Presentation case (Nail house demolition team battle)

Videogames, but are they art?

Whether a game could be recognized as an art form  or not, it should depends on the nature of the medium itself. In other words, it must has specific qualities that other art forms have. The game I chosen for analyzing is call 'Nail house demolition team battle'. The operating system of the game is the flash game channel of  17173 game site and the date of released is on August 22 in this year. It is a widely popular turret defense game in China network. The story is talking about nail house in order to protect their family with a variety of means to prevent demolition team's continued bombarment. According to the players, it seems impossible to win the game since so many crews swarm the building in the final level and the house will eventually be demolished. In the following, I would like to analyze whether the game is an art form or not mainly based on Adams and Leo Tolstoy's definition of art.

 - 'Art must have content', 'Art contains ideas' (Will Computer Games Ever Be A Legitimate Art From, Ernest W. Adams)

 "Nail house demolition team battle" is not just a game for entertainment, but also includes profound meanings behind. The game reflects the strong conflict between governmental power and the individaul's ownership of property in Mainland China. If we want to judge the game, we must understand the social background first. "Nail-house" are the last homes left standing in areas slated for clearance, so called because they stick out when all around them have been demolished. Owners resist because they do not want to move or the compensation is unfairly low, but demolition team often revenge with tactics ranging from cutting off  power and water to physical violence, just like the game display. There are some real cases in China, such as Tang Fuzhen, who killed herself last year after demolition team beat her family. Also three people in Fuzhou, set fire to themselves in order to protest the inadequate compensation few weeks ago. Therefore, we can see that the game has a tight connection with the society since it represents a serious social problem in order to arouse people's attention. 


  

 - 'Art should make you feel something.' (Will Computer Games Ever Be A Legitimate Art From, Ernest W. Adams)

 The game resonates so many people and lead us reflect on the social problems, such as property rights, governmental power, social conflicts and rapid urbanization. And here are some players' feelings on the sites.

 "Game is fun, but reality is cruel."
"This is our society. It is tiring. It is not easy to live. I don't know how many people are like the Ding family in real life. So sad."
"It tells us that the demolition team is not defeatabe. The only thing we can do is to wait and die."

 It is no doubt that the game can make people to feel and to consider. People worldwide express sympathy and pity for nail houses after playing the game. Almost people in China think that the powerful demolition team and battle results of the game just like the reality because the governmantal power is getting stronger and sronger, that they can never achieve victories. On the other hand, although they realize "reality is cruel" through the game, it can helps them to release the widespread angers to some extent.

 - 'The stronger the infection, the better is the art.' (What Is Art?, Leo Tolstoy, 1986)

 I agree that arts should generate strong infections in the general public, and the nail house fulfills this quality. According to the game site 17173 staff, the nail house game ranked third among last month's top games since its launch two week ago. People love it not just for its game play, but more important for its message behind. There are more than ten thousand users discussing the game in their online diaries and the game also be mentioned on newspapers, television programmes and video-clips. Therefore, we can see how infectious and powerful the game is.

 - 'Art is that it is aesthetic, it has rules for determining beauty and ugliness.' (Will Computer Games Ever Be A Legitimate Art From, Ernest W. Adams)

 Game is different to painting, sculpture and music, but similar to film that we can judge its artistic values through the story, characters and appearance. About its story, it talks about the nail house to protect their building and prevent the attack from demoition team that entirely imitating the common situation in Mainland China, so the story is full of chinese features. Moreover, the characters inside reveal popular cultural reference. For example, "small mother", the most welcome character for the internet users, her nightdress, burning hair and angry action, are the same with the "female boss" style in the famous movie of "Kung Fu" directed by Stephen Chou. Furthermore, all elements of the game, including colours and sound, work together in harmony.


















 - 'Art does not involve merchandising.' (Will Computer Games Ever Be A Legitimate Art From, Ernest W. Adams)

 The game is uploaded on the game site, everyone can play it freely without any legal problems and nobody understand who is the developer of the game. So it is obvious that the creation of the game is not for salability, reputation or any commercial motivations, but just for expression.


