I had an interesting thought the other day and I’m going to try my best to turn it into a blog post, although I make no guarantees on my success.
Anyways, think back to the 8-bit and 16-bit generation of games. These games offered a form of “art” that you wouldn’t find anywhere else. Where were you going to find pixel art? Just video games. Where were you going to find chiptune music? Just video games. Sure, you had an emerging demoscene that was beginning to play with this stuff outside of gaming, but this particular minimalism– this style of visuals, this style of music, and this style of art— was what one thought of when one thought of video games.
We’ve reached a point now, though, where the art that video games offer can be found somewhere else. The music is orchestral and symphonic, or rock, or electronica. The visuals have stepped right out of a computer-animated film. We have cutscenes, we have storylines, we have characterization. We have art that we can find not just in games, but in movies, or books, or iTunes, or orchestral concerts.
Is this necessarily bad? Oh no, of course not. I love when games have a good storyline or good music or what-have-you. But it speaks of a paradigm shift in gaming that occurred relatively recently.
But if gaming is coming closer to other forms of art… what, then, do games have to offer that is truly unique?
I imagine it’s the gameplay itself, and various aspects of it. The micromanagement. The options. The user interface. All those comforting elements and building blocks that have been in games since the beginning. This is what is unique about games today and this is what they offer that other forms of entertainment do not.
Now at this point I imagine you’re thinking “What the heck, Pike, where are you going with this?” And truthfully, I’m not 100% sure myself. It’s something that’s been floating around in my brain for a few days and I’ve been trying to mold it into a blog post and I’m not sure how much success I’m having. And so I leave this post open-ended. Maybe people look back fondly on pixels and synthesized music because there was a point where those things, combined with gameplay, formed a trinity that epitomized what video games were, and we don’t really have that today? Or maybe I’m overthinking it and it’s just nostalgia goggles?
The world may never know, but if you have any thoughts, toss ’em at me. I’m all ears!
Some people associate strong smells or sounds with a time in their life that meant something to them. If they hear a song that played during their prom, they’re instantly transported back to high school. Perhaps, for you, this is what happens with chiptunes and pixel-art. When you experience either one, you’re hit with a rush of fond memories of the first games you played and the love you felt (and still feel!) for them. I know this is true for me. Whenever I hear any sound effect from Mario Kart 64, I’m just suddenly awash with nostalgia. (Yeah, I’m young. Sue me.) Maybe you’re feeling something similar.
I also think that yes, we can get orchestral/electronica music and great CGI elsewhere, but for me, it’s not about that. I could listen to Star Wars music without watching the movie, but actually *watching* the movie for the story, for the experience, is what I cherish. The same goes for video games. They contain media that you can consume in other forms, but the actual gameplay, the story, and the experience of working through a tough quest, puzzle, or just trying to level up a little more to beat that last boss… those are the things that games provide me that nothing else can.
I pretty much agree with what you said here, Poe. We may have drifted away from something very iconic about games (As I said to Pike last night, look at how fond people are of reimagining modern characters through pixel art, or doing chiptune remixes of game themes) but that doesn’t really change the fundamental nature of games themselves. It’s a combined experience, of which graphics and music are an important part, but not THE most important parts by any means. What games offer in terms of interactivity and adventure and personal agency doesn’t really change. Well it does somewhat, but that’s not very strongly linked to other developments and is rather a trend of its own.
I Fight Dragons are an american band who do a lot of good things with chiptunes and general video game and geeky themed songs.