Surgency Games

On a micro level, every single person I worked with cared about the games we made; they cared deeply about making the funs and making the games profitable.

Over the last few years, throughout the halls of my old office – and throughout most of the industry – the discussion of “games as art” has slowly been creeping to the forefront. Gamers argue about it. Reviewers scream about it. Journalists deny it. And so far, it’s not gotten us anywhere. We go in circles and come back to the same point: are video games art? My point: does it matter?

Surely, from a historical perspective, it matters a great a deal.

But right now, does it matter? We’re so obsessed with the justification of our hobby that we don’t get much time to enjoy it. We care so much about the criticisms and the minutia that the whole becomes unfocused, unclear, worth less than the constituent parts. And for what? To prove games are just as historically relevant as movies and books and music and paintings.

History dictates the context. Regardless of what we think right now.

Art and commerce are important. They cannot live without one another. They each force the other to do better. The creator cannot starve; he must be paid to create and to flourish. The marketer cannot sell without a product; he must pay for content to be created. From an outside perspective, it’s easy to label one man a shill, another a sell-out. History will separate and showcase the most successful from each category.

In the here and now, the conversations and dialogues regarding “games as art” have always left me with the feeling that we’re missing something bigger. Tycho made an interesting point a few years ago, basically saying that, yes, of course games are art; they are made up of a number of artistic disciplines that suddenly don’t cease to be art, simply because they are combined together.

This discussion always tends to offer up examples of games that are visually appealing (or engaging), with storylines that work on multiple levels and often have something to “say” about humanity. All well and good. But are the games fun? Are they… Entertaining?

I think, more than anything else, right now games are struggling to find the balance between art and entertainment.

It might be a stage games are going through right now. It might be a non-issue six months from now.

This blog and my writings here will be based around the hypothesis that games with the right balance between art and entertainment are driving the industry forward.

I will focus on reviews, general opinion pieces and perhaps not-entirely-on-topic pop culture pieces for just the right amount of historical context. But at the core of it all will be that one shinning thought, reflected back, through as many examples as possible, either proving or disproving my theory.

I plan on this taking some time.