I would like to preface this by saying that there ARE exceptions to what I am talking about, both in the indie and AAA industries— Toby Fox, Hideo Kojima, Shigesato Itoi, to name a few. I would like to highlight the word most in my title, but not all. Ok? Saying “oh but X director does Y” is not a proper rebuttal to what I’m talking about.
I think that when I look at most games, including games I have worked on, and compare it to more “traditional” art forms , there is one glaring thing missing from most videogames: the auteur. The artistic vision, which drives, for instance— a painting, a film, a song— is about parsing some intent by an author, who has something to say, an emotion to convey, something they care about. Videogames, on the other hand, usually do the opposite path. Game devs, especially the directors and higher ups (who should be the conveyors of artistic intent), are moreso… parsing machines. They outline a target audience, and their job is not to present their artistic vision to that audience, but to reverse engineer what the audience wants.
Yes. Other industries do it to. Blockbuster films, billboard music. Everyone has focus groups. And in a way, every artist makes their work for someone, and they want that audience to enjoy their work. But I have found with my experience working in the gaming industry as well as other industries that most Game Devs have this cranked it up to the max. It’s this on steroids. It’s “don’t you ever in your life make a decision that is not crunched to be exactly what the player wants”. Nothing can be chalked to “yeah I want to have X and Y in my game”, it has to be “I believe that players will enjoy X and Y in the game.”; and if you can’t come up with a player-facing justification for why the PLAYER wants X and Y, it gets canned. No artistic vision, no intent, no auteurial quirks, no voice of the author. Simply work by and for the players and never for yourself.
For instance… let’s take Super Smash Bros. Whenever we talk about characters being added, it’s not, “huh does Sakurai wants this character?”. It’s always “huh, is there a large number of players demanding this character?”. If a weird character gets included we never ask ourselves “why did Sakurai want to include this character?”. We ask ourselves “who in their right mind was asking for this character?”.
Again, there are exceptions. Many devs in the Indie field mostly, but even in AAA. But as a general rule of thumb, game development has very little auteurship and artistic vision. It’s by and large product manufacturing chained to the whims of people who are not even involved with the production of the game.
Edit for clarification: There seems to be this idea that calling something “not art” is using fancy words to say “I don’t like this piece of art”. This is not what I’m trying to say. I love some of these games, even the “not artistic” ones.
This is not me saying “many games are bad”, “many games are slop”, “many games aren’t beautiful”. Some of my favorite games of all time fall under this camp. This is me saying “making a game does not usually have the same creation process as making an artwork, and because of that, I can’t classify it as art”. I think that the creation process I described above can make some truly fantastic masterpieces, but it did not come from the mind of a visionary author with his defined artistic vision and voice. It came from a group reverse engineering what other people want from them.
Comments
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
is it unpopular? I think most games have been soulless money machines for a long while now.
and I agree it’s very sad but that’s just the consequence of people being so hungry for content they don’t care about the message anymore, they just care that they can turn their brain off and bing bong on the latest critically acclaimed AAA slop game.
Stay away from AAA games then, play games like mouth washing, Elden ring, red dead redemption two, these are very beautiful games.
All games use art to some degree, after all art brings visuals to ideas and concepts but that doesn’t mean the end product is considered “art”. Art is also a highly subjective word, as I know some people consider art to be an “experience” and video games are an experience.
I also think that’s what makes video games unique in a way, they require logic, code, and structure but they also need art to become a better experience and to fully flesh out worlds and ideas.
Just because there is probably more commercialism in gaming than other forms of art doesn’t make it “not art.” Further all art can be commercialized, advertising in and of itself is the most crass and obvious form of commercialized art and I wouldn’t say ads aren’t art, just art I’m deeply not interested in.
But even if you want to argue the heavy focus on making a profit robs video games of their status of being an art form and that mindset robs game devs creativity doesn’t really hold water. Look at something like God of War 2018, pivoting the series from a uber macho character-action game where threesomes restore your health to a somber third person action-adventure with a deeper emphasis on story and characterization is risky as fuck and paid off both creatively AND financially.
Of course, most industrially mass produced entertainment is not art – that applies to Netflix movies, all Madonna songs, games, romantic novels for middle aged women, and many other articles of entertainment.
Art is a unique reflection through a moment of inspiration, it cannot be mass produced.
It can be said that entertainment is antithetical to art.
That said, there are video games that belong among the best pieces of art I have ever had the opportunity to experience.
Is writing not a form of art? Are the character designs not art? Is the cinematography in cutscenes not art?
It doesn’t become not art simply because you don’t like it. It’s a similar criticism given to mainstream pop music – it’s still an art form. Just something a select group of people doesn’t like.
I personally agree with you, but that’s because I view them the same way as their parent companies do.
From the Annual Report 2024 of Nintendo
“To continue invigorating our dedicated video game platform business, our fundamental strategy is to expand the number of people who have access to Nintendo IP. Nintendo’s characters have been nurtured and grown hand in hand with the memories made by generations of consumers as they play our games. We are utilizing our characters to continue expansion into a broad range of areas, including visual content, mobile applications, theme parks and merchandise. Through these initiatives, we aim to continually create points of contact with consumers, deepen their fondness for Nintendo IP, and ultimately spark their interest in our dedicated video game platform business.”
For me it is apparent that such companies just view their games as an extension of their IP not art. IP is different from art.
Although videogames in particular are a bit weird because their parts are art. If I see a beautifully drawn city that alone is art. The same goes for its soundtrack etc. However, these are art when examined in a vacum. The sum of these parts isn’t art.
So while as you said there could be some exceptions in general you are correct. Although the fact that videogames are a product doesn’t diminish any value they could have. Unfortunately it is a downvote from me.
I absolutely agree, and this is exactly why it’s so important to support the games and devs that do have that vision.
Yes, they are.
Kitsch is art. Art does not need to be deep or meaningful to be art. AAA games are designed for mass appeal the same way the prints of cars, barns, cows, etc at Hobby Lobby are. That’s still art.
Even if you argue that art needs to have some level of soul put into it, AAA game devs do put soul into their craft. It might get trimmed down, altered, or forced to for a specific mold by directors, but there is still a person on the other side trying to make something cool.