The Gamer's Quarter - Issue #6 - TextFiles.com

to reinterpret and reconstitute many
videogame songs with live instruments.
Of course, modern videogames have
much better sound quality, but the point
still stands; even the best of videogame
music can never match up to a live band.
More importantly, the music of videogames
is limited by the structure of
videogames themselves. In the case of
DD2 and many videogames, the songs
must often effectively avoid having a
beginning and an end, since they must
loop throughout the level. Without a
beginning or an end, the music is nothing
more than a clip of sound, relegating it to
the background. There are other specific
limitations to videogame music, but
the important point is this: videogame
music must conform to the limitations
and requirements of the game first and
foremost, not to the music itself. The
music of a videogame must reinforce
the experience for the player, not simply
be good music; and certain musical
freedoms must be restricted in order to
make the music work within the game.
Structurally, videogame music can never
be as complex as a complete song or
composition.
So, at least one aspect of videogames,
the music, would seem to be limited in
its breadth and potential. Presumably,
another analogy could be made with the
other creative aspects of videogames.
The visuals can never be as complex or
as deep as a painting because the player
must play in this visual space, and certain
important objects and pieces of scenery
have to take on functional importance,
limiting the artist’s choices about how
these parts of the game can look. Also,
the story must not become too involved,
or the writer risks limiting the player’s
interactivity with the game; unexpected
changes in plot that would normally
be fine in a movie or novel often seem
forced and out of the player’s control in a
videogame, ruining the experience.
So, the argument can be made that
videogames naturally limit the individual
aspects that make the game up, such as
the musical, visual and narrative. But,
is this necessarily a bad thing? There is
another medium that shares these same
limitations: comics.
In comics, the visuals and writing are
restricted by the form of comics; the
writing must generally be simple and to
the point in order to avoid distracting the
reader from the action on the page, and
the visuals must be divided into panels
and simplified in order to give emphasis
to characters and objects that are most
important. Similarly, a videogame’s
visuals, story and music are restricted by
gameplay; all three must avoid being too
complex or intricate, so as not to get in
the way of the player’s experience with
playing the game.
Comics, like videogames, have
traditionally had trouble establishing
themselves as a legitimate form of
expression. Just like videogames,
they were considered children’s entertainment,
not worthy of the attention of
mature readers. But, in recent years the
status of comics has steadily increased,
to the point where many comics and
graphic novels are now considered
modern classics. Of course, nothing
significant about the form or structure
of comics has changed this time; rather,
it was the opinions of the critics that
changed, as they came to realize that
comics are in fact a medium capable of
telling stories and conveying messages
just as meaningful and enthralling as
any novel, film or painting. Many had
to realize that comics were not merely
the combination of drawings that were
more limited than paintings and writing
that was more limited than novels, but
instead a unique medium all its own.
Comics add together limited aspects of
many mediums to make an experience
that is unique to comics. If the visuals
were too involved, or the writing too
involved, the comic would actually suffer;
comics benefit from having limited
writing and visuals by combining them to
make something that is impossible with
just one of the aspects. A comic can tell
a story in a way that neither a movie nor
book ever could. 3
We would argue that videogames
are similar to comics, in that they add
together limited visuals, narrative,
story, and images to make something
that would be impossible in any other
medium. Rather than create stories that
are different from any other medium,
as comics do, they create an experience
that is different from any other medium.
The narrative, writing, visuals, sound,
and music may be limited compared to
other art forms, but they combine to
together to make a gameplay experience
that is something that no other art
form can ever achieve. The art is in the
combination of these elements, however
limited they are. One could go even
further and say that they must be limited,
in order to make a good videogame. In
this way, videogames should be understood
as their own medium. We cannot
compare videogames to paintings
or musical compositions or writings,
because it would be a mistake. Just as
comics have been misunderstood as
juvenile and limited art forms, inferior
to the individual art forms that they are
composed of, so too have videogames.
But, so too should videogames not be
viewed as an amalgam of artistic works
inferior to their respective types, but
as a medium unto itself, with its own
degree of quality and its own possibilities,
separate from other mediums.
In this sense, a good videogame can be
considered a good videogame, and also a
good piece of art.
3 Scott McCloud talks about this better than we ever could in Understanding Comics.
28 The Gamer’s Quarter Issue #6
Medium Possibilities
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