Ernest Alba's Blog

In short

Lots of things to talk about (as soon as I get some time):

• Futures of Entertainment Conference
• Cafe Tacvba concert
• My Mac failing me (turns out I failed it)
  
• Wookieepedia ethnographic study

This and more in the very near future!

Games as Art: Shadow's Role in the Battle

This is a recent email I wrote to my cousin, another avid gamer, after I found out that he had put down Shadow of the Colossus after the first boss battle. This was my attempt to convince him to pick it back up:

I'm sure you're at least partly aware of the hostile debates over video games as a potential medium for art. Roger Ebert and Clive Barker have most prominently chimed in with diverging opinions. Even professors at universities have made their case. Obviously, video game fans have been vociferous on the blogs. They tend to come down hard on the side of video games as art. Unfortunately, their views are constrained by an inconsistent definition of art. Others see the video game debate as meaningless because video games are not intended to be art; they are purely intended to be entertainment.

If we take art to be the highest form of human expression, embodied in the works of Shakespeare, Picasso, Michelangelo, Beethoven, and, more recently, the works of Toni Morrison, Philip Glass, I.M. Pei, and Jackson Pollock, then clearly video games have yet to produce a formidable candidate. In any debate, this should be the opening remark. Video games have not come close to producing Art with a capital A. Most of the intelligent commentators realize that. I do, too. Within that subsection of the larger debate, the real question becomes, have video games shown potential to produce Art. The one game that comes up most often as an answer to that question is Shadow of the Colossus.

Though there are many reasons for that, the main reason is that this game lives and breathes without you. Playing, you get the feeling that you really aren't influencing anything. You are merely observing a single, crystallized idea that slowly reveals itself as a thing of absolute beauty. The only way this game could be any different is if you stopped playing. This game creates the same feeling of being dispossessed of one's control over one's mind/soul. It's the same feeling as viewing a Dali painting. Or hearing a Beethoven symphony. Work goes into taking in all three pieces of art. One must find the time and patience to sit in front of a Dali painting and study it. One must find the time and patience to sit down and listen to a Beethoven symphony. One must find the time and patience to press the correct buttons on the controller to experience Shadow. The work one must do in each of these is only essential in that it allows you to absorb the creator's vision. The argument that because one is able to influence a game, it is no longer capable of presenting an untainted artistic expression becomes incorrect when one realizes that no influence is going on beyond deciding to follow the plan laid out by the creator to experience, in this case his, work of art.

Tycho had a big problem with the camera movement and controls. Most reviewers and players didn't. I didn't. Tycho has this to say about it though, "The game needs to be seen by every conscious organism on planet Earth. And if that means that you must play it in order to do so, that is your cross to bear." Pick up your cross, Marc! Play the game that has shot like a bolt of lightning through the game industry and see how video games can approach the realm of eternal, classic Art. (ok, this is definitely becoming a post.)

Resources:

Reactions from across the industry
http://gamasutra.com/features/20070316/ochalla_01.shtml

Discusses Shadow and gender/race issues- one of the best articles:
http://www.gamegirladvance.com/archives/2006/04/21/games_art_why_bother.html

Kotaku feature
http://kotaku.com/gaming/feature/what-for-art-thou-283021.php

Ebert's response to Clive Barker
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070721/COMMENTARY/70721001

Clive Barker's response to Ebert
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=26131

Ebert's original inflammatory statement
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=ANSWERMAN&date=20051127

Defense of Ebert and his definition of art
http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/07/roger-ebert-g-1.html

Prominently features Shadow
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/07/23/ebert-admits-games-can-be-art-but-not-high-art/

Kojima has an opinion
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2098&Itemid=2

Joystiq's original article
http://www.joystiq.com/2005/11/30/ebert-video-games-inherently-inferior-to-film-and-literature/

MIT's Henry Jenkins! recently featured in Game Informer and Wired
http://www.henryjenkins.org/2006/07/are_games_art_wii_i_mean_oui_1.html

More discussion:
http://gamepolitics.livejournal.com/357698.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/games/good-game-but-is-it-art/2006/09/03/1157222003715.html
http://blogs.starwars.com/RyanKaufman/49
Mentions shadow:
http://kotaku.com/gaming/masterpiece-theater/zelnick--manhunt-2-a-work-of-art-270905.php

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10 Songs To Hear Before You Die - 2007 list

Last August, I posted a list of what I thought were pieces of classical music everyone should hear. Looking at it now, it's embarassing to see the lack of scope in the list. The list is lacking in two major ways. First, the list consists largely of movements from symphonic works, works on a monumental scale that require upwards of 90 players. Symphony is, of course, only one of many genres in the classical tradition, and not necessarily the best. Second, the list consists largely of movements from symphonic works. The movements I chose are powerful enough to fully stand on their own, but I had yet to find out that they are much more meaningful considered as part of the whole work. To borrow from a traditional Catholic analogy, as unique parts of the body that is the Church, each of us is capable of doing wonderful things in the world, but united we are even more capable of filling the world with love and grace. Similarly, each movement of a musical work has something unique and wonderful to offer to the listener, but the real strength and beauty of the music comes from the cumulative force of all the pieces as a single, unified piece of music. Mozart's G minor symphony is not what Bernstein calls "one of the supreme examples" of the masterful music of the Classical period only because of the brilliantly executed harmonic tension of the first movement. Nor is it so simply because of the atonal gestures of the fourth movement - gestures that are centuries ahead of their time. The combined effort of all four movements make this symphony the work of utmost passion and unbridled ecstasy that is beloved around the world to this day.

Yes, that list was embarassingly narrow. I come back to you a year later, having learned much more about music and ready to give a new, more thoughtful and more comprehensive list. I see clearly now that I knew next to nothing about music back then. But as you probably have concluded by now, I still probably know next to nothing about music. That's absolutely right. In fact, by this time next year, I will have learned much more about music, and I will still know next to nothing.

Therefore, take this updated list with as much healthy skepticism as you took the previous year's list. While it seems to me now that there could be no more perfect list than this one, I am aware that that will likely no longer be the case one year from now. The one thing that gives me hope is that those pieces I listed last year still rest firmly in my heart and mind. The thought that the pieces I list today will remain special to me a year from now gives me even more hope. Without further ado, my 2007 list of 10 Songs to Hear Before You Die:

1. Beethoven - Symphony No. 9
2. Mozart - Requiem Mass
   
3. Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 20
4. Beethoven - Symphony No. 3
   
5. Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D minor
6. Mozart - Symphony No. 40
   
7. Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 4
   
8. Brahms - Piano Trio #1
   
9. Rachmaninov - Symphonic Dances
   
10. John Cage - 4'33"