Masterpiece of Evil
A friend of mine described Grand Theft Auto as a beautiful piece of street art on his parking garage. There are things that really are nice about it, but the end result is not something to be desired. This essay is to discuss the idea of games that do amazing things, but ultimately I will not defend.
As said before, gaming is a stick, a thing we change with our minds. A game may fulfill a need, but only allow the character to be evil. Another game may be a lot of fun, but throw in parts that can not be escaped. There are also games which are attempts to be ‘deep’ but end up feeling like a teenage angst fest. In fact, though the game creators show amazing skills in certain areas, you get the feeling that they don’t realize why something might be offensive. These are amazing games, but because of their problems, I don’t find myself wanting to recommend them.
Gaming is a stick. When you were a child, you could turn that stick into anything you wanted. It could be the amazing sword Excalibur, or a wizards wand. The same idea can be placed for thoughts, and movements. For example, nationalism is a thing. It can do a lot of good, like connect a brand new country, or bring humanity down to incredibly evil levels. Today, we will be discussing the evil.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a really fun game. It lets you explore a giant world, that looks and feels like the South West. There are canyons that remind me of Northern Arizona. Three full cities are open to be explored. The problem is that in this game, you can only be evil. You character is not a young guy trying to get out of gang life, but a guy trying to misuse it to gain power.
The exploration of the level is a ton of fun, and the majority of mini games are as well. Even then, the game creators tried to sneak in things they knew were wrong. The Hot Coffee Mod was actually just showing that the creators themselves were preparing a mini game of sex. When defended, the creators tried to sound as if they hadn’t put the game in, and then tried to defend it as art.
Actually, it gets worse. The use of nationalism within games, labeled anyone complaining about this mod as Anti-Gaming. So the defense was not that, the game is evil, but there are other games to play. The argument was that the only way to use the stick, was to be evil.
The problem was that other games proved it wrong.
Crackdown, a game released early for the XBox 360 had an open world, with guns, explosions, and fast cars. It was made by people that made GTA beforehand. In other words, it fit the needs of Grand Theft Auto, and yet never pushed you to become evil.
There were problems with the game, which could not be dodged. Many games, and even movies have made this move to get a specific rating. The move is excessive cussing. In the last section of the game, citizens cuss their heads off as you are busy with gunfights around you. It actually takes away from the gameplay. So, the game creators made an excellent game, but put things in that were thought to be additional artistic pieces.
Moving a stick around can be an art form.
As seen by the video, something as simple as a stick can be used to make amazing art. It can be manly, and beautiful. Like this stick, we can make games into art forms. The problem is that most people who are trying to make art don’t really touch the soul the way they think it does. We end up with a lot of angsty games because of this.
Brown Games has become a trope because game makers believe that they need to touch the inner teen of a game player. In fact, most bad artistic attempts are from game makers trying to deal with something they don’t really get. Metroid other M is about Samus Aran, a butt kicking silent bounty hunter that happens to be a woman. In other games in the series, this was accepted and people moved on. Other M tried to view the ideas of being a female bounty hunter, and failed. It wasn’t an attempt to retell metroid, it was an attempt to explain how a woman would view her work. I’ve met female bounty hunters. My exact opinion can be described by saying Yes Ma’am and doing as I was told. The game creator tried to do something bold, but instead came off as pretty offensive.
The reality is that most game makers think they need to attract the teenage mindset. A very good reason why is that the game maker may actually still be in the same thought processes of making a game. This means that a game could be made by a genius, but have dumb fart jokes. Not only that, it would make a crowd of game journalists cheer.
Doom is probably the best example of this idea. The game creators were geniuses of their time. John Romero had incredible skill in designing a level, and introducing you to the gameplay. There wasn’t a need to have tutorials because the levels taught you everything you needed to know. Likewise, John Carmack created an entirely new game engine that let a player be in the game. Doom became the inspiration for First Person Shooters, which we still play today.
They purposefully made the game as bloody, and violent as they could. There were sections of the game in hell, and graphics of people being tortured were everywhere. It was perfectly known to both John’s that the game was controversial. However, if you begin to read about how they created the games, and how they sort of didn’t grow up, you realize a truth. Neither of the John’s realized why something was controversial, or even the meaning behind their moves. They were geniuses, but not grown up.
I bring up this subject of Masterpieces of Evil, because I know how many end up. You probably knew that Adolf Hitler was an artist. He wasn’t a bad artist either. Many have pointed out that the way he thought about art, was also how he viewed the master race. In other words, all of the nationalistic push for the perfect race, the horrible killings, and the invasion of countries was being done for artistic purposes.
Likewise, the movie Birth of a Nation was a masterpiece. It was made by a genius who introduced new camera techniques, and storytelling styles for film. The president of the United States saw it in the white house. Riots broke out because of its violent nature. Before you start defending art, remember that the Birth of a Nation was supported on that same thought, and it was about the glories of the Klu Klux Klan. In fact, if you go to see the movie, read the comments first. There are people trying to defend the movie as historically accurate, or not that bad.
The film is one of the hardest things to talk about today. It was such that it became a work of genius, and an embarrassment at the same time. Roger Ebert defended the artistic skill to make it, while saying that it was evil in nature. It is a black eye for film lovers everywhere.
When we look at games fifty years from now, we will have to face the same things. Doom will have to be looked at, and known for all of the techniques it introduces. Grand Theft Auto introduced the idea of an open world as a toy. Then we will have to look at the graphical techniques of our time, and how they were used. It will be hard to play these games, because of how well games have improved over the years, but also because of the nature of the game. We will look at the defenses for the games, and feel a small lump grow in our stomachs from dread.
If games are just a stick, many of these games are the bad things we do with sticks. We try to defend them, by saying its just a stick, and end up looking kind of dumb. Sometimes a game creator will throw in these problems to appeal to an audience. The game maker himself may have problems though from growing up, and thus not see the problems he is causing. There are artists who have done similar things. Birth of a Nation is now a black eye to film lovers because of its incredible skill, and over the top racism. Some games may end up like that film.
The games I showed are actually personal favorites. I enjoyed playing them, however I had problems with the nature. The use of the gameplay makes me sort of sick inside, knowing that gamers are now making themselves do these things.
There is actually a list of movies I enjoyed a lot, but can never recommend. These are some of my favorite all time movies, but my friends will never hear about them from me. I actually own one so I can edit out the problems, because I loved it that much. Likewise, there are games I really enjoyed, but can never recommend to anyone else. I have one of them listed in this essay. I wish I could open that game up, and edit out the problems, because it would be amazing.
