Even the british goverment recongize games as an expresion of art these days.
You seem quite small minded on this subject.
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Tue 17 Nov 2009, 18:24, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

I genuinely appreciate
the incredible skill and complexity of the programming, the design etc - they're mind-blowing achievements on that score, what I'm struggling with here is the concept of there being any achievement for the people playing the things. And I'm asking the question because I don't understand it Gonz, not because I'm sneering at anyone for enjoying playing games (much).

Got to go now - I'd like to hear your answer though.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 17 Nov 2009, 18:33, Reply)

These days, some video games have budgets of films, and will draw in as much income for the producers and publishers.
Some games have imense storylines that require playing sevral times, prehaps with different charactors and different paths. They can imerse you more than a film can, because it gives you choices. It's not uncommon to hear of people playing games for over 100 hours, and every single one of those hours has scripted elements. As you say, the programing and art arn't in question, so I won't go there. Imagine if in, for example, The Lord of The Rings, you could choose what path to go down, what characters to sacrifice in order to save your party. Imagine if you could go back and play it again from the perspective of [main bad guy], the entire storyline can change, maybe they wern't so bad and was just doing what life conditioned them to do?

So, as a story teller, I'ld say it's more than a film could be.

And then taking it from the perspective of games without much of a storyline but are heaverly multiplayer focused, teams (or individuals) can [do objective] that requires more hand eye co-ordination to do the goal of the game.

Then taking it from a stratagy point of view, imagine if the inventor of Chess had access to video games, no doubt he'ld do far more than just have the unit types and limitations of the physical world.

Then taking it from the point of view of someone who plays Poker, Chess, or any classic real-world board/table game, they can play the same thing, even for real world stakes like money, across potentially millions of players. Pub Leuges of 100 or so people can greatly be expanded apon.
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Tue 17 Nov 2009, 18:43, Reply)

This is a fucking brilliant answer.
I play chess a few times a week, and I'm currently ripping Grand Theft Auto on the DS to pieces and half-way through Underground 2 and Colin McCrae 4 on the PS2. Games are a great distraction for me, I use my brain a lot and I'm pretty good if I do say so myself. They're better for me than all the other distractions I've tried in my life.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 17 Nov 2009, 18:53, Reply)