What do you define as an artistic game? One that conveys a story? One that delivers a unique experience? A deep, meaningful experience? One that is unique mechanically? One that's not mainstream? One that's a new IP? One that's fun? Immersive?
For instance, Skyward Sword. I mean, you say it yourself. That IP is old as shit, and it was anything but indie. But it drew me in - it did things with a controller I never knew a controller could do (insert wii penis joke here). It had beautiful graphics and a fantastic art style. It was anything but the same game for the twelfth time. I haven't played any other WiiMotionPlus game, but to me it was the most mechanically unique game I've played and one of the most immersive.
And to say it was the same game for the twelfth time is an outright lie. That'd almost be like saying the Harry Potter book is the same as the movie. A bit more similar than that, but I can't think of anything that's a better example. It's the same story put in a different medium - the mechanical differences (and the ways they were used, constantly surprising me with new innovations) made this from a boring rehash to an entirely different experience.
But no, bro. Ancient IP, no innovation allowed.
The gameplay structure is the same, the story structure is the same, the places are generally the same, you only have around 1 real town and 3 dungeons, the dungeons are repetitive and have been so since beginning.(One of the few current gen games I've played.)
I'm going to take a quote from you to describe Skyward Sword:
Lets compare that to a truly great game, Planescape Torment, it realized that Infinity Engine combat sucks if you don't balance the encounters perfectly, so it chose to basically make almost all of the combat avoidable, and to focus primarily on world building, character building, and story building, and in that it's a fantastic game. The story is original, fun, and engaging, and if you realize that's what it was focusing on, then it's a completely great game, if you take it's gameplay as being everything else, it's a pretty, but kind of terrible game. Whats more again focusing on what it focused on, it remains great even in successive playthroughs.
The storytelling is not unique, and the settings aren't either, so they chose to make the mechanics incredibly unique and immersive. They decided to add depth and character to the one town instead of copy-pasting it four different times across the world. The art style is probably my favorite of any zelda so far, and if you realize those are the things it's focusing on then it's a completely great game. If you take the uniqueness of its plot and the number of towns as being everything, it's a pretty and gimmicky, but kind of terrible game. What's more again focusing on what it focused on, it remains great even in successive playthroughs.
I think what I'm getting from you is ART IS X ELEMENT THAT I LIKE. YOU CAN IGNORE OTHER BAD ELEMENTS IN FAVOR OF X ELEMENT, BUT YOU CAN'T IGNORE X ELEMENT IN FAVOR OF OTHER GOOD ELEMENTS.
Except it's mechanics become banal by the end of the game, as the lag on the controller starts to eat at you, and the enemies start getting really gimmicky, along with the fact that Skyward Sword really is "Just another Zelda game." More than that, the wii denies the fact that, for a game to really well and truly suck you gameplay wise, there literally has to be ABSOLUTELY MINIMAL controller lag. Or at least lag such that there is minimal notice of it. As I played Skyward Sword, the lag ate at me, until, I put my shiny new peripheral down, and decided to say fuck it and bitch about it on the internet. I've done this with every gimmicky Wii game I own, to the point where I litterally own 5 of them, 3 of which came with my console, compared to the veritable collection of PC games I own and play, and the 40 PS2 games I own and play on a regular basis. But I digress, it's a Zelda game, and thus it's a decent game. People need to realize that decent doesn't mean it's shit, that means it's above shit(Where the modern millitary shooter genre lives), but under great(Where true legends live, like Chronotrigger, Planescape, and Deus Ex.) When I say something is decent that means it sits somewhere, in the spots good and mediocre would fill. My problem right now, is looking back we haven't had a truly great game, once a year, like we used to, Fallout, 1997, Half Life, 1998, System Shock 2, 1999, Deus Ex, 2000, Halo, 2001, Splinter Cell, 2002, KotOR, 2003.
What games this year, do you think that 12 YEARS down the line people will still be talking about on forums, about the glory days of X? How about 15 in the case of Fallout?
Kinseti, once again you're strawmanning, you're forgetting something, THE MEDIA, what is the media focusing on, what is the populous focusing on. Mario Galaxy didn't make many waves outside Nintendo Media and Forums, WoW is a PC only but has become a staple of popular culture none the less, the biggest one you've listed, is Modern Warfare 3, which is exactly like Modern Warfare 2, which is exactly like Modern Warfare 1, which SPAN 6 years, and have sold MORE THAN ANY OTHER ITEM IN ANY MEDIUM on launch. The music media and THUS THE EXECS are focusing on those particular genres. Deus Ex, warranted spreads in just about every magazine you can think of. It was talked about by damn near everyone.
You guys claim that games lack the audience, but at the same time disregard things like that.
@megaman
As far as games, I know games theory, but lack the programming know how, to reasonably put one together, and simply don't have the head for the math to learn proper programming.
More than that, put a game together yourself, is a strawman, "WELL IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, DON'T PROTEST OR ANYTHING, JUST SIT AT HOME AND MAKE YOU'RE OWN COUNTRY."
And when people do, do it, IE like Jay Barnson, of Twisted Metal Fame, who sat down and MADE a 30 hour RPG, he gets pretty much nothing in the way of coverage, because guess what, everyone's too focused on the SAME DAMN THING WE'VE SEEN THE PAST 7 FUCKING YEARS SINCE 2004.
@Megaman
Except, as I've mentioned with actual art forms, like Movies, there's plenty of clones, they take several years to make at times, but there's still innovation or just general triumphs of film making every half year or so, Avatar, Hugo, the Social Network, Inception, Watchmen. None of the games released this year, are anything near what I'd call a triumph of game making. The closest would probably be Bastion, which had niggling flaws like being built around a gimmick to deal with. Still it was a decent game.
Also, even said DOOMCLONES had better game, sound, and level design than pretty much anything to come out this year.
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Topic: So why are we an artform again? (Read 7326 times)