Book critic plays BioShock, says it's not quite "art"
by Kyle Orland 
{ Sep 16th 2007 at 11:15PM }
If you're anything like us, you're probably getting a little tired of the seemingly never-ending "games as art" debate. Well try and revive your interest for just one more moment -- the Washington Post took an interesting approach in expanding the debate this weekend with a short piece looking at the artistic merits of BioShock.For the piece, Post technology and games writer Mike Musgrove took an Xbox 360 and a copy of BioShock over to the home of the Post's 58-year-old, Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Michael Dirda, who played the game unassisted for a couple of weeks. As might be expected for a guy whose last game was Myst, Dirda had trouble getting past Neptune's Bounty. "I've got a first-aid kit, but I haven't figured out how to use it," Dirda said in a quote sure to draw guffaws from gamers who haven't won a Pulitzer Prize.
But what about BioShock as art? While Dirda said the game obviously has artistic value and was easy to get lost in, he wouldn't quite go so far as to call it "art." The key threshold for games to become an art form, Dirda said, is the ability to make the player feel depressed. Apparently Dirda has never seen his rightfully-earned loot ninjaed after a five-hour World of Warcraft raid. Depressing indeed.
But the final word on BioShock as art should probably go to head designer Ken Levine. "Is BioShock art? I don't know, and I guess I sort of don't care. All I care about is, does it work -- does it have an impact on an audience?" On that important score, we're going to have to answer with a resounding "Yes!"
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
mo @ Sep 16th 2007 11:21PM
okay wtf is this, there are so many different kinds of art in games its ridiculous
3d models. animation, musical scores, sound-effects lighting textures voice acting
if you say video-games arent art, your a complete moron
Psaakyrn @ Sep 17th 2007 12:29AM
If you take those and call it art... you're missing the point.
A paintbrush may have some artistic designs, but that doesn't automatically make everything I draw with it Art.
And for that matter, I think games like Okami and Loco Roco more artistic than Bioshock (which like it's FPS predecessors, still focus on violence and moral disambiguity than other values).
Still, Bioshock is more artistic than many other FPSes. (Though not Doom 3. Despite the gameplay "flaws", they were intentional and part of the whole experience. Doom 3 = Art, Bioshock = Design, look up the difference between art and design and you'll know what I mean)
Autopsy15 @ Sep 17th 2007 12:44AM
*Slaps hand against forehead*
VorpalMonkey @ Sep 17th 2007 3:59AM
Am I the only one who finds the following part of mo's statement ironic:
"your a moron."?
arrrgh @ Sep 17th 2007 8:36AM
if you don't know the difference between YOU'RE and YOUR , YOU'RE a moron.
Jack @ Sep 18th 2007 12:03AM
When they say "art" they don't mean the art assets in the game. They're talking about the big picture view of games as an artform ala film, paintings, sculpture, etc. The emotion response(s) and crap like that.
mo @ Sep 18th 2007 12:42AM
I don't care what you guys say, if you give me a completely empty room with basic WASD movement and have still models standing around in it with bad lighting, its still art
not good art
but still art, I don't understand how interactivity would change a 3D model ( which by itself is surely art) from being art to just being a piece of a bigger picture thats not art
if the plot of a movie and the acting dont come together well does it stop being art? besides if your judging something for its ability to invoke emotion youve already decided its art and you merely judging how good it is
n i cant believe sum1 corrected my grammar on da internet
Cysgod @ Sep 17th 2007 1:38AM
To quote a link to another article currently on Joystiq:
"The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."
A critic is the last person you'd ask for any form of value, from enjoyment to artistic. They're steeped in their own choice of medium, and that tunnel vision rarely allows for something outside of their expertise to be judged fairly. Thats not even accounting for probable jaded looks at what they review. Which is a form of cynicism of course.
Ace121212 @ Sep 16th 2007 11:28PM
"I've got a first-aid kit, but I haven't figured out how to use it,"
Wow. Just wow.
hotnutz @ Sep 17th 2007 10:09AM
His inability to figure things out shouldn't really be a shock (no pun intended) to anyone.
