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BEN VILLARREAL
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Las Vegas, The Original One
I am currently the Assistant Coordinator of Academic Enrichment and an Instructor of English at New Mexico Highlands University, where I live with my lovely, film-making wife Veronica. In my free time I read comics and play video games. In my extra free time, I write about them.
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FEATURED POST
Robert Coover wrote the Great Gamer Novel...over 40 years ago. Here's why you should read it now.
Thursday, August 18, 2011 |
Comments (25)
POST BY THIS AUTHOR (12)
Farewell letters to my fellow adventurers of Boletaria.
Sunday, May 06, 2012 |
Comments (11)
Uncharted 2 is cinematic to a fault.
Saturday, July 30, 2011 |
Comments (4)
I look at the secondary characters of the Dead Space universe and how they interest me more than Isaac Clark. *Spoiler Alert*
Thursday, June 16, 2011 |
Comments (0)
A teacher examines the literary influences behind the Resident Evil series.
Tuesday, March 01, 2011 |
Comments (13)
This Bitmobber is off to a national conference to talk about religion and video games! Help him out by offering your thoughts on the topic!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 |
Comments (2)
A look at my students' reviews of "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World"--which, according to critics, is only for gamers, who have no lives.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 |
Comments (0)
Can a book about video games make us appreciate the medium more, or is Tom Bissell preaching to the converted?
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 |
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I look at the greatest gaming comic ever and its comments on the culture that surrounds us.
Friday, July 23, 2010 |
Comments (2)
Are gamers going to Hell for their in-game sins? Do we care?
Wednesday, April 14, 2010 |
Comments (9)
Is "Dead Space" a great game? Absolutely. Is it survival-horror? No. Here's why...
Saturday, March 27, 2010 |
Comments (5)
Is Capcom milking yet another RE game for the last drops, or have they turned something new to "Gold"?
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 |
Comments (0)
COMMENTS BY THIS AUTHOR (264)
"W00t! That's awesome :-)"
About 2 hours ago
"Your chess comics is brilliant, as are the others. Well done!"
Thursday, May 10, 2012
"Thanks! I hope to see you adventuring around!"
Monday, May 07, 2012
"Ah! Thanks for the heads up! Now to convince the missus I need another copy of the game..."
Monday, May 07, 2012
"Thanks, Rob! It came to me as I was replaying yesterday and summoned an awesome phantom. We completely beat the second area in Boletaria in one go, and I realized how much I was going to miss that--the feeling's not quite the same in Dark Souls, some how.
And I'm such a newb, I didn't realize the PS3 wasn't region locked! *Goes to check price of import* $50 isn't bad, and I feel like I know the game well enough to work around the Japanese, haha!"
And I'm such a newb, I didn't realize the PS3 wasn't region locked! *Goes to check price of import* $50 isn't bad, and I feel like I know the game well enough to work around the Japanese, haha!"
Monday, May 07, 2012
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Maybe I'm misunderstanding Rob (though I don't think so, since I read the same argument in your article) but I think this sums up our problem:
"That means that, in addition to having video games that are art, I want to have video games that are good (maybe eventually great) art as well. For that to happen though, the lines must be drawn clearly and resolutely. The most helpful distinctions might be between entertainment and art. Skillfully employing aesthetic elements in order to excite or bring pleasure to an audience is a great thing. It’s what the blockbuster is predicated on. But that is an entirely different project from trying to skillfully employ aesthetic elements to make a point, or raise a question, or critically investigate something about ourselves or the world around us."
You're applying a subjective standard to "entertainment" as "not art" because it doesn't fit your definition of making a point, raising a question or critically investigating. Ironically, there's a widely accepted term for art that's only seen as entertainment or a silly deviation from the norm: popular culture. And while, yes, we rarely look at pop culture as art in the moment, we often study it as important art once we have hindsight. Shakespeare perfectly fits this discription: his plays were entertainment for the masses. Very few people studied his work as art in his lifetime. It's only later that we looked back and recognized his brilliance.
I guess my main contention is that I don't see why we need to label games as not-art in the first place. Most critics who've tried to do that in the past with other media were eventually proven too narrow-minded to listen to anyway.
Though I will grant that the desire to defeat these critics helped pushed those media forward., so perhaps therein lies the value.
"That means that, in addition to having video games that are art, I want to have video games that are good (maybe eventually great) art as well. For that to happen though, the lines must be drawn clearly and resolutely. The most helpful distinctions might be between entertainment and art. Skillfully employing aesthetic elements in order to excite or bring pleasure to an audience is a great thing. It’s what the blockbuster is predicated on. But that is an entirely different project from trying to skillfully employ aesthetic elements to make a point, or raise a question, or critically investigate something about ourselves or the world around us."
You're applying a subjective standard to "entertainment" as "not art" because it doesn't fit your definition of making a point, raising a question or critically investigating. Ironically, there's a widely accepted term for art that's only seen as entertainment or a silly deviation from the norm: popular culture. And while, yes, we rarely look at pop culture as art in the moment, we often study it as important art once we have hindsight. Shakespeare perfectly fits this discription: his plays were entertainment for the masses. Very few people studied his work as art in his lifetime. It's only later that we looked back and recognized his brilliance.
I guess my main contention is that I don't see why we need to label games as not-art in the first place. Most critics who've tried to do that in the past with other media were eventually proven too narrow-minded to listen to anyway.
Though I will grant that the desire to defeat these critics helped pushed those media forward., so perhaps therein lies the value.
Friday, May 04, 2012
"This is a great post, and I think you raised a lot of really important points. Checkpoint, over at Penny Arcade, actually had a really interesting take, as well:
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/double-extra-fine
Skip to 2:53 for the relevant bit, but essentially, they make the arguement that by making their customers investors, they may have really put themselves in a corner. Regardless, I think you're right; this event's only be a blip on the radar."
Friday, February 17, 2012
"No worries. Whenever someone suggests I'm too old to still be playing, I tell it :-)
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Monday, February 13, 2012
"My wife's grandmother was placed into an the same assisted living complex as her sister and brother-in-law a few years ago. We had dinner with them one night, and they gave us a tour of their apartment, and my wife's great-uncle showed us his study--a room dedicated to an old Gateway computer and bookshelf of war history books. The computer was used almost exclusely for the kind of old, very specific strategy games that came out in the 90s with the advent of Civilization--you know, the ones that focused only on the battles fought by Robert E. Lee.
Every night, after dinner, he would retire to his study to play for a couple of hours before bed. Ironically, he was quite obviously a little embarrassed to be showing this to some other "adults." Right then, I was positive how I wanted to spend my retirement, haha!"
Monday, February 13, 2012
"I was kind of hoping this game would suck beyond salvage. But damnit, now I have to buy a 3DS ;-) Sounds awesome :-)"
Sunday, February 05, 2012
"As someone who's last two game purchases were for previous generation consoles, I don't really need or want a new console :-)"
Friday, January 27, 2012
"Exactly!"
Monday, January 23, 2012
