Bioshock and 'Games-as-Art'

This is an exciting time for gaming. The children who grew up with gaming systems are now a part of the creative workforce. Along with this, games are growing up. The 'games-as-art' mentality has truly been realized and I for one am extremely excited about the future of gaming.

Games like Bioshock have set a bar demanding excellent game mechanics, graphics, sound and possibly most important - story and tone.

Thank you Irrational for holding an approach to games as more than something to just pop in and play. You delivered an experience and quite truthfully, a piece of art.

Again, exciting times.

True in every word, Irrational Games have indeed made a masterpiece.

Yeah, I completely agree with this. I still hold that if games continue to be developed on this trajectory sooner or later there will be video games as lit classes taught at universities. It may not be for a while, but games like Bioshock are certainly worth interpreting and learning from.

Bioshock was pretty much the first game I played that I called Art. Thankfully now I'm a bit more cultured in games, and I say all games are art, even though some art is absolutely nasty. I agree that as a whole, games are setting the bar much higher, and only good can come out of it.

We could always take a look at history, movies were not recognised as an art form in general until the previous decade, being thought of as, well, what games are being thought of as, stupid, waste of time, dumbing you down, ect.

Heck, i remember people flaming the television and movies for making people kill others and turning kids violent, funny how the tv is no longer blamed for that, now its videogames.

While we only have those two examples as a new medium appearing, both of those seem to have followed the same path, from being flamed as damaging, to gradually becoming accepted. Something that likely also has to do with whether the generation "in charge" understands them or not, regardless of their actual content.

There are a number of gaming experiences that could be described as art, bioshock of course being a prime example, both from a visual perspective, but far more from a storytelling perspective.

Videogames have found themselves filling out the void between the book and the movie. Their duration allowing them to tell stories at a vastly different pace than the other two. Whereas the movie needs to get everything done in max 3 hours, videogames have the luxury of being able to "sit back" and tell a proper story, add in as much detail as they feel like, and still manage to tell it. The ability to toy with the player, is also a strong storytelling element which games can make use of, as we see in the first bioshock game. the "would you kindly?" moment, would not have worked as well in a book or game, either due to the inherent difficulties in describing it without losing pace, or in the disconnect between the audience and the character on the screen.

Games are already learning to use their advantages to their maximum capability, again i find myself turning to bioshock, which uses its enviroments to help emphasize the story and atmosphere as part of the storytelling and the characters. The dark iron factory of hephaestus supports Andrew Ryan the industrialist, while the sudden and stark contrast between our locations so far and fort frolic when Cohen first makes his exsistence known, supports the telling of the story about this self-built illusion of the artist in a bleak reality crumbling around him.

What about the sleek, cold, empty main tower in HL2? Again using the visual assets to support both the storytelling, but also a feeling of loneliness that movies would not be able to capture in the same way,

Not to mention, the ability of games to make the "viewer" shape the story to fit himself, or experiment by going beyond his own limits. While some may argue that this speaks against games being art, that you cannot like in movies, tell a message, or pass on something to the audience if they just make all the choises in the story, I disagree.

Having to make those decisions yourself, really makes them matter more than when made by another character on the big screen, i am not saying it is a superiour way to do it, but rather, and equal, but different way to pass on something to the one experiencing it. In the end, is making the player make a decision that they dont want to make, not as much of an artfull impact as it is to make them cry or feel dread over the decisions made by others, whom they wouldnt make themselves?

We also see that complex issues, especially moral ones, are becoming more and more prominent in modern gaming, although we already had some games deal with it, such as Tie-fighter and Planescape: Torment. Did you manage to play through half-life 2 without at least giving thought as to whether dr. Brenn (cant remember the name, sorry) maybe chose the lesser evil of enslaving humanity over the complete extinction of humanity? Did you give any thought in Bioshock as to what was going on, for example the theme of child abuse, or objectivism?

Not to mention the psychological aspect, again bioshock being a prime example in its developement of the characters and your own developement over the course of the story, but also Arkham asylum is a good example here, how it incorporates an analysis of the relation between hero and villain into the story and begins raising the question about how different Batman really is from his enemies.Would any other medium have been able to play out that scene in the same way as the game? (making people shut down their machines in panic in the process? XD)

While we may discuss whether there are many games that can truly be classified as art, compared to movies that are "art" compared to "randomly throw together", there can be no doubt that games can already be described as the "4th storytelling media" alongside movies, books, and theatre. It is however down to the developers in the future to determine not whether, as it will happen, but how long until games can finally claim the place as the "8th art".