Ask you mother or someone who has never played a FPS before and put them down in front of BioShock or any other modern day FPS and see how well they do without your assistance. I've tried it and it's amazing the level of prior FPS experience you need to have to really enjoy and complete these games.
It's no wonder why the Wii has been such a hit - the controls are a heck of a lot more intuitive. That being said, I love FPS style games and have come to love a good keyboard/mouse combo. Definitely not for everyone though as it takes time to develop that automatic coordation of circle strafing regardless of it's on a console controller or though mouse & awsd combo.
fluffbox @ Sep 17th 2007 10:16AM
There's not much of an excuse to not know since simple things like using med kits are not only shown on screen during game play but also explained in the manual.
Scott @ Sep 16th 2007 11:31PM
Why do these people always choose games like this to make their decision on games vs. art? Bioshock obviously has aesthetic beauty and art to it, but the story doesn't really lend itself well to a full artistic evaluation.
Now, take Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. These are the type of games that should be the test material for the games vs. art argument. I think people who didn't even understand the stories behind these games can find themselves depressed while playing them - not to mention how they'll feel once they actually do understand them.
Games are art. Some just have more artistic value than others.
fawazr @ Sep 17th 2007 1:53AM
because easy targets are hard to pass up; especially when there's a whole generation out there who could care less about an old man and his Pulitzer.
fawazr @ Sep 17th 2007 1:55AM
Bah!!! *couldn't*
GWolf @ Sep 17th 2007 9:00PM
Lets also not confuse Art with Literature. The environments, music, themes are without a doubt Art. The story if it were a book would make for a very good read. This one rather pompous arbiter of all that is or isn't worthy of being called art is no better qualified to define it than you or I.
What is art; I know it when I see it.
SirMal @ Sep 16th 2007 11:36PM
inb4 FF7 fanboys
nowhere @ Sep 17th 2007 12:31AM
Aeris dying depressed me beyond belief, I committed suicide after seeing Sephiroth killed her.
Sesur @ Sep 17th 2007 1:25AM
I still get sad thinking about Aeris being killed...
B Tizo @ Sep 17th 2007 2:14AM
You totally baited these replies...
I like it!
Rubang B (NDF - Heart) @ Sep 17th 2007 4:57AM
I didn't even play FF7. It wasn't arty enough for me.
hvnlysoldr (NDF ) @ Sep 17th 2007 9:51AM
There's a zombie posting on here! Get 'im get 'im!
Kazi @ Sep 16th 2007 11:36PM
Art Critics are too stuck in the past and too retarded to accept a newish art form. Video games have been bringing emotions to the surface since the arcades and have been joining several different facets of art into one piece of software just as long. I sure as hell felt more emotion swimming away from a ship wreck and descending into an underwater nightmare than I did when I first saw a Picasso painting.
borland502 (SDF - Macross Ring) @ Sep 17th 2007 9:16AM
Why then do people care about critic declarations about art? Despite the formalism surrounding art, the individual is free to claim art wherever they perceive it. I'm quite sure there are holdouts that would tell Mr. Ebert that movies are not art.
I mean you could declare Daikatana art. Most likely you have mental problems, and people will laugh, but it is art to you.
RoboChamp @ Sep 16th 2007 11:37PM
An old man who doesn't understand new-fangled technology? Shock!
He gets props for at least trying to play the game, and then criticizing.
NLGSean @ Sep 16th 2007 11:39PM
This book critic is a dork. He couldnt even figure out how to use a first aid kit? Gimme a break! Bioshock is rich in art and it has a eerie beauty to it. Love the 1960's look...
NLGSean - Next Level Gaming - www.nlgaming.com
Charles Garcia @ Sep 17th 2007 11:44AM
Hey bud, its an art deco look, circa-20's-late 30's... not 60's :P
thenino85 @ Sep 16th 2007 11:39PM
"But the final word on BioShock as art should probably go to head designer Ken Levine."
No. Just, no. The architect of any work (whether it be art or not) is the LAST person that should be able to set the value of the piece to society at large.
