Playing through the rendition of Porto Kora on the latest downloadable for Wipeout Pure, echoed a thought which has kept reoccurring whenever I've been gaming lately. Those solar flares, timidly coloured sky and subtle crisp shades filling the track in... they're all layers complimenting each other to add up to a single coherent form.
The beauty of a title, whether it is technical or artistic, encourages us to pick up a keen eye for detail. These days, when we live in age where its becoming increasingly easy to take aesthetics for granted, we're led to believe the age of graphic whoring, of pouring over clear distinguishable leaps is over.
I'd say that's partly wrong. Appreciation of visual expression has become fragmented to the point that we all have our minute likes and dislikes. Whether it be the bloom effects in the Sands of Time, the motion blur of Otogi, the character modelling of Silent Hill, the abstract shading of Killer7 or the rich texturing of Resident Evil 4... it's become very easy to pick 'n' mix favourites with the graphical experimentations that certain developers explore or fixate on. As the current generation draws nearer to its final days, I find it's less of a concern of mine to appreciate the whole in a game, but instead focus on the small, tiny elements that it contains.
Considering that much of gaming still seeks to reflect reality in a systematic and mechanical manner, it's interesting that the beauty in real life can rise to the fore with the development of a 'keen eye' which gaming can often influence. I distinctly remember a number of moments in ICO, where I stood under a shrouded tree flooded with leafs casually sailing back and forward in the winds to reflect the sunlight pouring through. It was a moment which captivated me for ages and I could have stood there for hours. Afterwards, I began to realise that I'd been appreciating the game's fidelity in the same way one might admire a hazy, fried sun rise in the early hours of the morning. To cut it short, worlds that allow us to take pleasure 'existing' in are sometimes able to flesh out to the point that the little idiosyncrasies they possess, have the potential to mark their importance in ways we'd normally associate with the here and now.
It was on witnessing more and more of these small distinguishing marks that helped me to realise and appreciate the beauty flooding the normal everyday... the tiny pieces which take a person?s fancy in what they pick up on. Game worlds, and the vistas they showcase, offer us canvases and frames through which to examine their environments, and in turn develop our senses to appreciate the small things helping to give places individuality and character.
I think the more the technology continues to grow and artists have room to breathe, the more fragmentation and diversity of opinion will expand (in who likes what and why). Recent coverage by the media often concludes that gaming is an anti-social pursuit cynically targeting younger generations to appeal to their juvenile tendencies.
While I can't deny there's some truth in the latter half of that sentiment, one of the positive things to come out of gaming is that it blesses people with the time to evolve their appreciation and identify their keen eye, and all the little elements they associate with their preferences. As gaming ultimately starts to deliver hardware where realism reaches levels in which technology becomes less apparent as an entity, then the tricks of the trade are going to reach the point where they're stylised... evidence of artistic preference in what we expect to see.
Reality and its components are stripping down (albeit crudely now) into more refined virtual expressions, and out of that mix will hopefully come an amplification (or a leaning) on uses of specific practices by different developers. We already see proof of this today in the likes of Halo, where landing on the ring for the first time and peering out over the cliffs reveals a stretching ocean and a large planet basking in the glare of a scorching sun. These diminutive parts of the environment are diversified enough that everyone has bits and pieces they favour over others, and I believe that gaming will grow to be the mainstream art of the 21st century. We?ll personalise the artistry we see and form views based on the ways we do so. The ?keen eyes?, influenced by awareness of technology (and the way it?s being used to reflect design), are going to have the opposite effects of isolating gaming. If anything, the more eagle-eyed we get in appreciating artificial worlds, those same appreciations (moving in line with everyday reality as generations move on) will have been shaped to take in what exists around us right now.
This is why I don't resent future marches to technology or the advances we make towards 'realism'. Gaming may just encourage generations of gamers further down the line to take the same pleasures they have out of their worlds in entertainment, to the space we live and breathe in. Perhaps it's only when those two connections are properly made that we can begin to break them down and follow other avenues of exploration.
