My game in your gallery? Professional game developers as artists
Katherine Neil
Notes:
1. Specifically, by the Diverse Worlds Project at Bond University in Australia. See: Brand, Jeffrey (2003) ÔDonÕt criticize the effects of video games on kids, exploit them!Õ, Bond University ePublications.
2. Games are important because game industry turnover is bigger than that of Hollywood.Õ Sadly, this is usually the line used by mainstream journalists in place of venturing into an intelligent discussion about the medium itself and its relationship to contemporary culture.
3. The blossoming of the Ôcasual gamesÕ industry since 2004, however, has seen a minor renaissance of bedroom coding. The casual games space, which took off in 2004 on the web and PC downloads and is now moving onto the consoles. While very simple and derivative games dominate in this space, the market has opened up a renaissance for smaller, developer controlled teams and projects that one day may merge with development for the ÔcoreÕ games market.
4. Espen Aarseth argues that Ô2001 can be seen as the Year One of Computer Game Studies as an emerging, viable, international, academic field,Õ in his editorial for the International Journal of Computer Game Research, Volume 1, Issue 1. July 2001
5. For a critique of the industryÕs business model, see: Costikyan, Greg (2006) / ÔDeath to the Game Industry, Long Live GamesÕ / The Escapist; and Lanning, Lorne, interviewed by Matt Martin, ÔOdd Man OutÕ, GamesIndustry.biz,
6. See Van Zelfden, N. Evan (2006) ÔCritical Issues Facing Indie Game DevelopersÕ, The Escapist, 13 Jul 2006. Note that Ôindependent developersÕ in this context is used to signify development studios that are not owned by a publisher.
7. For examples, see the games Escape From Woomera, Super Columbine Massacre RPG, and 911 Survivor.
8. See Askwith, Ivan (2003) ÔA Matrix in every mediumÕ, Salon.com; See Waters, Darren (2005) ÔSpielberg takes film magic to EAÕ, BBC News Online. See Waters, Darren (2006) ÔDirector Jackson signs Xbox dealÕ, BBC NEWS Online, 2006
9. see Chuck Klosterman (2006) Esquire Magazine, July; and Johnson, Joel (2006) ÔKlosterman: There are no game criticsÕ, Kotaku, June
10. In 2006 David Rejeski proposed that there be state support for games based on the public broadcasting model. See: David Rejeski (2006) ÔWhy we need a corporation for public gamingÕ
11. Cultural coming of age when game developers stood in defiance of the censorshop of Super Columbine Massacre RPG at Slamdance. Consciousness was raised and the double-standard applied to film vs game was exposed.
12. Inspired by the ÔThe New JournalismÕ movement of the 1970s.
13. This comparison between games and the cultural elevation of the novel, film, TV and comic forms is often raised in discussions about games as art, but I believe this is simplistic when the differing historical, economic and technological contexts for these media not taken into account. For instance, the novel form was adopted relatively early by the intelligentsia as a rapidly accessible vehicle for serious content while the moral panic around novels was only just beginning; television was rescued in its infancy by state intervention in the form of public broadcasting initiatives; and comics have, arguably, never truly enjoyed mainstream acceptance as an art form by wider society (with the possible exceptions of French and Japanese cultures), despite notable works in the medium.