Anyway, I've said it before and I'll say it again. Bioshock should have been a movie or a novel, not a game. The setting is beautiful. Just simply beautiful. And picking up all the tape decks was a joy. But there was no character development, NO MORAL CHOICES OF SIGNIFICANT VALUE, and the plot wasn't all that great, save one or two points. I honestly don't care if that's a spoiler or not at this point. Such a big fuss was made about the moral choices in Bioshock, and moral choices did not affect the game AT ALL. Period. Don't even get me started on the gameplay. Linear as hell. This game disappointed me greatly. Sure, that might be because the hype was so great that it was impossible to fulfill. But 2K Games sure didn't go out of their way to try to control that, now did they? You may bitch and moan about the Halo 3 hype, but virtually everyone that's looking forward to Halo 3 knows exactly what they are getting.
Before people reply to me talking about how I'm so negative and that my opinion doesn't belong here, let me tell you that I've never seen a person badmouth Bioshock. To my knowledge, I am the only person in the universe that did not like Bioshock. I'm not jumping on some bandwagon here, or raining on someone's parade just because I like doing that. I was looking forward to Bioshock a lot. The whole "thinking man's shooter" and all that. Well, I suppose Bioshock is a thinking man's game if you consider Pipe Dreams to be the ultimate mental exercise.
nowhere @ Sep 17th 2007 12:33AM
You obviously completely missed this post: http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/06/bioshock-gets-the-zero-punctuation-treatment/
nowhere @ Sep 17th 2007 12:35AM
Link to the video that was taken down: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/1394-Zero-Punctuation-BioShock
Purple Haze @ Sep 17th 2007 6:45AM
If hes the last person to set the value of the piece to society at large then that would make his the last word wouldn't it?
NATO_Duke @ Sep 17th 2007 12:01PM
I think it’s cool that you vent your opinion, but I disagree on so many levels. I think Bioshock was a beautiful and engaging game that took its "spiritual successor of System Shock 2" role very seriously.
No character development? Did we play the same game? You learn new skills throughout the game, and the story is in fact about your development. I won’t spew spoilers - but hell dude, the story showed some nice character development without the typical fps startup of "You are an angry [insert job here] cause your wife was killed; now you are out to kill them all and get revenge." If that kinda schlock is character development, then yeah, it didn’t have it. Otherwise, Bioshock started you as one person, and led you through a new world, with new abilities, and taught you that you were someone else entirely in the process. I thought it was brilliantly done. Especially if you listen to the tapes as you play, and gather more hints about how things evolved with the children.
No moral choices of note? OK, so you felt nothing the first time you had to grab one of those little girls? By later in the game you didn't feel anything by the choices you made with them earlier on? Please, you are one jaded sounding person if you don't think those were emotionally charged moral decisions of note. What does it matter that making the meaner choice didn't end the game and kill you or something? There had to be a way to allow people to choose either direction with the sisters and then still be able to play the game - otherwise it wouldn't be a choice. If to get through the game they had to be the nice guy, then there would be no effect from moral choices, as you would learn fast to restart and not exercise any choice. There is also choice with dealing with some of the bosses such as the music hall area.
Linear gameplay I can see..of sort. It’s not a sandbox game, it’s a story you are playing through. You can blow off a lot of things in the game, and not visit many areas if you want, or you can explore more and be rewarded. I don't feel it was nearly as restrained as most fps games that feel more like a 3d version of the old 2d game world of run in a line and gun till you make the end. It also gives the ability to either use weapons, or become more ability based in fighting, which is a change.
I think it deserves its high marks. Its one of the most polished games I have played in a long time, and I grab most console games made these days.
samfish (MSDF- Nurse Outfit!) @ Sep 17th 2007 2:00PM
"No character development? Did we play the same game? You learn new skills throughout the game, and the story is in fact about your development. I won’t spew spoilers - but hell dude, the story showed some nice character development without the typical fps startup of "You are an angry [insert job here] cause your wife was killed; now you are out to kill them all and get revenge." If that kinda schlock is character development, then yeah, it didn’t have it. Otherwise, Bioshock started you as one person, and led you through a new world, with new abilities, and taught you that you were someone else entirely in the process. I thought it was brilliantly done. Especially if you listen to the tapes as you play, and gather more hints about how things evolved with the children."
