Along time there has been different media in which humans have expressed themselves: painting, plays, literature, music, movies, etc. All of them tackling different senses on us to make us feel something. Wether it is joy, sadness or terror, all these use various approaches to get to us by any means necessary.
Among these, we can stablish a small progression of how art has evolved an idea and amplify it through a perfect mix of its parts. This would start off with literature.
Novels have been a way to tell stories of fantasy and reality using only mere words. Altough they could seem as lifeless to some, by not only narrating but also creating entire worlds only with small, or even large sentences, our imaginations start working off taking us to those very places as we could see them in our minds. Letting us touch and even hear those characters made out of pure wording.
Among these, we can stablish a small progression of how art has evolved an idea and amplify it through a perfect mix of its parts. This would start off with literature.
Novels have been a way to tell stories of fantasy and reality using only mere words. Altough they could seem as lifeless to some, by not only narrating but also creating entire worlds only with small, or even large sentences, our imaginations start working off taking us to those very places as we could see them in our minds. Letting us touch and even hear those characters made out of pure wording.
Writing is not easy, to be able to immerse to one reading a direct link to the soul must be created. Writers want to show something to the readers, but they cannot do so. They must convince the readers mind itself to show it, to create it out of thin air. But what happens when a writer wants not only to take the readers to those new worlds, but to make sure they see exactly what they want to show? Well, apart from writing like Tolkien and spend entire pages describing only the view (which I'm not saying is bad, I actually enjoy it a lot), some turned to a literal way of doing this: movies.
Although movies technically arose from the evolution of opera and theater, combined with modern science, i want to talk a littel more about these because it's what we are most used to. In here, stories are presented to us showing us the world itself in which everything is occuring. Experiences not only occur from what we see and is imagined, but but for what we see, hear and feel.
The great advantage that movies present, is that by mixing another form of art, music, the senses can be stimulated a lot further. By using the right sounds with the right images, our brains can be stimulated to even give us goose bumps or other sensations. Yet as in every media, there are movies that want to show us whole worlds to explore while others just intend to get us on a rollercoaster. And by the advances in special effects, nowadays a lot of movies just aim for that. Lots of explosions, lots of action, no story whatsoever and one dimensional characters. But these is not entirely bad, some times all we want is to enjoy that senseless bonanza.
Although movies technically arose from the evolution of opera and theater, combined with modern science, i want to talk a littel more about these because it's what we are most used to. In here, stories are presented to us showing us the world itself in which everything is occuring. Experiences not only occur from what we see and is imagined, but but for what we see, hear and feel.
The great advantage that movies present, is that by mixing another form of art, music, the senses can be stimulated a lot further. By using the right sounds with the right images, our brains can be stimulated to even give us goose bumps or other sensations. Yet as in every media, there are movies that want to show us whole worlds to explore while others just intend to get us on a rollercoaster. And by the advances in special effects, nowadays a lot of movies just aim for that. Lots of explosions, lots of action, no story whatsoever and one dimensional characters. But these is not entirely bad, some times all we want is to enjoy that senseless bonanza.
This audiovisual form of expression has taken art and presented it in every way possible, just as every other way of human expression. But some times one might ask, what comes next? Art has made us see, hear, feel, taste and smell (culinary arts, not discussed in here), it has attacked all our senses, but most of all our imagination, so it is natural what else is it left to stimulate or attack. Well, there is one factor that none of these arts take into consideration: the expectator. What if the expectator not only could see the world created for him, but even explore it, and get to know more of it by experience? Well, here is where Video Games come into the scene.
In the beggining, video games popped as a way of entertainment, one way of playing in a different way that we are acostumed to. Nevertheless they quickly grew into somethig else. Games started trying to incorporate story elements to them although not as polished as other works in art, but the effort, or rather the crazy idea was attempted. And from here, this grew more and more. Although not all games nowadays have a story, most have at least a setup, like those films that have no feet or head, but are still enjoyable not for the story but for the situations presented. Yet in more recent generations storytelling in games has grown to levels (no pun intended) that can even compare to novels.
Final Fantasy, Bioshock, Heavy Rain are just some examples of what can be done, some examples of taking the idea of games as the next step in art. Video Games have the advantages of novels, movies and a little more. By letting players live the world and mold the very characters an immersion impossible in other media is created.
Although not all games take this concept in full, more and more we are seeing this, how video games evolve into the next step in art.
You can leave your comments below to let us know how you feel about this. Have a nice day, a go read a book, watch a movie and play a video game.
By the way, how would your dream game be? If you tell us, maybe we can make that a reality some day.
Final Fantasy, Bioshock, Heavy Rain are just some examples of what can be done, some examples of taking the idea of games as the next step in art. Video Games have the advantages of novels, movies and a little more. By letting players live the world and mold the very characters an immersion impossible in other media is created.
Although not all games take this concept in full, more and more we are seeing this, how video games evolve into the next step in art.
You can leave your comments below to let us know how you feel about this. Have a nice day, a go read a book, watch a movie and play a video game.
By the way, how would your dream game be? If you tell us, maybe we can make that a reality some day.
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