I rarely think about the “Grand Theft Auto” series as a work of art.
In fact, while exploring the open-world element the series is known for – wielding chainsaws and flamethrowers – I rarely think at all.
But with the release of Grand Theft Auto IV later this month, I have been thinking about video games and art a lot.
The series’ violent nature does not exactly have the best track record with the public. The ability of a player to walk around in an unconstrained environment and kill innocent passers-by with any number of weapons has become the poster child for censorship advocates.
Attorney Jack Thompson, known in the video-game world as the moral equivalent of the Antichrist, has waged high-profile legal campaigns against the series’ publisher, Take-Two, since 2003. In fact, Take-Two filed a lawsuit against Thompson in March 2007 to prevent him from blocking GTA IV’s sales in the state of Florida, according to TheStreet.com.
Thompson has also blamed other violent games, like the popular online first-person shooter “Counter-Strike” and “Doom,” for various school shootings – most notably, the ones at Virginia Tech.
“This is not rocket science. When a kid who has never killed anyone in his life goes on a rampage and looks like the Terminator, he’s a video gamer,” Thompson said.
However, there is no evidence to prove, that Cho Seung-Hui played any violent video games. And Seung-Hui’s roommate claimed he had never seen him play any video games, according to MSNBC.
But while some of Thompson’s assertions about violence in video games are exaggerated and debatable, there is one simple truth to his argument – many video games are violent.
The real question is whether some violence in video games can be justified as part of an artistic pursuit.
Bret Easton Ellis’s “American Psycho” is a novel as sexually graphic and violent as any movie or video game I am familiar with, but the subject matter is justified and largely accepted because it is a work of art – it is a great novel with important commentary.
If certain games can be considered works of art, perhaps the violence can be as defensible and even necessary – as it is often in literature and film – as an integral part of a larger and more important whole.
To call video games art meets some hefty opposition. One of the most outspoken skeptics of the artistic merits of video games is renowned film critic Roger Ebert. Ebert wrote in a July 21, 2007, column that although he has not played a great number of video games, he knows they are artistically substandard because the vast majority of games can be defined as “point and shoot in many variations and plotlines, treasure or scavenger hunts, as in ‘Myst,’ and player control of the outcome.”
Ebert’s sentiments reflect a common thread among many video-game skeptics – most importantly, unfamiliarity with the medium. Surely Ebert would reject any criticism of, say, “Casablanca” from someone who had never seen the film – and with good reason.
Perhaps there was a time when such a simple and brutish generalization about video games was accurate – I would be reluctant to argue with someone who questioned the artistic merit of Tetris and Pong.
But now, video games are finally beginning to mature as a medium, and only recently have games’ potential benefit to the artistic experience been realized.
“Next-gen” games like the recently released “BioShock” and “Mass Effect” are visual and narrative epics – with story arcs stretching 20 hours and beyond. These games may appear to be simple “point and shoot” if you were to view a five-second clip. But these games are not, by any stretch of the imagination, simple.
Fittingly, BioShock is a game that explores the nature of art. The ethical obligations and limitations of artistic and scientific discovery are explored in an enthralling story, capped off with a stunning visual style and complete soundtrack. Killing is part of the game, but it is not done senselessly, rather, it is part of the general pursuit of the story.
It is a game as captivating and haunting as any novel I have read or film I have seen.
Though it may surprise some, all of the Grand Theft Auto series’ games – despite their famous open-world aspect – have relatively linear plots. In fact, influences from classical films like The Godfather and Scarface are grossly obvious. Real commentary and satire about politics and social class are also weaved throughout gameplay.
Not all games are like this. There are certainly games that are poorly conceived and, thus, poorly made – akin to the many crappy works of literature and film that can get churned out.
There is an undeniable double standard. Though violence exists in other artistic media, often to even higher extremes, there is an unexplainable hostility toward video games and a reluctance to accept the artistic integrity and potential games can offer. “Banned” books have a certain edgy appeal, and they are promoted – even by the University’s own Middleton Library – as great works for that very reason.
Alas, video games have received no such academic celebration, probably because games are actually fun.
That is okay, though.
I will just release my frustrations by chopping off someone’s head – not literally, of course.
—-Contact Nate Monroe at [email protected]