That's not character development, though. That's just fictitious physical development.
Character development is coming to learn about and feel for a character. What makes them tick. Why they do what they do or act how they act.
Just because Goku reaches Super Saiyan in DBZ doesn't mean it's character development. Seeing how he reacts to it would be...and even then, it wasn't very deep.
There's character development in every game to a certain degree. The problem is that it's never ever very deep unless it's told entirely through cut scenes. And the problem with cut scenes is that after it's over, you're back to playing your generic hardly feeling avatar.
Bioshock with it's book on tape voice over thing is a clever idea and a step in the right direction, but it's mostly narrative focused. Almost all games are...but narrative is typically separate from character development unless you're talking about like a poem or something.
NATO_Duke @ Sep 17th 2007 2:59PM
There was character development in my opinion beyond the abilities, there was the what made him tick element in there. I think we saw that as the levels progressed - the writing was on the wall as they say. :P They made me think, wow, thats messed up, and now I want to do this or that. All in all, IMHO they did more development then normally seen. (Tap dancing around spoilers is a bitch!)
CountChocula @ Sep 16th 2007 11:46PM
It's kinda not fair for gamers to say that games are art, but I don't think it's fair for a book critic to do so either. We need an unbiased jerk whose only art experience is from his grade school's art class.
Honestly, the meaning of the word "art" in this day and age is so contorted that a guy shoots himself in the head in public with a sign that says suicide is the most beautiful self expression the world has ever known, and SOMEONE is going to call him an artist. An artist at shooting himself.
BananaBoat @ Sep 16th 2007 11:47PM
I'm the last person that would ever tell you to go out and play bioshock (I didn't like it at all), but to say that it's not "Art" is retarded. Some "Artists" throw paint at a white wall for five minutes and call it "Art". By comparison, it takes thousands of man hours and a horde of artists to create something like Bioshock. Is Bioshock the equal of the great works of literature? Hell no. But is it art? Sure.
blooh (CDF - Ass Ring) @ Sep 16th 2007 11:59PM
i've read some so-called "great works" of literature, and they suck (lord of the flies, romeo and juliet, etc)
fuck that elitist circle-jerk shit. If I like it, I like it. Who fucking cares?
Vince @ Sep 17th 2007 9:48AM
Blooh, you just have bad taste in literature.
blooh (CDF - Ass Ring) @ Sep 17th 2007 11:21AM
no, i just don't buy into the hype about old books
NintendoFanbot @ Sep 16th 2007 11:48PM
Art isn't just meant to leave an impact on its audience. It's also whatever its creator wants it to be. Good art or bad art, it is art nonetheless.
Some people might see Bioshock as standard videogame fare with the prevalence of other science-fiction-themed shooters. A story meant for contemplation based on the works of Rand, Orwell, etc. is going to be very inaccessible for most to appreciate, so they judge a game based on what they know, on how it plays, its aesthetic value, etc...
Personally I'll say that Bioshock is a very good implementation of the videogame medium. However, it may not be that way for everyone.
Saying something is art is the fastest way to open the piece to criticism. Not only that, but because everyone interprets art in their own ways, ALL of that criticism is VALID. Technical achievements or an epic production budget may not matter at all.
Gamers will have to get used to the general public having their own say about games if games are to truly to be known as art.
outforprophets @ Sep 16th 2007 11:49PM
I don't know what it was, but I missed all this Bioshock hype. It was still somewhat disappointing to me in the end, though.
It's kinda funny, people who are disappointed with Bioshock are victims of their own doing - they fell for/got involved with the hype and they failed to make the game hard on themselves. What I mean is that the difficulty of Bioshock is almost completely up to the player, and most players plow through a game and complain about how easy it was when the whole time they could have been trying other strategies.
For me, Bioshock did a wonderful job of appealing to players who just like to explore levels. I'm not really that kind of player but man was it interesting to look around Rapture and go the opposite direction of that little golden arrow.
Antonio @ Sep 16th 2007 11:51PM
I agree with Ken Levine's take on things. I hope to make games someday, but whether they're art or not I couldn't care less. I would want a game to be enjoyable, first and foremost.
