Designer Ron Gilbert ponders video games as art form

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      Are video games art? Game designer Ron Gilbert will ruminate on that very topic when he delivers the keynote address at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle on Friday (September 4).

      Gilbert sat down with the Georgia Straight at the Yaletown offices of Hothead Games, where he is the creative director for the video-game developer and publisher. When asked to elaborate on what he will speak about, Gilbert was cryptic, saying he preferred to keep the details to himself until it was time to take to the stage.

      “Haven’t we gotten past that?” the Straight asked. After all, whether one believes games are a valid art form depends not only on conceptions of art but also on point of view and familiarity with the form. Film critic Roger Ebert, renowned in gaming circles for claiming in 2005 that video games do not qualify as art, ultimately qualified his opinion by writing in 2007: “What I should have said is that games could not be high art, as I understand it.”

      “Apparently not,” said Gilbert with a wry smile.

      Gilbert came to prominence as a programmer and game designer with Lucasfilm Games—a precursor to LucasArts—on The Secret of Monkey Island, a 1990 adventure game that was remastered and rereleased in July. He said he’s pleased that people who haven’t played the game before now have an opportunity to experience it.

      In Monkey Island, players are largely responsible for selecting dialogue and solving puzzles. The graphics are rudimentary and, when presented on modern computer or television screens, aren’t much more than big, chunky pixels. What makes the game enjoyable is the story and the characters, elements Gilbert has always held to be essential. Despite the fact that games developed today feature photo-realistic representations and accurate, real-time physics, he said that too many developers are passing off “technology demonstrations” as video games.

      The technological advancements in video games may be reaching a plateau, though. Gilbert said he hopes the industry will come to terms with the fact that video games are stories.

      To illustrate that fact, Gilbert told a story. He recalled he was once sitting around with a group of game designers and one of them claimed that there was no story in Tetris, the puzzle game created by Russian software designer Alexey Pajitnov in which players shuffle geometric blocks to fit them together. Another designer said that when he played Tetris, he imagined he was in a gulag, moving massive concrete blocks around.

      It’s evidence, said Gilbert, that humans like to wrap their experiences and interactions in a narrative.

      Gilbert, whose blog is called Grumpy Gamer, has a reputation for being something of a sourpuss, but I find him to be less grumpy than dry. He’s the Steven Wright of video games, writing and designing witty, humorous titles that resonate on multiple levels.

      While PAX attendees can expect his keynote on the question of art and video games to be funny, he’s not there to do a standup routine. “My talk will be filled with humour,” Gilbert said, “but it is a topic that I take very seriously.”

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