art is how we decorate rooms

Started by selmiak, Sat 28/03/2015 23:50:16

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selmiak

art is how we decorate rooms
music is how we decorate time


I found this quote on the internet some time ago, attributeted to i forgot, but it seems so powerful, it came back to me and it made me wonder, what are games?
decorating bordeom? decorating your instinct to explore?

CaptainD

As players, games are how we decorate our imagination
As devs, games are how we decorate other people's imagination
 

st.

:) more on imagination:

Limits are much farther in imagination than in our real life self-awareness. The games that are more than entertainment, more than repeated known-to-please patterns, remind us of the freedom in imagination. The hunger with which we turn to the next new game is, I think, the drive to experience that freedom outside of ourselves, in interaction with the real world, as we did when we were children. It may be the same drive that has determined some people, during history, to try and change the known world, for example through advances in technology. Some of us are happy in the world as it is, but for those of us that look for a better place the games are out there to rekindle that fire inside. Of course, most of the time we are happy to have felt like someone else in a different world for a while. But later we have to look for that feeling again :) After many years during which I turned to games now and then, I found my greatest joy not in exploring games but in making them. When you create, you are in touch with the source of that creation and you experience the freedom in imagination for a much longer time. I envision a future world in which people are happier because they create more. The end results of creation, ours or of others, will always be limited.
springthoughts

Ibispi

I agree with you springthoughts, there is something magical about taking a part in a virtual world.
But I don't think creating video games is same as playing a game someone else made.
I feel that, when we play a game that someone else made, we undergo an adventure of discovery. We find about a new virtual world.

Somehow, when we, developers, create something, we at the same time voluntarily sacrifice that "adventure of discovery" for the sake of other people having a new virtual world to explore.

Myshkin

I can't explain exactly why, but for some reason games more than any other art form can define clearly particular periods in my life. The same thing can happen with certain albums or books or movies, but games seem to have this effect even more so. I think it's partly because games are interactive and they often last a reasonable amount of time, so they sort of demarcate passages of time in my life (or at least, my life spent in front of my computer (which is probably a good 30%))

Eg:
Winter 2008 = Morrowind
Easter 2012 = Broken Sword 3
That day I stayed home sick from school maybe around 1999 = Fallout 1

These games and times are kind of permanently linked in my mind.

Ghost

Making a game is how we decorate rules with entertainment. (nod)

st.

@BSP: Inspiration comes to me gradually, so it is a journey of discovery :) I think that the direction of discovery is different only: the player discovers the essence of the game last, starting from the exterior of things (the 'art' in the first post), while the game maker usually has the game's main idea in the mind first an builds around it. I agree that it feels a bit different, but I think that creating a game can be more rewarding than playing one. The reason is that it offers a feeling rooted in something closer to what we really are, instead of the excitement of trying something new only to find out again and again that it doesn't
really fits our spirit. Of course, it is a choice that each of us makes at a different time in life :)

It is also interesting to observe the place of the 'art' in the interaction of the player with the game and in the process of creating the game, for the game maker. The 'art' has to accommodate the player, to make the player comfortable at least, while approaching the game's idea. Sometimes the 'art' must evoke a mood, a feeling that is the game's idea or intimately connected to it. The 'art' is part of the whole of how the game presents itself and as long as the player remains engaged in the game world then the 'art' cannot be considered mere decoration. I think we could say that the 'art' must facilitate the connection between the spirit of the player and the spirit of the game and if the 'art' achieves that then it is imbued with the life of the game; then it is like the looks of a human being compared to those of a statue. But before this life, for the game maker, and beyond this life, for the player, is the game's idea. Making a game is being in closer contact with its idea. The life of the game comes from this idea or from trying to bring the idea to life :) I think that the mood described in the first post is experienced when we lose contact with the game's idea.

@Emont: I guess that when it comes to game making we focus on the future instead of the past. I also remember periods of my life when I prefered certain games and I think this had to do with some aspects of mental development...or perhaps spiritual development? In relation to the first post, we could then say that the games played an important role in our life, that more than keeping us company they were there as means of growth, experiences that perhaps the limitations of our real life could not allow.

As in all visual arts, 'art' in games takes on the representative function of the player's imagination (the game world is shown, you do not have to imagine it). And in other visual arts also we interact - we are aware of this when we feel like taking part in the action of a movie, for example. I think that what's special about games is that in them we can experience at will different planes of awareness - when have the freedom to disconnect from the action and concern ourselves with more passive aspects of the game; e.g. when we stop to study the world's map or some notes that we gathered, or when we just stop to look around and ponder on the harmony of things in the game world. I think it's interesting to observe that 'art' in a game must sustain different kinds of interaction, it must feel a part of what we are doing - not just the background of interaction.

@Ghost: Yes, I think that in making a game we are engaged with some of our higher functions: the sense for order and the esthetic sense. Playing a game may be for many people just adapting to the rules to enjoy other things, although the right rules of interaction, and in general - of functionality, can contribute a lot to the overall enjoyment. The game maker has to take pains to achieve this balance between order and beauty that the player feels as the atmosphere. I think it is interesting to observe how 'art' stands in relation to the other aspects of a game (from the player's point of view, of course). Although while working on a game we may at one time concern ourselves with the particular aspect of a drawing we can never lose from sight the meaning of the drawing in the context of the game; especially if the player interacts with that drawing, even if it describes only a part of a room.
springthoughts

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