The Art of Video Games

[BaneTheBrawler]

Video games, imo, are art. They combine storytelling, music, and traditional artwork into something that influences people's lives. Some games leave out certain aspects, or let the player control them, but the end result of a good game is that the player has been changed. How many people do you think have been inspired by video games to become pilots, or astronauts, or physicists? Quite a few, I'd wager.

Yes, there are books that tell stories better. Yes, there are paintings that express whatever the fuck paintings are supposed to express better, but I personally never get anything out of them. And yes, there are musical works that convey emotion better than video games. But none of them (except maybe books) can do all three at once, and none of them can draw on the strengths of the others to compensate for their own weaknesses.

As I said, I get nothing out of paintings. Sure, I can look at a painting and think to myself "Oh that's a nice painting." but that's about the extent of it. I see a well drawn/painted woman sewing something. But in a video game, that's not just a woman sewing something, that's a seamstress repairing your armor after a battle in which her husband was killed, or maybe she's making you a gift to show her affections. Video games provide context and depth that no painting can hope to achieve. Would a painting of a green vertical rectangle frowning at you scare the shit out of you? No, but god damn, that fucking creeper just scared the shit out of me.

[archibaldcrane]

The inclusion of Final Fantasy Tactics and Metal Gear Solid 2 validates this as a great cross-section of video game art whilst simultaneously validating my opinion that those are the two greatest video games ever made.

Smithsonian, bitches. Done.

[Kaelan?]

Some of that list is predictable, but still makes me rage. Others just don't make any sense:

Doom 2 over Deus Ex
Fallout over Baldur's Gate 2 and Grim Fandango
Goldeneye over Starfox 64
Minecraft over Starcraft 2 (wut?)
Halo 2 over Jet Set Radio (not that I'm surprised to see teh shootanz win, but still)
Fallout 3 over WoW (not that I care, but holy shit how did WoW lose to anything?)
Mass Effect 2 over Oblivion
Metroid Prime 2 over the first PS2 Prince of Persia

Also surprised that out of the playable games, WoW is the only remotely recent one. Would have figured in an exhibit like that it would be a good idea to have Uncharted 2, or Heavy Rain or some other kind of eye candy type game available.

Still, lots of good picks. FFT, Metal Gear 2, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, Portal, Bioshock, FF7, Shenmue, Mario 64, Diablo 2, Super Mario World, among others.