The Prince of Siracusa: The Importance of Art in Video Games

Video Game: The Prince of Siracusa
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Video Game: The Prince of Siracusa
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I have been working towards creating the plot of a video game, The Prince of Siracusa. The game commences with King Adonis of Siracusa defeating the Kingdom of Aegina 15 years ago. King Adonis, on conquering the kingdom, captures subjects and valuables. However, a maid in the Kingdom of Aegina manages to sneak Princess Rhea, the king's daughter, and avoids her capture. All the other members of the kingdom are, however, killed in the raid. The soldiers collect all valuables from the kingdom and take them to King Adonis. One of the valuables is the portrait of Princess Rhea when she was just ten years. The 30year old Prince one day peruses some of the valuables and discovers the portrait. He immediately falls in love with the portrait.
On making a further inquiry, the Prince discovers that Princess Rhea is alive and living in a far country. The Prince is convinced that he can locate the Princess and have her as a wife. Unfortunately, the Princess resides in a heavily guarded city. Finding a way to the town involves several risks. First, the Prince has to deal with the harsh environment and wild animals. Second, he has to evade capture by the enemy soldiers. Finally, the Prince has to be careful with Cora, a sorceress. She vowed to sacrifice the blood of any prince of Siracusa to gain power over the other kingdom and eventually guarantee revenge to the remnants of Aegina. The gameplay consists of both action-adventure and puzzle-platformer. The player would control the Prince of Siracusa until he captures and escapes with the Princess.
Are Video Games Art?
Roger Ebert has distinguished himself as a critic of video game forms of art more than anyone else. His prejudice against video games as art has generated debate among scholars, game enthusiasts, bloggers, and game developers. Numerous academic articles regarding digital games position Ebert as a central figure in their pieces. The cultural backlash against video games had existed for some time, even before Ebert joined the debate. The 1990s led to a moral panic about the adverse implications of media violence, especially on children. In 2000, Jack Kroll, a film and drama critic wrong an extensive editorial on how video games purported art status. His piece started by questioning why game wizards were not satisfied with the enormous sales and capture of many youths. Next, he wondered why gamers claimed why they were doing was art. Kroll concluded that game designers were pushing too hard to earn the title "art." Instead, the designers aimed to take advantage of the position of art in society to gain more audience. While Kroll's piece received considerable attention, it was not until 2005 when Ebert published a series of provocative comments regarding video games. Ebert quickly became a sensational figure, mainly due to his profile and the growing concerns about video games. The critic went ahead to become a galvanizing antagonist for those considering video games as art.[Kroll, Jack. 2000. 'Emotion Engine'? I Don't Think So. 5 March. /emotion-engine-i-dont-think-so-156675]
In view of Ebert's inflammatory comments on games as art, I have had challenges deciding where to place video games. As a game enthusiast, I want to see video games elevated to a high level where individuals appreciate their contribution to society. As a game developer, I express myself through creating games, just like musicians express themselves through songs. There is no doubt that the game industry is a multibillion-dollar industry. With the advancement of technology, more and more games will reach the market. Game players have an appetite for more games, which keeps pushing developers to create more of them. Developers are working to meet the increasing demand, which can be tasking. Such developers need to be encouraged to create more games. Instead, critics like Ebert have achieved the opposite. They paint game developers as greedy to make money by claiming the status of artists. It has been discouraging for me as a developer to consider myself an artist. As an avid gamer and developer, I know the incredible amount of work that goes into game development. However, I have been having trouble deciding if video games qualify to be considered art.
Understanding Video Games as Art
Critics fail to acknowledge video games as art because they consider the gaming industry to have commercial motivations. Nevertheless, games have become the most prominent of mass art worldwide. Commercialization, they believe, taints the artistic purity of video games. Developers make games with the ultimate intention of making sales. The move has created a thriving game industry. It is common for game developers to make sales amounting to millions of dollars. Many other forms of art have the same attribute. For instance, filmmakers and musicians consider their craft as a source of livelihood. Some sell their art and gain commercial success. The absence of art is not an indication that something is art. Financial success indicates that people appreciate a piece of art as quality. For instance, the release of Shadow of the Colossus in 2006 was a commercial success. This does not disqualify the artistic quality of the game. Instead, it demonstrates that any form of art, not only video games, should be appreciated.[Tavinor, Grant. "Video games as mass art." Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal) 9, no. 1 (2011): 9. Pg. 1] [Lehner, Alexander. "Videogames as Cultural Ecology: Flower and Shadow of the Colossus//Videojuegos como ecología cultural: Flower y Shadow of the Colossus." Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment 8, no. 2 (2017): 56-71.]
Another objection to the art form of video games is the idea that they require the audience to be involved as opposed to other forms of art that are nonparticipatory. Ebert held that the ability of players to control the outcome of games led to their "inherent inferiority" as works of art. On the other hand, films and literature maintain authorial control, where what the author has made is what the audience consumes. Games are the opposite of other forms of art because they allow players to make choices and determine the outcome based on their choices. Ebert does not understand how a reader can be rewriting Shakespeare while flipping the pages, which is what games attempt to do. What critics fail to appreciate is that player control is meant to enhance the participation of the audience. Artists target the audience and endeavor to involve them as much as possible. All forms of art elicit a form of participation to ensure common understanding and feelings. For instance, filmmakers want viewers to remain engaged throughout the work. Therefore, they include suspense and demand that the audience tried to answer some of the pending questions. In one way or another, art stirs the audience to imagine what the artist is trying to communicate. Therefore, art can't fail to involve the audience since it aims to stir the imagination.[Papazian, Gretchen, and Joseph Michael Sommers. "Introduction: Manifest narrativity—Video games, movies, and art and adaptation." Game On, Hollywood!: Essays on...