Relevent wetsites:

http://flash.17173.com/
http://www.56.com/u29/v_NTQ5Mjc4NTg.html
http://www.56.com/u95/v_NTU5NDIwMzY.html
http://www.56.com/u58/v_NTU4OTY5NDM.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aIfYQThpAE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJDV4P2fLDg&feature=related

References:

Will Computer Games Ever Be A Legitimate Art From, Ernest W. Adams What Is Art?, Leo Tolstoy, 1986
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/16/china-game-family-fight-demolition
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/09/16/fighting-eviction-the-videogame/

Reading by Ernest W. Adams

Adams defines art

According to Adams, there are many definitions of art and I agree most of them. He think that 'art has messages', 'art has content' and 'art contains ideas'. Of course, artists create the work in order to express their personal feelings or thinking, even the contents are meaningful or not, such as the artists in renaissance painting in order to show respect for the religional figures or create new kind of painting techniques. In terms of the idea that 'art should make you feel something', I would like to take Da Vinci's famous work, Mona Lisa as an example, it certainly puts viewers into consideration about the mystery smile. Moreover, 'art is not formulaic', I think the Duchamp's Fountain in Dada movement can proof this notion because it broke all artistic formulars in the early period. Furthermore, 'art has aesthetic', we can judge beauty and ugliness of art works through its artistic qualities, meaning and so on.

On the other hand, I disagree with some definitions of art by Adams. 'Art does not involve merchandising', but as we know, people treats Wong Kar Wai's movies as art forms even though they have merchandising consideration. Also, the notion of 'art versus popular culture', I suggest that popular culture can be defined as art since it can resonates general public's responses.

The qualities of videiogames to be considered as art

According to Adams, whether videogames to be considered as art forms or not should depends on the medium itself, they must contain some qualities that other art forms have. The certain qualities are listed as follows.

- 'Games must seek to do more than provide fun'
- 'Computer games need an aesthetic'
- 'Games must challenge the players as other art forms challenge their viewers'
- 'Gaming awards must recognize aesthetic merit and not merely technological prowess or craft'
- 'Games must be the subject of genuine critism, not merely product reviews'
- 'Games developers must experiment with the medium'

Screening of Gamer Revolution (CBC documentary, 2007)

Pros & Cons of playing videogames for individuals & societies

According to the film, playing videogames has both possitive and negatve influences for individuals and societies. About the pros, people can become famous and popular just by playing videogames. Players can entertain themselves and even treat their hobby as a job. Also, people can get great satisfactions by playing videogames. For example, in the world of online sex games, everyone could be a sexual super-hero. Besides, I remember that a boy who suffering from certain kind of illness in the screening, get power and overcome the illness bravely through a game called "Mission". About the pros for the societies, the U.S. army can use videogames to train new recruits and to simulate real-life battle situations in preparation for combat. It is really interesting and convenient. Also, playing videogames can be a kind of cultural reference since computer nerds in Korea are symblos for the 21st century.

On the other hand, it is negative for people to spend much more time and money in the virtual world. Some research shows that tens of millions of people spend more time in the incredible world of online games than they are in the real life. And gamers in Norway spend hundreds of millions of dollars on virtual items, such as clothing, furniture and estate. For the societies, some people may intend to use games as a tool for arousing citizens' negative emotion. For example, a developer in Syria creates a popular shooter game intended to incite the rage of the young men of the Middle East.

Videogames can encourage aggressive values & anti-social action in real world

According to the film, there are many games related to the problem of encouraging aggressive values and an-ti-social action in real world, such as "First person shooter" and "Postel". These games just like killing machines because they invite and allow players killing enemies or innocent people in virtual world. Also, the games accompany with rock musics behind that is an influencial impulse driving people to kill. According to the experiment done by experts, when people play violent videogames, their brain systems have unusual activities and it is an evidence to proof that digital games can definitely increase aggressive emotion. Moreover, there is an real case to justify the experiment results. A guy shot eight people and five of them being shot in the head. The reason is that when we playing shoot games, we always see and shoot people's head, so we can see that the action of the guy is influenced by the violent videogames very deeply.