Generally the players of the games percieve them as art as it is an enriching experience to play games and enjoy them.
Generall public consider games as a waste of time and a no good medium because of the nerd archetype that is present throughout gaming society. They see it as a waste of time because it when they play games they arent letting themselves be blown away by the story.

I say that some games are art. Bioshock and other irrational games are by the industry standard VERY deep. Planescape torment was another of thoose games that I consider art due to it's advanced views on morality and consequence.

I would say that there are some kind of tug of war in gaming about the depth of games. Some games are more shallow than a mud puddle and some you can take a nice swin in another persons situation and world.

My 2 cents about the topic.

Bioshock is indeed art, but so are a lot of games. Okami, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and even MGS can all be considered "art", but, like everything else, someone is bound to disagree.

batmanprime said:
Bioshock is indeed art, but so are a lot of games. Okami, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and even MGS can all be considered "art", but, like everything else, someone is bound to disagree.

I totally agree. Games are art in every sense, from conception to completion, and the great ones always stand the test of time. I look at them as an interactive painting. =-)

I'd say many aspects of the game and the messages within the whole do classify the game as artistic entertainment. I'm hoping that in coming years we'll see more developers mix entertainment and meaning in their games as has been done here.

There are games, and then there are GAMES. Bioshock is the latter.
The ability of taking Objectivism and flipping it on its head really awed me. No other game has done this before. Bioshock also is a GAME because, like movies and books, it creates real characters that all have real beliefs and feelings, which many games don't possess. Also, the fact that the atmosphere and Rapture itself stand for something is incredible. Bioshock also makes you think about things that you may have never thought about before, or at least it did to me.
So yeah, I see Bioshock as art.

Bioshock is art. Everything down from the story, sound, and the physical art and level design. It's amazing how high rendered everything looks, without using all of the system resources. And I must hand it to the water team on making the most ground breaking water and water effects in gaming history.

I'm not a big fan of this topic because "art" has so many different meanings and interpretations that most discussions are pretty incoherent. Any game can be considered "art," as well as all of its individual parts, so it's really hard to categorize anything or claim that one game is more "artistic" than another. My take on BIoShock is it simply sets out to be more sophisticated and meaningful in its context than most games, and it also happens to be really fun to play.

progglerock said:
I'm not a big fan of this topic because "art" has so many different meanings and interpretations that most discussions are pretty incoherent. Any game can be considered "art," as well as all of its individual parts, so it's really hard to categorize anything or claim that one game is more "artistic" than another. My take on BIoShock is it simply sets out to be more sophisticated and meaningful in its context than most games, and it also happens to be really fun to play.

I'd say what makes BioShock stand out from other games is that it uses its environment and story to put across a message. Most other games haven't actually tried to do that, however with this one, it has seem to have had some thought into the ideas of why everything has happened in those terms. *Shrugs*

@progglerock I see what your saying. Actually, typing here on the forum can be consider a form of art believe it or not. Art is what you make of it. And that's the thing about Bioshock, it stood out from other shooters. It was the piece in the museum that everyone stared at longer simply because it was unique. There are many games out there that have amazing art, and are worthy of being in the top. But I think Bioshock has influenced today's top games.

Example: The water in Modern Warfare 2. You can tell Bioshock raised the standard of water in modern day games.

progglerock said:
I'm not a big fan of this topic because "art" has so many different meanings and interpretations that most discussions are pretty incoherent. Any game can be considered "art," as well as all of its individual parts, so it's really hard to categorize anything or claim that one game is more "artistic" than another. My take on BIoShock is it simply sets out to be more sophisticated and meaningful in its context than most games, and it also happens to be really fun to play.

