1. Support Artistically Excellent Games
We, as consumers, tell the developers what we want by paying for it. I don't want to spout the "vote with your wallets" line, but there is some truth to it. To clarify, this doesn't mean you have to cancel your Modern Warfare 3
pre-order and live a life devoid of any game made for more than $100. The AAA industry is pumping out some amazing games (especially this holiday season), and there is nothing wrong with supporting them. But also try to support the games that maybe won't be getting as much mainstream attention. Try to bring them into the spotlight, not only so the industry can make more, but so those outside it can see more than deadly guns and bloody deaths. Get Beyond Good and Evil HD on XBLA or the PSN. Pre-order the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus HD
pack coming out later this year (I can say confidently you will never experience a game quite so uniquely beautiful as these two). Check out some indie games; there are some great ones. The goal isn't the bankrupt the AAA industry, but to show both it and the culture around us that video games are more than guns and violence. 2. Don't Just Play Games, Study Them
It's fine to just enjoy a work of entertainment art, but it doesn't lend any understanding. If you go into a new game looking to study it, looking to understand it on a deeper level than simple enjoyment, you will be able to speak more intelligently about it. When talking to someone who doesn't understand the artistic viability of the medium, it's much better to be able to discuss the philosophical implications of Bioshock
or the analogous nature of Final Fantasy X
than to just talk about why Castle Crashers is fun to play (nothing against Castle Crashers, I freaking love that colorful bundle of endless fun). Understand not just how gameplay works, but also how it, story, music, aesthetics, and everything else combine into a single, cohesive experience. It will greatly enhance your understanding of the medium, your ability to discuss it, and your own personal experience with it. 3. Familiarize Yourself with the Mindset of the Non-and-Anti-Gamers
This is why I do my Counterpoint series (I know, there's another one on its way). While I believe we should focus more on the medium's art and theory than arguing for its validity, that argument is still very important. There are reasons that people don't understand video games, or refuse to acknowledge their artistic viability. Whether these reasons come down to ignorance, misunderstanding, or a genuinely complex line of thinking, you should understand what they are. Why? Two reasons. First of all, it allows you to talk intelligently with someone about what makes games artistic. After I first had my epiphany of, "Holy crap, these things are telling awesome stories," I stumbled over myself to explain to other people how that worked. Because I had experienced it. They had not even given it thought. And it's worth discussing this topic with people that don't agree or understand, for both the benefit of their understanding and your own. Secondly, we are just developing interactive art theory. And when something like this is developing, the objections are just as important as the concurrences, because they show us the faults in our thinking and reasoning. Roger Ebert's argument, for instance, that video games are goal-based rather than experience-driven and thus cannot be art was an interesting one that caused a lot of introspection and study as to what this medium was about artistically. It was also founded in his obvious lack of experience and interest in the medium, but more on that soon. Point is, video games are new. They are different. They do not fall neatly into our previous definitions of art. But they most certainly are art; the question is exactly how. What changes, both about art and games, to make the two mesh as well as they do and can? Part of the journey toward answering that question, both for us gamers and our cultures, is to understand the objections to the artistic viability of our medium.
4. Change the Focus of the Design Process
Any current or aspiring developers out there, this is for you: stop heralding gameplay as the end-all goal of your games. Yes, it's important. Yes, if your gameplay sucks, few people will be willing to stick with your game just for the story. But the proper response to these facts is not to focus primarily on gameplay, it's to focus on each element of the game as a unifying whole. Allow me to use theme parks for an analogy, since they provide one of the best examples of this concept. The goal of a theme park is the rides, obviously. Most theme parks just make a bunch of roller coasters and other attractions and give them names and basic aesthetics in keeping with the park's overall theme, and as long as the rides are great, people will love them. But you know why Disneyland stands out? Because they don't just focus on making good rides and slapping a theme onto them, they make a cohesive whole of the experience. Experiencing a Six Flags park consists of going on the rides; experiencing Disneyland consists of not only the rides, but the walking from ride to ride, the waiting in line for the rides, even throwing away your soda cup in their trash cans designed based on the theme of the area. In the same way, you can make a good game by prioritizing the gameplay, going from battle to battle, but you'll never make a truly great game until you can make an experience that melds gameplay, story, character, aesthetics, and all the rest together into a single interactive experience.
These are just a few small things, and I know I'm not the only one to say them, but that doesn't mean they don't need to be said. This is our chance, the time our culture is putting us in the spotlight next to artists and critics instead of murderers and addicts, and it's vital that we take it to show the world what video games really are, what they really mean, and what we gamers really care about.
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