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In the forty years since the first Magnavox Odyssey pixel winked on in 1972, the home video game industry has undergone a mind-blowing evolution. Fueled by unprecedented advances in technology, boundless imaginations, and an insatiable addiction to fantastic new worlds of play, the video game has gone supernova, rocketing two generations of fans into an ever-expanding universe where art, culture, reality, and emotion collide.
As a testament to the cultural impact of the game industry’s mega morph, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, with curator and author Chris Melissinos, conceived the forthcoming exhibition, The Art of Video Games, which will run from March 16 to September 30, 2012.* Welcome Books will release the companion book this March.
Melissinos presents video games as not just mere play, but richly textured emotional and social experiences that have crossed the boundary into culture and art.
Along with a team of game developers, designers, and journalists, Melissinos chose a pool of 240 games across five different eras to represent the diversity of the game world. Criteria included visual effects, creative use of technologies, and how world events and popular culture manifested in the games. The museum then invited the public to go online to help choose the games. More than 3.7 million votes (from 175 countries) later, the eighty winners featured in The Art of Video Games exhibition and book were selected.
From the Space Invaders of the seventies to sophisticated contemporary epics BioShock and Uncharted 2, Melissinos examines each of the winning games, providing a behind-the-scenes look at their development and innovation, and commentary on the relevance of each in the history of video games.
Over 100 composite images, created by Patrick O’Rourke, and drawn directly from the games themselves, illustrate the evolution of video games as an artistic medium, both technologically and creatively.
Additionally, The Art of Video Games includes fascinating interviews with influential artists and designers–from pioneers such as Nolan Bushnell to contemporary innovators including Warren Spector, Tim Schafer and Robin Hunicke.
The foreword was written by Elizabeth Broun, director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Mike Mika, noted game preservationist and prolific developer, contributed the introduction the introduction.
*After Washington D.C., the exhibition travels to several cities across the United States, including Boca Raton (Museum of Art), Seattle (EMP Museum), Yonkers, NY (Hudson River Museum) and Flint, MI (Flint Institute of Arts). For the latest confirmed dates and venues, please visit the The Art of Video Games exhibition page at http://americanart.si.edu/taovg
As a testament to the cultural impact of the game industry’s mega morph, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, with curator and author Chris Melissinos, conceived the forthcoming exhibition, The Art of Video Games, which will run from March 16 to September 30, 2012.* Welcome Books will release the companion book this March.
Melissinos presents video games as not just mere play, but richly textured emotional and social experiences that have crossed the boundary into culture and art.
Along with a team of game developers, designers, and journalists, Melissinos chose a pool of 240 games across five different eras to represent the diversity of the game world. Criteria included visual effects, creative use of technologies, and how world events and popular culture manifested in the games. The museum then invited the public to go online to help choose the games. More than 3.7 million votes (from 175 countries) later, the eighty winners featured in The Art of Video Games exhibition and book were selected.
From the Space Invaders of the seventies to sophisticated contemporary epics BioShock and Uncharted 2, Melissinos examines each of the winning games, providing a behind-the-scenes look at their development and innovation, and commentary on the relevance of each in the history of video games.
Over 100 composite images, created by Patrick O’Rourke, and drawn directly from the games themselves, illustrate the evolution of video games as an artistic medium, both technologically and creatively.
Additionally, The Art of Video Games includes fascinating interviews with influential artists and designers–from pioneers such as Nolan Bushnell to contemporary innovators including Warren Spector, Tim Schafer and Robin Hunicke.
The foreword was written by Elizabeth Broun, director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Mike Mika, noted game preservationist and prolific developer, contributed the introduction the introduction.
*After Washington D.C., the exhibition travels to several cities across the United States, including Boca Raton (Museum of Art), Seattle (EMP Museum), Yonkers, NY (Hudson River Museum) and Flint, MI (Flint Institute of Arts). For the latest confirmed dates and venues, please visit the The Art of Video Games exhibition page at http://americanart.si.edu/taovg
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Required reading for the video game lover
16 Mar 2012
Format:Hardcover
I was lucky enough to attend the opening of the Art of Video Games Exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and can say that this book is just as awesome as the exhibit. Every page was like walking down memory lane as I saw video games that I hadn't seen for years. A truly nostalgic and inspirational book. Well done!
24 of 34 people found the following review helpful
A rather vapid attempt to discuss video games as art
19 Mar 2012
Format:Hardcover
I attended two talks put on by the author of this book and visited the exhibit this book is intended to be a companion for at the Smithsonian. As an avid gamer I picked up this the book the first day of the exhibit. I returned it the next day.
Unfortunately, the title is a bit of a misnomer. While there was some minor attempt to explain how graphics have evolved over the past 30 years, the book never goes into much detail as to how this makes video games an art form. For the game Pit Fall, the book mentions that it was the first game that attempted to emulate human movement on the screen. And that's it. It struggles to explain why this was important, or provide much additional insight into the game itself. It totally missed it's opportunity to legitimize video game design as an art form.
