Video Games & Machinima : Art in Search of Life

Art reflects life. Music, paintings, theater, books etc. are products of the artistic creators experience and talent for communicating it through the chosen medium. People don't live in vacuums. They are organic and in sum are a composite of every person and experience that they have encountered. Some classical periods like Greece or Rome's were more fertile for artists than others. For example, art produced in Communist Russia paled in comparison. Art is about life. But is also about the creators soul. Like a songbird with an inspiring trill, artists have to feel good about producing their work.

Art has taken a new direction in video games. With the abilities afforded by technology, worlds can be recreated in graphic form. Manipulation of characters and scenes within " off the shelf " video games by able machinima ( a combination of machine and cinema ) artists are producing crude motion picture experiences. It seems to be following the motion picture experience in reverse. From silent films to big screen talkies and animated films back to silent videos. But now the machinima directors are adding dialogue to the video characters.

One cannot have only technical ability in producing art. In pursuit of better videos with dialogue, the machinima artists will have to have rich layered real life experiences to draw from. They should be the hero of their own lives and then they can write more persuasively about their video characters. Also an acquaintance with philosophers and great authors will help.

Video games may have their place. But there is no substitute for the challenges of the real world.