I agree that violent videogames can generate aggressive values and anti-social actions based on the example and experiment above. Also, people are easy to moved by visual images and sound effect, especailly children and teenagers. Just like watching movies, we will cry or keep in an unhappy emotion after watching a sad movies; we will maintain in a scared emotion after watching a horror film and so on. It shows that we are easy to be effected by the visual representation and sound when we are passitive to recieve the message, let alone we becoming the active controller in the game world?

The government should have the right to ban certain games

The trend that more and more videogames in the market advocating the massages of violent and sex will certainly creates negative effect for children's development and destroies proper attitudes in the world. It is responsible and neccessary for the government to protect the moral values of the society. Related officials should set up censorship to control the content and ideas of videogames, those with too much violent or sexual messages should be banned. Apart from the law, of course, the education system is also important for providing correct values.

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Own case study

I like playing Cooking Mama because my mother does not allow me to cook in real life, so I would like to cook through the virtual world. About the game, there are many types of food with different standards for players to cook, such as fried rice, steak, soup and so on. Players can try every steps of the process, including cutting the ingredients, stiring the sauce and controling the cooking time. When I cook the food successfully with high score, I feel great satisfactions, just like finishing real dishes in real life.

Although I am in favour of the game, on the other hand it may has some dangerous problems for particular people, especially those without enough cooking knowledge or practice in real life. For example, children with higher score in the game may think that they are qaulified to cook in daily life, then they just cook without their parents' permission that can leads to a serious accident.

Inter-Discommunication Machine (1993)

I find Kazuhiko Hachiya's Inter-Discommunication Machine is the most interesting. About the work, it is an equipment which can exchange the visual perspectives between two people. According to the reading, 'used by two people wearing head-mounted displays, the "machine" projects one player's sight and sound perception of a virtual "playground" into the other one's display, thus confusing the borders between "you" and "me".' Two users need to wear head-mounted displays covering eyes and ears and a backpack with angel wings which have batteres, TV tuners, transmitters and TV antenna inside, then they can only see the views through the other people's eyes. Also, we are brought forcibly in the other's visual field and the machine definitely complicates the boundaries between identities of two people. The work questions vision and our individaul perception of the world.

I feel the machine is interesting because I never have such experience and I hope to experience. It is extremely amazing if we see the things through other people's eyes. But on the contrary, it will be horrible and helpless if we lose the visual perspective of our eyes. But it is a good opportunity for us to recieve sensual experience through another different way and creates a 'double identity self' or 'moutual identity'.

Reference:  Reading by Christiane Paul
                     http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2005/05/through-the-dev.php
                     http://eyebeam.org/projects/inter-discommunication-machine

Mouchette

Description

Mouchette.org is an interactive website created in 1996 by a pseudonymous person. About the style of the website, the developer uses vivid colours, such as red, pink and orange, as the main tone. Visitors are welcomed with a lurid close-up of a flower, accompanied the crepping of ants and flies. The pages of the wesites are very grotesque and provoke sexuall reaction, such as showing an image of raw meat, legs of a dead body and an enlarged tongue in the central of the screen in order to catch viewers' attention. Apart from the images, the sound is also strange and disgusting which seems crying or moaning. In general, the website provides me with a sense of uncomfortable and nauseous.

The website is linked to the problem of identity online because it has deceptive quality. The maker purports that "I am nearly 13 years old", but the development and construction of the website is very sophisticated that is impossible for a 13 years old girl to do so. Therefore, the maker hides his or her self-identity and manipulates identity online. On the other hand, the website is controversial in the art community because it intends to provoke sexual interaction with the viewers and arouse the issue of child sexuality, for example the background images like a close up of a young girl's face, sticking out her tongue.

