Pursuit of knowledge.

[Yaka St.Aise]

Ever since "A new kind of science" was released, I've been wondering how long it would take before it comes up in a Skotos column.
One checked box. ;)

I won't comment on the part about what the academics can do for us, or, for that matter, what we can do for the academy, and I'll stick to the more stringent issue of politics and media coverage.

In the sake of fairness, when approaching such topics, I have to make things clear about which ideological grounds I stand on:

For a long time, I was a strong proponent that online games were craft rather than art, and should be treated as "mere entertainment" - as opposed to high-culture.
The reasoning behind this stance was that I felt "art" offered too much of a blanket excuse for ill-advised design, sloppy QoS, and a general lack of respect for customers, and wasn't really called for to make good online games.

2+ years spent in developing a MMORPG partly changed my mind about this, for I had to face the fact that some - if not most - of important design decisions ultimately are judgement calls (no matter how well or ill informed), and that the only way to keep some consistency accross the thousands of such choices that a MMORPG design takes is to build a strong vision, which at the end of the day is an artistic one.

Now, today's issue (and I agree with Dave it is likely here to stay and grow in importance) is politics and media coverage, a field whose reality and practice don't really need to be closely connected to whatever is the reality of making and playing games (or any other reality but their own actually).

Yet, I believe art is still the way to go.
Everybody will agree that the design and making of games is by far not a science at this point - not even a soft one.
What we are building, selling and using are mass-market cultural products, and even though it may be argued that MMORPGs are a small niche in the entertainment industry, we are for a number of reasons held by the same standards as movies, TV shows or other products intended for a wide and cross-age, cross-gender audience.

And this, my friend, is a trap we should avoid.
Let us escape this place of dooom and boldly state we are artists and our creations are high art !
At least say so in front of the cameras and the academia feuds ideologues (and try to remember we are just making games when we work on it).

Why ?
Because then we are indeed sheltered by the Magical Blanket Cover of Artistry*.
In a time where science gets too much mass-media exposure for its own good, and politicly correct ideology pollutes researcher's work to an ever-growing extent, we can enjoy the last natural safe haven for creativity: artdom.

Once we label ourselves artists, we can go down any path, explore any territory, and childishly call nazis whoever tries to stop or even criticize us from outside the field.
...and get away with it.

Is it dangerous ? Of course it is.
The ego-wars, "who-has-the-biggest-schlong" contest syndroma already plagues game design, and our immaturity as people and community is legendary, but at least this is an issue we are familiar with, and have learnt to cope with (hopefully for the better) over the years, so posing even more as romantic artists to the outside world shouldn't cause our egos to get much more inflated than they already are...;)

And this is a danger I believe is a lesser one, compared to the already in progress blandification of designs we have seen in the past few years, where raising costs and creative frilosity of designers and publishers alike have led to more and more "Mondeo"-like games.

Wow, am I all worked up or what ? :D

Best to all,
Yaka.

* (+5 AC, +10 Regen, immune to flatfooting and backstab, defense bonus against daze and confusion).

[Douglas Galbi]

Asserting the importance of art and creativity to your work is a good idea. Because your work is art and it is creative, or at least sometimes is, or can try to be, at least before the suits yank your chain. Ooops, sorry. Persons in marketing are persons, too. They're just interested in a different type of creativity.

You don't have to choose between art and science. As Yaka points out, artists have desireable character attributes in the Real World game. Utter self-indulgence and smug contempt for reality, attributes which might distinguish artists from scientists, aren't desireable. So be artists, but don't misunderstand the scope of creative activity.

[MahrinSkel]

ANKOS is a book it's hard to be ambivalent about, the scope of its claims is such that you have to either love it or hate it. Certainly nobody else has catalogued procedurally-based systems nearly so well.

Anyway, games are "art" in much the same way that movies are, there's a ton of craft and technical detail that you have to get right before you can start making aesthetic judgements or trying to communicate a message, but the judgements and messages are there, at least in potential. And every new medium is discounted and marginalized when it is new, our stigma isn't nearly as bad as that of "graphic novels".

--Dave

[Yaka St.Aise]

I made mention of my position about art and craft only for the sake of clarity (maybe I shouldn't have).

The core of my comment isn't even remotely related to the issue of whether commercial "massive" online games are art or craft (a moot point, since everybody will agree it's both), but rather to advocate a radical shift in the way we portray our trade to the rest of the world, namely in the topic at hand, media and academics.

