Although I know you can make art with a computer through programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, CAD, etc., I have never really stopped to think about the validity of the media in the art world. Does it make it less authentic if it is made with a computer instead of the hand renderings drawn by virtuoso architects like Frank Lloyd Wright? Isn’t it still the person tapping into their spirituality and their higher senses to create something?
What about if that art is used in a game? To me, I almost feel like that should make it more impactful since then the user is fully integrated into the medium. I know that when I have played video games, especially the more recent options out there, I am often blown away by the superior quality in the way the scenes are created. That being said, I will admit that Jane McGonigal did not have me convinced that playing these games could save the world and that we actually needed to play them more. However, by the end when she talked about what games they were developing and how they should be played, it began to make more sense. It was really an inventive strategy about how to bring awareness to things like oil shortages and famine and clearly had strong impacts on the user’s actions in real life which I find enormously commendable.
Hi Shonna,
Nice post which thinking both make art in computer programs and play video games. You thought what is the different about make art by computer or by hands. It also confused me, and I think maybe computer program designing make people lose some creativity ability but give us more opportunities to imaging the visual sense. For example, if I create a vase by hands, I enjoy the process of firing and use materials to painting. However, even if I couldn’t know the craft of make vase by computer programs, the intelligent programs help me to open my thinking and try so many times to design the perfect one which satisfy my imaging.
Furthermore, you agree with Jane McGonigal’s thoughts for games. Especially the inventive strategy about how to make the future reality trouble into games and gamer solve it. It is also an amazing idea for me. People need to more advance awareness and practices to face future problems in reality. But I doubt that whether people like to this kind of game. Most of Gamer have interested in the theme of fighting by gun, creating magic creature and so on. At least for my imaging, I am hard to like oil shortages game even if I know it how useful in reality life.
Hi there. I appreciate that in your post you make a distinct connection between graphic art and video games. Personally I think that video games are becoming more and more artistic over the years. You address the idea that art in video games is even more influential as the “user is fully integrated into the medium”; I think this can be said for the creators of these games as well. The artists behind graphic art in video games must immerse themselves in the world they are creating in order to effectively capture the right elements illustrated in each game. Again this is comparable to other works of art, which serves as more supporting evidence for the view that video games are forms of art. I also believe that McGonigal’s ideas on video games could be an “inventive strategy” used to “bring awareness to global issues and possibly have “impacts on the user’s actions in real life”; however, I am not sure that this will be enough to drastically change many individual’s mindsets about how to live for the better of the world. This seems like a big setback to me since I believe that in order to generate resolutions the global population’s outlook on the world and living in it must be modified. Like art, video games can portray serious real world problems, but that does not necessarily mean that any form of art will radically effect or change the majority of people in real life. At best I think that video games reflecting real life problems will bring awareness about these issues to people around the world and alter some individual habits. Maybe over time these small changes will produce more dramatic effects working to resolve global problems.
Hello Shonna! You raised a lot of good questions for us to think about the relationship of art and video games and that of real problems in the society and video games. To be honest, I still did not agree with Jane that video games could help us to solve the serious social problem before I read your post. However, my opinion has changed. People could be informed of the serious social problems via video games and then be incentive to figure out efficient methods in the real world in order to solve the real problems.
By the way, I was surprised about the total time people spend to play video games. I am a person who have never played some complicated video games. After I learned this week’s materials, I would like to do more research about the video games and change my first impression for video games when someone mention the games to me.