Maunderlust

SnakeWesker at the Worst. Blog. Ever. has taken a look at how game graphics have evolved in the last 20 years. The two examples used are The Legend of Zelda and the Metal Gear series. Both are pretty dramatic examples of franchises that started in the early 80’s as a loose jumble of pixels, and today offer fully realized worlds richly populated with 3D characters and interactive environments.

The question SankeWesker asks is where game art will go in the next 20 years. Have we hit the wall of diminishing returns? Do developers really want to plow through the Uncanny Valley and create game characters and worlds that are indistinguishable from the real world? Would that even be fun or interesting to the player?

I’ve always believed that game developers will never make games look absolutely real. It’s not that they’ll never have the technology, it’s that if games looked as good as real life, they would be too boring. We like Oblivion because it allows us to explore a fantastic world that looks like ours (except for the hellish areas), but also has its own visual style. It’s for that reason that games will always look a little off; they’ll never look as good as our world, and it’ll be on purpose. If they did, gamers might be forced to get their entertainment elsewhere, either through films, or by simply going outside. I mean, if games start looking 100% real, you may as well go see the real deal, right? Or at least just look at a video/picture of it…

Source: Worst. Blog. Ever.

It sounds like what SnakeWesker is describing is the same thing that happened to the art world in the 19th century. By the 1800’s artists could capture the real world with remarkable precision. But, the modernity led to a shift in the role of the artist, due in part to the introduction of photography, but also due to changes in the way people looked at the world and the individual.

Modern art is a general term used for most of the artistic production from the late 19th century until approximately the 1970s. (Recent art production is more often called Contemporary art or Postmodern art). Modern art refers to the then new approach to art where it was no longer important to represent a subject realistically — the invention of photography had made this function of art obsolete. Instead, artists started experimenting with new ways of seeing, with fresh ideas about the nature, materials and functions of art, often moving further toward abstraction.

Source: Wikipedia

Personally, I don’t think the video game industry is are anywhere near the level of maturity of the 19th century art world. Designers are still struggling with tools and technologies that are emerging and unfamiliar. Very few games exhibit mastery of the form, and even then, its hard to even define what the form is that they’ve mastered.

The time will come when mature artists have mastered game development. They’ve nailed representation of their game worlds, and it’s no longer appropriate to pursue realism. We see it already in Katamari Damacy, Okami, Wind Waker, and other “stylized” titles. But my feeling is that the true revolution in games will be when the form of the gameplay is just as expressive as the visuals. Games like Rez, Electroplankton, and Fl0w seem to be laying the tracks for future generations of experimental design.

I’m really looking forward to the time in gaming when there are institutions for really creative designers to rebel against and reinvent. It will be pretty awesome the first time the gaming equivalent of “A Starry Night” appears on the screen.

By way of The Tanooki

[tags]Video Games, Art, Style, Modern Art, Artsy Fartsy[/tags]