Reference:  https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/Mouchette
                     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouchette.org

Videogames - But are they art?

a) Key quotes:

- 'Many computer games belong in category of literary arts with movies and television because they do contain elements of narrative, and their narrative elements can be subjectied to the same criticism as other narrative arts.' (Will Computer Games Ever Be A Legitimate Art From, Ernest W. Adams)

- 'Art is that it is aesthetic, it has rules for determining beauty and ugliness...Some of this apply to games also and there are distinct aesthetic qualities of games, such as "replayability", that may not apply to more conventional art forms.' (Will Computer Games Ever Be A Legitimate Art From, Ernest W. Adams)

- 'Art is to pass on cultural values from one generation to the next, to serve a sort of moral purpose.' (What Is Art?, Leo Tolstoy, 1986)

- 'The stronger the infection, the better is the art as art.' (What Is Art?, Leo Tolstoy, 1986)

- 'Real art through computer games is achievable, but it will never be achieved so long as we have no path to understanding. We need to establish our principles of aesthetics, a framework for criticism, and a model for development.' (The Art of Computer Game Design, Chris Crawford)

b) Key Links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeaBbxrVMzM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSOS_8AmeK0&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yDASlmjMlU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rNeuuUx-SQ&feature=related
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/04/video_games_can_never_be_art.html

c) Key Articles:

- Will Computer Games Ever Be A Legitimate Art From, Ernest W. Adams  (thought-provoking on the question of whether videogames are art)
- The Art of Computer Game Design, Chris Crawford  (look easy to understand)
- What Is Art?, Leo Tolstoy  (make clear definitions of Art)
- The ludic hack: artistic explorations of computer games, Tilman Baumgartel (seems to be an resourceful article)
- Cracking the maze, Anne-Marie Schleiner (seems to discuss from different angles)

d) Case study:


Game Name:  Nail house demolition team battle (釘子戶大戰拆遷隊)
Developer:  unknown
Operating system:  the game site 17173 "FLASH game channel"
Date of release:  August 22, 2010

Description in detail:

It is a widely popular FLASH turret defense game on China Network recently. This game, the "nail house" in order to protect a four-story building with a variety of means to prevent "demolition team" continued bombardment. The game incudes seven levels, with the increasing levels, also more and more difficult because it will comes new and large demolition team. The main screen is an empty site, a four-story building with the word "spilt" stands alone at the far left wall, which is surrounded by many tall buildings. As the attack side of the demolition team appears from the right and the defending side is a surname "Ding"s family from the left. Every down a demolition crew, players will have corresponding gold award and the attack power of Ding's family can be upgraded. 


In the beginning of each level, the building of life is 100 value, when it become 0, the game is over. When players lose, screen will display a message, "room down, people do not fall, make persistent efforts of". On the other hand, if players can overcome the attacks, screen will appear "in the 21st century Holdout heroic war of resistance, to achieve substantive victory. Redouble our efforts, war till the end". According to the players, it seems impossible to win the game, because so many thugs swarm the house in the final level and the house will eventually be demolished.

About the characters inside the game, there are totally six members of Ding's family, each with their unique defensive capabilities. For example, grandfather open fire, dad throw burning bottle, small mother lose slippers and small young girl throw firecrackers. Their own capabilities can create different standards of power.

Online identity

The numbers of online identities

According to Chriz, he has more than five online identities, including facebook, msn, forum, Lingnan wetsite, e-mail and so on.

The difference between online identities and in person identities

He acts more passive and selfish than his "in person" identities. For example, he is unwilling to share personal ideas or information because he don't know those on the internet. On the contrary, he is willing to share and being very active in real life.

The benefits of expressing his identity online

About the benefits of expressing his identity online, he thinks that he can get some kind of information secretly since the internet is extremely resourceful. Also, he can expresses his true feeling on the internet rather than hiding real emotion in daily life, such as using foul language when being attack.

Risks of identity online

On the other hand, he believes that there are some risks of identity online. The most common problem is that it is easy to be found if he doing something illegal, such as downlaoding music, movies and videos.