References:
Adams, Ernest (2006) / ÔThe DesignerÕs Notebook: WhereÕs our Merchant Ivory ?Õ/ GamaSutra / August 7th
Adams, Ernest (2006) / ÔRevenge of the Highbrow GamesÕ / GamaSutra
Anonymous UK developer (2003) Fatbabies.com
Anonymous game designers (2000) / ÔThe Scratchware ManifestoÕ
Askwith, Ivan (2003) / ÔA Matrix in every mediumÕ / Salon.com
Au, Wagner James (2002) / ÔPlaying Games with Free SpeechÕ / Salon.com
Brand, Jeffrey (2003) / ÔDonÕt criticize the effects of video games on kids, exploit them!Õ / Bond University ePublications
Bizarre Creations (2007)
Chaos Engine, 2006
Clapham, Mark (2006) / ÔLocal HeroesÕ / GamesIndustry.biz / August 25
Cook, Dan (2006) / ÔZe Story SnobsÕ / Lost Garden
Costikyan, Greg (2005) / ÔDeath to the Game Industry, Long Live GamesÕ / The Escapist
Costikyan, Greg (2005) / ÔBurning Down the HouseÕ panel speech / Game DevelopersÕ Conference, March
Crawford, Chris (1996) / ÔComputer Games are DeadÕ / Interactive Entertainment Design Vol. 9
Crawford, Chris (n.d.) / ÔThe Education of a Game DesignerÕ
Crawford, Chris (1984) / The Art of Computer Game Design / McGraw-Hill Osborne
Ebert, Roger (2005) / RogerEbert.com / November 27
Games Are Art (2007)
Gillen, Kieron (2004) / ÔThe New Games JournalismÕ / March 24
Hill, Jason (2006) / ÔGood game but is it art?Õ / Sydney Morning Herald
Hoffman, Erin (2004)/ ÔEA: The Human StoryÕ
IGDA (International Game DevelopersÕ Association) (2005) / ÔIGDA Quality of Life White PaperÕ
Ion Storm (2000) / Deus Ex /Edios Interactive
Jaffe, David (2006) / ÔMTV Game Makers RoundtableÕ / MTV Overdrive/ May 2006
Jenkins, Henry (2006) / ÔThe Independent Games Movement (Part Three): Behind the Scenes at IndiecadeÕ / October 31
Jenkins, Henry (2005) / ÔGames, the New Lively Art,Õ in Jeffrey Goldstein (ed.) / Handbook for Video Game Studies / Cambridge: MIT Press
Johnson, Joel (2006) / ÔKlosterman: There are no game criticsÕ / Kotaku / June 23
Kant, Immanuel (1790) / The Critique of Judgement / trans. James Creed Meredith
Klosterman, Chuck (2006) / Esquire Magazine, July
Kroll, Jack (2000) / ÔÕEmotion EngineÕ? I donÕt think soÕ / Newsweek / March
Moledina, Jamie (2004) / ÔThe Anti-Communist ManifestoÕ / Gamasutra, May 20
Morris, Chris (2005) / ÔNintendo: Innovation is DyingÕ /CNNMoney, June 3
MTV Game Makers Roundtable (2006) / MTV Overdrive, May
Lanning, Lorne (2006) / Interviewed by Matt Martin / ÔOdd Man OutÕ, GamesIndustry.biz
Lanning, Lorne (2006) / interviewed by Matt Martin / ÔSiege MentalityÕ / GamesIndustry.biz
Pfeifer, Borut, (2005) / ÔSoapbox: The Rise of the Auteur & the Return of Indie DevelopmentÕ / GamaSutra /Game Developer Magazine
Rejeski, David (2006) ÔWhy we need a corporation for public gamingÕ / Woodrow Wilson Centre / August 25
Shacknews (2006) / ÔUwe Boll Challenges His Critics ÔTo Put Up Or Shut Up!ÕÕ / June 13
Simons, Iain & Newman, James (2004) / Difficult Questions About Videogames / Suppose Partners
Snyder, Tess (2006) / ÔAre Electronic Games ArtÕ / Jeux sans Frontieres / June 2006
Spector, Warren (2006) / ÔIndie game devs: Ôforget itÕÕ / Red Herring
Van Zelfden, N. Evan (2006) / ÔCritical Issues Facing Indie Game DevelopersÕ, The Escapist, 13 July
Waters, Darren (2005) / ÔSpielberg takes film magic to EAÕ / BBC News Online
Waters, Darren (2006) / ÔDirector Jackson signs Xbox dealÕ / BBC NEWS Online
Wilson, Gareth (2006) / (cited by Darren Waters) / ÔGames industry Ôburns out talentÕ' / BBC News Online
Wright, Will (2005) quoted in Ellie Gibson / ÔThinking BigÕ / GamesIndusty.biz / September 5
Biography:
Katharine Neil is a New Zealand born game developer, with an academic music background. She has worked in the game industry since 1998 as a sound designer and programmer in Australia and France. Her non-professional activities have included co-founding Australia's annual independent game developers' conference Free Play, and under the pseudonym ÔKipperÕ, initiating and directing the Escape From Woomera project in 2003 - a somewhat notorious collaboration between a journalist and a game development team to create a videogame based on the mandatory detention of asylum seekers in Australia. As an occasional writer, Katharine has aired opinions on the political and cultural aspects of videogames.
