The Canvas of Pixels

A Look Into the Artistic and Educational Values of Video Games

A video game is often times a group of pixels that kill other pixels. The pixels beep and flash to make a form of entertainment. But that’s only on the surface. Behind a video game, someone has put in a lot of time and effort to create a world just for an audience to explore (and often times destroy). Something is created and others are given a set of controls to operate inside of it, and through that exploration a story can be told. Many people see video games as merely a form of entertainment. I say that video games have more value than solely entertainment. If video games were seen in a different light, it could help people to see more value in them, both artistically and educationally.

For starters: What is art? It's hard to get an official, solid definition of art, so I'm not going to focus on THE definition of art. One possible definition of art, the definition that I myself prefer to use, is 'expressing oneself with materials, leaving something physical behind in the process'. Media is one of the most common methods people use to create art. Instead of telling story through dialogue, media uses graphics. Video games do this as well, and they do it in a very hands-on way. In fact, video games are unrivaled in their ability to tell a story without saying a word because they tell it through the element of discovery. For example: In the game Left 4 Dead, the environment and zombies’ clothing tell the story of how the infection in that area went down. While one could argue that films also do this, in a movie the audience’s view in restricted to the scripted motion of the camera.  In a video game, the audience is offered something that no film, and few other sources of media, can match: the ability to explore at their own pace. Video games have a massive level of interaction and immersion. Rather than being shown a zombie-infested environment, it becomes infinitely cooler if one explores a city block and happens across a building with the zombie-infested environment inside of it. This is the element of discovery and it is a form of storytelling unique to video games. This is one of the biggest reasons why I argue that video games can have a lot of artistic value.

I’ve heard that some video games are just pure violence, and because of this their artistic value is reduced. However, video games being violent don’t necessarily mean that they are not artistic. The violent video games often still tell a story. A story doesn’t have to be meaningful in order to be entertaining and worth telling. Now, many meaningful stories with strong morals are told every year, including in video games. (More than a few of the meaningful games I played were very violent, too.) There are layers of symbolism and metaphor that can be found in video games, and these can be used to tell a meaningful story. Some meaningful games which are well known are No More Heroes and BioShock. However, I’m going to talk about the meaningful game Lollipop Chainsaw. For those that don’t know, Lollipop Chainsaw is a game about a lollipop sucking, scantily clad cheerleader dicing up zombies with, you guessed it: a chainsaw. It’s a bloody, action packed, undead brawling video game. I chose it because it fits with the example of “it’s just pixels on the surface”. There is very little meaning at face value in Lollipop Chainsaw. To quote professional video game journalist Jim Sterling, “Lollipop Chainsaw is dumb as a bag of very stupid hammers." But if one delves deeper, they can also see that Lollipop Chainsaw is a social satire lampooning sexism. The main character (Juliet) is completely and utterly objectified, despite her having a dynamic personality. When her boyfriend gets bitten, she doesn't want to leave him. When her sensei dies in her arms, she feels obligated to fulfill his last request. When her father sacrifices himself for her, she breaks down crying at his loss. She is a thinking, feeling human being. But she’s still objectified. When she goes to pick an object up, she bends way over and camera zooms up her short skirt. When it’s in front of her, the camera goes from an upward angle to show off the cleavage of her big breasts. She is an object for people to get their rocks off to. This can be a social commentary overtly exposing sexism through satire. (How many various types of media have used an over sexualized female character as their selling point?) But there’s also a deeper, more subtle layer: Juliet’s boyfriend, Nick.

(In case you can't read the text, it says "I am not an 'it'".)

It’s hard not to repeat a lot of what Jim Sterling said in his article “Objectification and Lollipop Chainsaw” (which is a great read about the game’s symbolism). I mention that Nick gets bitten by a zombie. This happens at the start of the game, after Juliet hacks through a bunch of the undead and comes across Nick. Screaming her head off and attracting zombies, Juliet causes Nick to jump into the fray. The gallant white knight, Nick tackles a zombie to save Juliet, the damsel in distress, and suffers a bite in the process. Fully aware he is going to turn, Nick and Juliet decide to have final words (which are along the lines of “I’m sorry I ruined your birthday, sweetie”). As he’s ready to die, Nick gets decapitated by Juliet, who decides abruptly to do so without even taking into consideration Nick’s thoughts on the matter. Bringing Nick’s head back to life, she carries him around with her against his will for the rest of the game. Along the way, Juliet and her sisters torment Nick, who’s helpless since he’s a severed head. The girls (and their father, who's the authority figure of the group) are all entirely indifferent to Nick and even go as far as to blame him for his negative reactions to them doing something terrible to him. When the youngest sister applies makeup to him, Nick starts to voice how he doesn't deserve this treatment. The rest of the sisters and the dad tell him to stop complaining, and when Nick pleads with them to leave him behind or kill him, Juliet says no and carries him with her anyway. This is just one of the ways Nick is objectified and tormented throughout this game. Now, what audience might initially be drawn to a game like Lollipop Chainsaw which features a half-naked cheerleader who just turned 18? Men who most likely objectify women. Upon playing through the game, and seeing what Nick endures, they will most likely be outraged. How dare they treat him like that! He’s a human being! And then it clicks: This is exactly what many women face every day causing them to feel helpless as a result, and it’s symbolized by this role reversal. These storytelling merits in video games can drastically increase their artistic value, even if the video game is very violent like in the case of Lollipop Chainsaw.