It's much of the same for the rest of the book. You get 80 three paragraph entries on video games deemed relevant by an internet poll [Note: thank you for leaving comments letting me know this was how the games were selected]. Some I agree with - Diablo, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Both took audience expectations for games to a new level. But many of the entries made me question why the authors thought an Internet vote was the best way to determine which games should be apart of this book. Three of the entries are for Panzer Dragoon games. Let me repeat that - THREE ENTRIES ARE DEDICATED TO PANZER DRAGOON GAMES!!!!! While people may have loved these games, I don't feel they pushed video gaming as an art form. Another entry is dedicated to Sonic Adventures - thanks for choosing this game, Internet! Please remember that the Internet voted Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" as the greatest song of all time. Personally, I would have preferred the objectivity a more academic route would have provided. It would have been great if the authors had tried to determine which games actually succeeded in furthering the medium based on some quantifiable set of criteria.
I believe there is art to be found in video games - each game has its own music, story, graphics, cinematography, and design. These genres of art come together to form the core of all modern video games. It's art! Entries I would have included for their serious efforts at using all these artistic mediums to create a well-rounded game - games like Half Life and World of Warcraft - are nowhere to be found. The book doesn't even touch on the point that video games are a synthesis of several types of art.
For someone who believes that video games are often unduly maligned as an illegitimate artistic medium, the 80 games selected for this book did not help convince me video games were evolving as an art form. If I wasn't convinced, other skeptics won't be either (Way to blow what seemed like a legitimate opportunity to get non-gamers to take video games seriously, guys!).
Finally, the layout of the book looks awful. It has a horrible design with a drop shadow added to everything. No thought went into the pictures that accompany each game entry at all. You don't see what the game play looks like, box art and other things. Most of the entries show 8-bit characters blown up to the size of the page (it's not pretty).
The concept of video games as art is great - however, the book comes up short in convincing anyone to believe it.
Unfortunately, the title is a bit of a misnomer. While there was some minor attempt to explain how graphics have evolved over the past 30 years, the book never goes into much detail as to how this makes video games an art form. For the game Pit Fall, the book mentions that it was the first game that attempted to emulate human movement on the screen. And that's it. It struggles to explain why this was important, or provide much additional insight into the game itself. It totally missed it's opportunity to legitimize video game design as an art form.
It's much of the same for the rest of the book. You get 80 three paragraph entries on video games deemed relevant by an internet poll [Note: thank you for leaving comments letting me know this was how the games were selected]. Some I agree with - Diablo, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Both took audience expectations for games to a new level. But many of the entries made me question why the authors thought an Internet vote was the best way to determine which games should be apart of this book. Three of the entries are for Panzer Dragoon games. Let me repeat that - THREE ENTRIES ARE DEDICATED TO PANZER DRAGOON GAMES!!!!! While people may have loved these games, I don't feel they pushed video gaming as an art form. Another entry is dedicated to Sonic Adventures - thanks for choosing this game, Internet! Please remember that the Internet voted Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" as the greatest song of all time. Personally, I would have preferred the objectivity a more academic route would have provided. It would have been great if the authors had tried to determine which games actually succeeded in furthering the medium based on some quantifiable set of criteria.
I believe there is art to be found in video games - each game has its own music, story, graphics, cinematography, and design. These genres of art come together to form the core of all modern video games. It's art! Entries I would have included for their serious efforts at using all these artistic mediums to create a well-rounded game - games like Half Life and World of Warcraft - are nowhere to be found. The book doesn't even touch on the point that video games are a synthesis of several types of art.
For someone who believes that video games are often unduly maligned as an illegitimate artistic medium, the 80 games selected for this book did not help convince me video games were evolving as an art form. If I wasn't convinced, other skeptics won't be either (Way to blow what seemed like a legitimate opportunity to get non-gamers to take video games seriously, guys!).
Finally, the layout of the book looks awful. It has a horrible design with a drop shadow added to everything. No thought went into the pictures that accompany each game entry at all. You don't see what the game play looks like, box art and other things. Most of the entries show 8-bit characters blown up to the size of the page (it's not pretty).
The concept of video games as art is great - however, the book comes up short in convincing anyone to believe it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Misleading book title
13 May 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The title of this book is very misleading. Essentially, the content of the book are crude screenshots of each game accompanied by high level description of the game. The choices of the game can also be very confusing too.
I was expecting a coffee-table style book with beautiful images of games that be be considered as art.
There are better video game related books out there. I returned this one almost immediately I received it - the content is that poor.
I was expecting a coffee-table style book with beautiful images of games that be be considered as art.
There are better video game related books out there. I returned this one almost immediately I received it - the content is that poor.
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