I think the difference is the subtle hints and purposefulness of everything in the game. There doesn't seem to be any random aspects of bioshock. For example a three year old can splash paint about on a canvas and it wouldn't be called art but if a painter thinks and purposefully puts the paint there for a reason then it can be considered art because it was a as you said sophistication and meaning behind it . That's the way I see it anyway, Valve make their games very similar.

geff said:

progglerock said:
I'm not a big fan of this topic because "art" has so many different meanings and interpretations that most discussions are pretty incoherent. Any game can be considered "art," as well as all of its individual parts, so it's really hard to categorize anything or claim that one game is more "artistic" than another. My take on BIoShock is it simply sets out to be more sophisticated and meaningful in its context than most games, and it also happens to be really fun to play.

I think the difference is the subtle hints and purposefulness of everything in the game. There doesn't seem to be any random aspects of bioshock. For example a three year old can splash paint about on a canvas and it wouldn't be called art but if a painter thinks and purposefully puts the paint there for a reason then it can be considered art because it was a as you said sophistication and meaning behind it . That's the way I see it anyway, Valve make their games very similar.

Exactly. Though, I still find there is a difference between true art, and just art. For an example, you can call yourself an artist simply by drawing stick figures. It is indeed a form of art, but is it a greater form of art? Sadly, no. Schools won't even except stick figure drawling because it's too simple.

Here, let's use food. Food is a form of art. You never hear someone call disgusting food, great. However, in a sense, it's art, so it must be great in it's own way. Right? Maybe it's the best disgusting food ever, but compared to all food in the world, it's not even on the radar.

So, this topic is basically asking how well did Bioshock taste. Did it stand out from the other games(or food)? So, that being said. What do you guys think of Bioshock artistically compared to other games in the sense of realism?

I think the discussion of "games as art" is an interesting one. Play games like flOW, Flower, Echochrome, Linger in Shadows, Braid, etc. and the concept of games as art becomes more intriguing.

In the context of Bioshock, what grabs me is the importance that art deco played in creating the atmosphere of Rapture. I think that without that design strategy, Bioshock might have been less unique than many other shooters. (Of course, I DID take 20+ hours of Art History in college, so I may be a little biased.)

Flower is definitely art within the game medium i managed to play it for the first time recently totally blew my mind

geff said:

progglerock said:
I'm not a big fan of this topic because "art" has so many different meanings and interpretations that most discussions are pretty incoherent. Any game can be considered "art," as well as all of its individual parts, so it's really hard to categorize anything or claim that one game is more "artistic" than another. My take on BIoShock is it simply sets out to be more sophisticated and meaningful in its context than most games, and it also happens to be really fun to play.

I think the difference is the subtle hints and purposefulness of everything in the game. There doesn't seem to be any random aspects of bioshock. For example a three year old can splash paint about on a canvas and it wouldn't be called art but if a painter thinks and purposefully puts the paint there for a reason then it can be considered art because it was a as you said sophistication and meaning behind it . That's the way I see it anyway, Valve make their games very similar.

This is close to how I feel. The purpose behind the brush of the stroke is what is interesting about a piece. Saying that everything is art, to me, is a bit too general. That's where the subjectivity comes in.

It takes art to conceive them and communicate the vision. It's made of thousands of pieces of art, put together to make one whole monument of art. And then the interaction with it and what happens in the imagination of the player makes it another overarching work of personal art.

Bioshock. MGS4, Flower....these games are art in their own way

Great topic I have actually had arguments with many students / professors of mine in the past in my Digital Media and Design classes because most of them would not consider games to be art and i was amazed as to why not. A game like Bioshock deserves to be considered art with all the passion that you can tell was put into all the details. My classmates/professors would consider Pixar animated movies art but games to not be art partially do to the interactivity involved. They feel that because the player can do things in so many different ways it cant be art due to the possibility of missing certain elements the designers wanted the player to see. This argument always bothered me because i do not feel its valid and their are always scripted events the player is forced to view as well. If 3d renderings can be considered as art in a stand alone form their is no reason for games to not be considered art on that alone.

armchair said:
Bioshock was pretty much the first game I played that I called Art. Thankfully now I'm a bit more cultured in games, and I say all games are art, even though some art is absolutely nasty. I agree that as a whole, games are setting the bar much higher, and only good can come out of it.

Now you have me wondering what which of the games are surreal art!

Anyway, few games like Bioshock have made me think about games as art and not just a hobby, we all really have to thank Irrational (and 2K for supporting them) for this.