerse myself in the text. </p><p></p><p>*Not saying it is dishonest in general for people to take this view, but for me, because I was clearly engaging RPGs as art, it was not an honest expression of how I felt</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bedrockgames, post: 9016759, member: 85555"] It is late and am about to go to bed but will answer this as best I can. I used to take the position that you do (RPGs aren't art, but the illustrations, the maps can be). However I feel that was a dishonest position for me to hold* because when I examine my reaction to RPG books, the way that I myself design, I have to admit it is very much my reaction to other forms of art and how I approached things like musical composition, writing stories, etc. To me art is partly a mindset. Before I might allow myself to call RPG design a craft, but not an art. At the end of the day, I think the distinction between those is somewhat blurry (both take a degree of technical expertise, practice, etc): i.e. playing guitar is a craft but it is also an art, making furniture is a craft but also an art, etc). For me it is about how I react to RPGs. When I think of a book like Law's The Esoterrorists, Skarka's Hong Kong Action Theatre! or Nesmith's black box for Ravenloft, my response to those was similar to how I responded to a book that moved me, a song that moved me, a painting that moved me. And it was an involved response because I was reacting to things like the atmosphere created, the brilliance of ideas in the games, the aesthetic of the prose and mechanics, etc. I do think these are often collaborative works of art: you have illustrators, mappers, and other contributors. So it is in some sense more like a movie production or an album. It is subjective, and it is hard to arrive at a definition of art everyone agrees upon, but I think the overall effect RPG books can have in terms of their emotional resonance, the beauty they can convey, creative expressiveness, etc certainly qualifies them. I understand our reluctance to label them such (especially since it can seem a bit stuffy or snobbish). In the design I see very little difference in approaching an RPG book to other works of art. I was heavily involved in music before getting into game design and I think it involves a lot of the same kind of sense of vision, passion, expression of emotion and ideas. And this operates on a number of levels (from how the game feels in play to how the book feels as you read it). And it is again very true this isn't a one person effort (you are working with other artists and they contribute vast amounts to the look and feel). So it is a group effort (which also isn't unlike music). Even little decisions like how a header might change to impact the reader can be, in my view, an artistic choice. How well each individual RPG succeeds is another story (and also very subjective). But I think the important thing, at least for me on that front, is how it makes me feel when I look at and read it, when I immerse myself in the text. *Not saying it is dishonest in general for people to take this view, but for me, because I was clearly engaging RPGs as art, it was not an honest expression of how I felt [/QUOTE]
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