With all the artistic value that can be found in them, one might overlook potential educational value in video games. Let me say video games can absolutely be educational. I can say for a fact that if I hadn’t played certain video games, my understanding of the world wouldn’t have the thought put into it that it does today. Video games teach a slew of new skills, especially puzzle solving. The physics based Portal video game series teaches about experimentation and how there are often times more than one way to approach a problem. The player is also given a special gun called a Portal Gun, which (big surprise) creates portals on certain types of surfaces. The player can pass through these portals in either direction, carrying any momentum they have with them. This simple tool is what all the puzzles in the game are built around. One such example of this is shooting a portal up across from a high ledge. There is no way to climb to this ledge. The player must jump off of a cliff and shoot a portal directly below oneself. Using the speed of the fall, the player launches themselves through the portals and up to the otherwise unreachable ledge. This unique, hands-on problem solving works perfectly with video games. It encourages players to come up with different plans and test them out. It gets the player thinking by interacting with the world around them.

The Pikmin video game series teaches strategizing through the use numbers and coordination in order to overcome otherwise impassable obstacles and slay otherwise invincible beasts. These beasts are the indigenous wildlife of the planet that the Pikmin series takes place on. They are very hostile and very dangerous, aside from one race of the indigenous wildlife: plantlike little men called Pikmin (hence the title name). The Pikmin come in different colors and have various abilities. Commanding the forces as a whole or in specific groups, the player uses them to achieve feats in a world they’d surely perish in without aid from the Pikmin. The Pikmin can be thrown, marched in lines, swarmed around objects/enemies, harvest plants, and haul objects around, making them fully useful tools. This full versatility of the Pikmin and their abilities is needed, as the Pikmin series is one of the most unforgiving video game series ever created. Rather than go into detail on how the game screws with you the player, I’ll just state one of the feats needing to be overcome in the game. An electric fence is blocking your path and it sits across a body of water, which the electricity-resistant yellow Pikmin can’t cross. Using blue Pikmin, the player must figure out a way to get their yellow Pikmin across the body of water and beat down the electric fence to pass on to the next area. Things are rarely this simple, though, as a slew of other complications get thrown in as the player advances, often times completely out of the blue. Suicide monsters could drop down on your Pikmin squad, boulders could come in and crush you if you get caught underneath them, a group of enemies could appear that send you Pikmin team into a tizzy, and so much more. This game really hones one’s ability to not only strategize, but think on their feet as well. It also implements high risk/high reward strategies, encouraging people to try daring feats after they have become more skilled in certain aspects.

These skills aren’t just for the sole purpose of progressing through a game; they have the ability to change the way one physically sees the world they live in. After all, it can affect the way one approaches problems, causing them to look from an entirely new angle. It can also help with holistic thinking, and abstract thinking. I can attest to the impact video games had on my abstract thinking: I have a much easier time visualizing a scenario where there are many variables in play, such as a massive strategic battle (much thanks to a certain game about commanding little plantlike men). Some might argue that the skills in video games can be learned elsewhere, but video games almost always give a trial & error aspect to them in the form of play. As said by professional video game journalism/discussion group Extra Credits, “Play is nature’s way of getting us to learn.” The player gets to practice the skills they learned throughout the world created for them, and they many times combine those skills with new ones they acquire later on. In doing so, the player’s problem solving is tested repeatedly throughout the game. I like to think of it a much more engaging test or exam. (It’s no wonder why many students would much rather play video games than do homework then, huh?) There’s so much that video games can give, too. Just as many different cultures produce films and literature, many different cultures also produce video games. Different cultures have different mindsets. There is an audience from all over the planet shares a common interest in video games. As a result, that audience is subjected to different ways of thinking when they play the video games other cultures create. What this means is that video games are a part of cultural diffusion, and can be a huge melting pot of creativity and ideas. The educational value of video games should never be underestimated.

If one looks deeper than just the pixels they can find an amazing world in video games. Video games can be highly artistic, highly engaging, and highly educational. Video games can utilize the element of discovery to not only tell a story without saying a word, but also tell the story in a way that is unique to their form of media entirely. Video games can offer a massive vein of creative ideas ready to be tapped as well as potential new ways to look at the world, both physically and abstractly. I say it’s time to start looking at video games in an artistic and educational light, and realizing their value in those respective areas.

Future Readings/Discussion

Josh Loomis's review of the game Journey does a good job delving into the specifics of artistic storytelling in video games.

Extra Credits is a great area of discussion about video games. I highly recommend everyone check them out, regardless of their stance on gaming.

Jim Sterling's review of The Walking Dead, another one of the biggest reasons why I am adamant that video games can be a form of art.

Extra Credits providing useful videos about how video games can be powerful tools in the classroom here here and here