The debate of reviews versus criticisms presented in this sessions reading is an interesting one for many reasons. One because criticisms require video games to be viewed as an art, which is already a controversial topic, and two because of the question of whether or not video game journalism needs more criticisms and less reviews.
I may be bias due to my history with video games, but I have always agreed with the above idea and found video games to be a legitimate work of art. It's hard to not think this way after you play games like Okami, Shadow of Colossus, or any other game that's really innovative in regards to the game's visuals (and I'm not just talking about the best graphics, I'm talking about something that really explores uncharted territory).
Now, the problem I have with criticisms is that even though they are an educated work that analyzes a piece of art, I don't believe the video game genre is ready for that step just yet. For every room or class full of video game fans, there is an equal number that think everything about our hobby is other worldly or may just straight up hate it such as politicians who believe that video games affect our behavior (how often do you see people dressed up as a giant yellow ball, eating dots, and running away from ghosts named pinky and blinky). Additionally, even fans of video games may not see the genre as a work of art so they won't see any point in a criticism of Super Mario Bros. and how it's style and innovation affected the history of video games or how Call of Duty: World at War reflects the average Americans mentality during the World War era (I have a feeling that all the soccer moms playing Wii Fit fall into this category). I do strongly believe however that pure criticisms will one day have a future in the industry. As of now though, the world just sees video games as a product and will see criticisms of this "product" no more legit than a criticism of a toilet bowl cleaner.
Now moving out of the gloomy tone and to a more positive note, I do believe that criticisms do have their place. I support the idea that reviewers could use a bit more critical analysis in their pieces instead of just taking a simple yay or nay stance and here's why: gamers like me (I have to believe that there are people out their with similar tastes as me) are suckers for innovation. I love games that give me an experience I've never had before with anything in the field, and a good way to tell which games are and what games aren't is through criticisms. Specifically, an analysis of where the game lies in the history of video games or maybe how it affects the industry as being the first of its kind. A perfect example of this being being Little Big Planet. Game reviews main goal is to tell a person how good/bad a game is and an analysis covering those points on a game such as LBP would do just that, help push Sony's new genre of "Play. Create. Share." (which LBP helped launch), AND be classified as a criticism. That's a triple whammy right there! And who knows, maybe all we need to do to reach a place where video game criticisms will be respected is take baby steps to that ultimate goal.
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Awesome ideas about game criticism. Although there are scads of people that look down on games and game culture, criticism still needs to exist within the gamer community regardless of who looks down on it. And I do agree with you in that video games, regardless of graphical content, are works of art and need to be critiqued as such.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog because you are very educated on the topic but also bring an unbiased critical eye to the issue. As a non-video gamer I as well feel as though video games are a work of art. I may not spend hours playing them but I have watched enough people play them to have an appreciation for the skill it takes to play and design them. I think it's important for new games and articles to stay in the media to keep the talk about games in people's views. If people continue to hear about them more and more they just might pick up a controller, see what they're all about and gain some respect for the difficulty that goes into them.
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