Growing day by day, the signs are already there.
The beauty of a title, whether it is technical or artistic, encourages us to pick up a keen eye for detail. These days, when we live in age where its becoming increasingly easy to take aesthetics for granted, we're led to believe the age of graphic whoring, of pouring over clear distinguishable leaps is over.
I'd say that's partly wrong. Appreciation of visual expression has become fragmented to the point that we all have our minute likes and dislikes. Whether it be the bloom effects in the Sands of Time, the motion blur of Otogi, the character modelling of Silent Hill, the abstract shading of Killer7 or the rich texturing of Resident Evil 4... it's become very easy to pick 'n' mix favourites with the graphical experimentations that certain developers explore or fixate on. As the current generation draws nearer to its final days, I find it's less of a concern of mine to appreciate the whole in a game, but instead focus on the small, tiny elements that it contains.
Considering that much of gaming still seeks to reflect reality in a systematic and mechanical manner, it's interesting that the beauty in real life can rise to the fore with the development of a 'keen eye' which gaming can often influence. I distinctly remember a number of moments in ICO, where I stood under a shrouded tree flooded with leafs casually sailing back and forward in the winds to reflect the sunlight pouring through. It was a moment which captivated me for ages and I could have stood there for hours. Afterwards, I began to realise that I'd been appreciating the game's fidelity in the same way one might admire a hazy, fried sun rise in the early hours of the morning. To cut it short, worlds that allow us to take pleasure 'existing' in are sometimes able to flesh out to the point that the little idiosyncrasies they possess, have the potential to mark their importance in ways we'd normally associate with the here and now.
It was on witnessing more and more of these small distinguishing marks that helped me to realise and appreciate the beauty flooding the normal everyday... the tiny pieces which take a person?s fancy in what they pick up on. Game worlds, and the vistas they showcase, offer us canvases and frames through which to examine their environments, and in turn develop our senses to appreciate the small things helping to give places individuality and character.
I think the more the technology continues to grow and artists have room to breathe, the more fragmentation and diversity of opinion will expand (in who likes what and why). Recent coverage by the media often concludes that gaming is an anti-social pursuit cynically targeting younger generations to appeal to their juvenile tendencies.
While I can't deny there's some truth in the latter half of that sentiment, one of the positive things to come out of gaming is that it blesses people with the time to evolve their appreciation and identify their keen eye, and all the little elements they associate with their preferences. As gaming ultimately starts to deliver hardware where realism reaches levels in which technology becomes less apparent as an entity, then the tricks of the trade are going to reach the point where they're stylised... evidence of artistic preference in what we expect to see.
Reality and its components are stripping down (albeit crudely now) into more refined virtual expressions, and out of that mix will hopefully come an amplification (or a leaning) on uses of specific practices by different developers. We already see proof of this today in the likes of Halo, where landing on the ring for the first time and peering out over the cliffs reveals a stretching ocean and a large planet basking in the glare of a scorching sun. These diminutive parts of the environment are diversified enough that everyone has bits and pieces they favour over others, and I believe that gaming will grow to be the mainstream art of the 21st century. We?ll personalise the artistry we see and form views based on the ways we do so. The ?keen eyes?, influenced by awareness of technology (and the way it?s being used to reflect design), are going to have the opposite effects of isolating gaming. If anything, the more eagle-eyed we get in appreciating artificial worlds, those same appreciations (moving in line with everyday reality as generations move on) will have been shaped to take in what exists around us right now.
This is why I don't resent future marches to technology or the advances we make towards 'realism'. Gaming may just encourage generations of gamers further down the line to take the same pleasures they have out of their worlds in entertainment, to the space we live and breathe in. Perhaps it's only when those two connections are properly made that we can begin to break them down and follow other avenues of exploration.
Growing day by day, the signs are already there.