I'm sick of the "games as art" debate because all it does is invite a bunch of pompous pricks who are clueless about video games to evaluate the medium. The far more relevant question is "Do games deserve first amendment protection?" which is the answer is "HELL FUCKING YES". Everything else is meaningless as far as I'm concerned.
Willy @ Sep 16th 2007 11:53PM
The art world is one that accepts a tin can of doo-doo as art: http://home.sprynet.com/~mindweb/can.htm
I'll be damned if I'll hear some a-hole tell me that videogames are not art and then look me square in the eye and explain the s-in-a-can.
caramelzappa @ Sep 17th 2007 12:00AM
Personally I wouldn't call the game as a whole a piece of art. Gameplay was somewhat basic despite the perks of plasmids and gene tonics. However, Rapture, and the story behind it brought to you by the audio tapes, is a beautiful piece of art imo.
samfish (SDF- Green Lantern Ring) @ Sep 17th 2007 12:04AM
Frankly, I thought (judging by the PC Demo and what little I played more on a friend's 360) that Bioshock might be the most over rated game of the year.
I definitely will give it props where it's due, but for all the chatter that was/is going around about how revolutionary it was for it's story progression and immersion, it's laughable at best.
It certainly doesn't manage to break any of the standard videogame conventions and cliches that we've become used to over the years. It does manage to do what it does very very well, I'll concede (even though I didn't like it, I can still see where/why/how something is good).
It's a step in the right direction...but there's no way in Hell one could consider Bioshock art, outside of the art direction.
As far as gaming/art in general goes, gaming is still waiting for it's Citizen Kane to arrive. One could rightly argue, however, that gaming's Metropolis has already arrived in games like Ocarina of Time or Shadow of the Colossus.
I think videogames in general need to undergo a fundamental revolution before they can really start to be considered art, at this point.
Rubang B (NDF - Heart) @ Sep 17th 2007 5:31AM
Props on the new ring, Samfish. Nice choice too.
I totally agree with your comment, except I think Pong was our Great Train Robbery, Pac-Man was our Trip to the Moon, and the early Miyamoto games (Donkey Kong, SMB1, Devil World) were our experimental Buster Keaton flicks. They were trying new things and everybody loved video games back in the golden arcade days. Then SMB3 was our Birth of a Nation and really got the ball rolling. Then Ocarina of Time was our Citizen Kane and FFVII was our Casablanca, and now we're in the boring-ass golden age of Hollywood, with 1000 Hollywood scripts getting pumped out per week. Everything's shiny and pretty and boring. We're still waiting for our Godard and Bunuel and Fellini to really spice things up.
NATO_Duke @ Sep 17th 2007 12:05PM
Damn, the fanboyism in full glory today. No, it wasn't art because it wasn't on the PS system - but those PS games, those…those were art.
C'mon, don’t be so transparent.
samfish (SDF- Green Lantern Ring) @ Sep 17th 2007 1:48PM
Thanks, Rubang! It's a purty ring, But I'm thinking of giving it up and founding the MSDF. We'll wear costumes!
Also, who mentioned anything about PS games, dude?
malren @ Sep 17th 2007 12:20AM
There is literally nothing left to say on this subject after Tycho from PA wrote the folowing:
It is my intention to secure two copies of the game, entire - one Collectors’ edition, and one exclusively to shove up Roger Ebert’s ass. If Bioshock isn’t “art,” then art is the poorer for it.
End of discussion as far as I am concerned. None of us will say it better than that.
waynski1457 @ Sep 17th 2007 12:20AM
bioshock is one of the few games in a long time to make me feel depressed! (*SPOILER*) on my first play through, i went bad. but when the sisters save you and you wake up in their den, i truly felt bad and wondered if i had been saving them there would be more there. now granted, when he cant even figure out how to use the medkit, he wouldnt see this part. but by his logic, bioshock is more art than anything ive seen/read in a long time!!
malren @ Sep 17th 2007 12:22AM
@outforprophets:
"but man was it interesting to look around Rapture and go the opposite direction of that little golden arrow."
Yes! I did that all the time. Most of the fun was ignoring that arrow until I was sure I had seen *everything* there was to see.