The basic idea being that posing as romantic artists is the best way to avoid criticism from postmodernist-PC-self-righteous-pseudo-intellectuals (yeah, that sounds like a parody) who won't be able to slap ideological preset labels on our toys without us being able to stigmatize their "fascist" attitude towards creation.

Nazi and fascists intentionally used in two posts in a row to emphasize the fact that such a strategy aims at closing any possible discussion of the issue.
In this, I support the idea that the ideological and dialectic battlefield we are soon to be dragged on kicking and screaming we are not ready for, hence should we - for once - learn from history (and in this case Sun-Tzu) and lead the battle to a more favorable terrain.
Childish rants and mindless shouting is a field in which the gamer and designer communities have proven their worthiness for decades.

Don't let us get defeated in an uphill battle whe can avoid, when we can drag'em down in the mud with us ;)

Do I joke or what ?

Best,
Yaka.

[BTW, Dave, I wasn't taking a sting at ANKOS, I stand firmly among the lovers of the book, to the risk of cover my head in shame in the years to come :D ]

[MAWorking]

*Curses Dave's Name*

Just when I am getting a complete grasp on the socialization factors involved in gaming(communication) you go and pull out this academia mumbo jumbo of science or art.

It is an interesting discussion, not one that I can even begin to comment on... yet. (got some serious reading to do)

Suggestion: Next article something easier... think small animals, fluffy or beer.

(Thanks for the new challenge)

[mikedsc]

Hey Yaka, are you aware of Terra Nova (http://terranova.blogs.com/) ? Dave's a contributor. :)

I'd say something, but I think anything I would say has already been said. A point, though; Yaka, are you asking us to be hypocrites? :)

Personally, I really do view my profession as an art. A creative art. But I suppose some people don't. I seem to see less and less of "It's not art," as I read.

[Yaka St.Aise]

Originally posted by mikedsc
Hey Yaka, are you aware of Terra Nova (http://terranova.blogs.com/) ? Dave's a contributor. :)
I am, thanks for mentioning, though, While Dave did already do it in his original article, you can't point too often at resources as valuable ;)

Yaka, are you asking us to be hypocrites? :)

Well, I suppose you could read it that way, while I feel I rather suggested than requested...
Or did I ?

Seriously, I meant to shock a little here, because I really feel Dave has raised an important issue, and the way he puts it may have the issue look a little too abstract for those who aren't already aware of the significance of the growing interest of academia in games.

So I figured offering a provocative sounding alternative (which I still contend may have its own merits) was a good way to encourage people to read Dave's article twice (at least) and dig the links he provided.

As for being hypocrites... well, we're talking politics, here, and I don't expect anyone here to be so naive as to believe you can do politics only based on good will and good faith.
This is one of the cases where ignorance is doom.

And it's not like we do have much choice, either: we can't decide whether the media and academia are allowed to comment, talk about and influence our trade.
It's a simple fact of life that once games are in the media sights the agenda function plays its role and make games a political issue, and then, when it comes to politics, academia authority will be summoned to talk one way or the other as soon as there is the smallest hint academia may have something to say about the issue du jour...
Simple as that.

Now, we have three options:

Bury our hands in the sand and pretend it doesn't happen until it comes to us and bites our collective arse, then whine and cry how misunderstood and hazed we are. No go, I say.

Play along and try to walk the walk and talk the talk by educating/lobbying academia and media pundits to get more visibility and support on the ideological and PR front than the opposition.
I'm afraid I agree with Dave: we are not ready for this, and unlikely to be anytime soon. We are too young, too unorganized, and not scared enough to regroup, and I believe when we eventually will be scared enough we'll simply knee-jerk and freak out in tears.

Find a way to avoid the slaughter by redirecting the fire away from us, or at least for not standing still in font of the gun mouth. That was the gist of my original comment, while it probably isn't the only way to achieve such results.

So we don't have have to be hypocrites.
But it is akin to stay outside in bad weather and hope the rain will go away just by cursing at and/or show endurance.
It probably will go away eventually, but you'll still be soaked.

Personally, I really do view my profession as an art. A creative art. But I suppose some people don't. I seem to see less and less of "It's not art," as I read.

Again, I don't discuss this perception, game making is a creative hybrid art requiring a lot of craft.
It is also becoming a mainstream cultural item, and for this reason will require more and more political savvyness.

Best,
Yaka.