Screenshot of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty/Konami (top), Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (bottom)

The ultra popular Metal Gear videogame series is not only remarkable for its intense stealth action gameplay, but also because it creator, Hideo Kojima, has used the games to raise issues relevant to our society. In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty for the PlayStation 2, the storyline meditates on how the digital age could jeopardize our personal freedoms and the importance of fighting for our identity and history in a global community filled with those who wish to deprive us of it. In the climax of the game, set in New York City's financial district, Kojima redefines our understanding of the statue of Washington that stands on Wall Street. By associating the monument with the plight of his characters, he gives the statue a new historical context and turns it into an icon for overcoming the dangers of tomorrow. The messages in Sons Of Liberty, which predated the 9/11 terrorist attacks, are ironically and frighteningly prophetic in the aftermath of the attacks and with the current conflict against Iraq. Picasso and Kojima used their respective creative mediums to voice their views on war and contemporary issues in hopes of changing people's outlook on the subject. The difference is that one used a canvas and the other used a PlayStation.

In addition to self-expression and changing the way we look at the world, art sometimes is pure visual form and beauty. Wassily Kandinsky's abstract artworks were vastly different from Toulouse-Lautrec's documentations of the Moulin Rouge and Guernica's symbolism in that his paintings were the non-objective realizations of his intuitive sense of sight, sound, and spirituality. Being a musician gave Kandinsky a unique perspective on the visual arts, which he strove to express with paintings that had the same psychological effects of music. There was no deeper meaning to the organic shapes, bold strokes, and splashes of vital colors that comprised his compositions; one simply feels the art.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his team of developers are unique from their peer groups in that they are boldly named United Game Artists (UGA) and their title, Rez, is the first videogame to be conceptually and functionally influenced by modern art, and the works of Kandinsky in particular. Although the packaging and instructional manual say the story is about a hacker, like the most revered paintings of Kandinsky, the subject of Rez is non-representational and non-objective. Players engage in a new age version of the sci-fi arcade classic Space Harrier by flying through a world stripped of any sense of reality. Pure vector based lines form landscapes; non-descript polygonal geometric shapes make up much of the targets; and explosions often result in psychedelic flashes of color. The near indescribable on-screen composition is unlike anything ever seen in videogames and must be personally witnessed to be truly appreciated. Rez also fulfills Kandinsky's vision of blending sound and sight by integrating techno dance music with the visuals and gameplay for a true interactive multimedia experience. The difference between Kandinsky and UGA is that the former rendered forms from nature while the latter drew their imagery from computer technology.

The Voice of the Gamer

Screenshot of Rez/Sega (top), Screenshot of Animal Crossing/Nintendo (bottom)

What separates videogames from other mediums of expression is interactivity. Most traditional forms of art are viewed statically while games dynamically allow players to become a part of the expression. Popular pro-wrestling games like WWE Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth for the PlayStation 2 provide a Create-A-Wrestler option that allows players to invent a wrestler according to their own vision and place that creation into the thick of the action. In "God" games like Sim City series for the PC, players aren't restricted by a script or path to follow in order to "beat" the game. Instead, players are given tools and challenged to be urban designers in accordance with their own vision and individuality. In Animal Crossing for the GameCube, players are free to decorate their homes as they see fit and can even design their own patterns, clothes, and wallpaper from scratch.

In each of these games, the outcome, whether it's a spandex-clad masked grappler, metropolis-sized city, or a colorful T-shirt, says something about the individual who created it. How much it says about a person is limited by how much freedom is given by the developer, but the big question remains: does something created in a videogame qualify as art?

Before you answer that question, think about this for a moment. You could visit any local arts and crafts store and spend an afternoon creating a ceramic vase, but isn't the vase limited by the spinning wheel that allows you to mold the shape and the kiln that hardens the clay? You could also photograph a landscape and have the pictures developed inside of an hour at the drug store around the corner, but isn't the quality of the photographs dependent on the features of the camera and machine that develops and prints the film? Society has no problem labeling the vase or photograph 'art' in spite of the technology that enables a person to create it, but aren't the technological limitations imposed by videogames the same as those imposed by ceramics and photography? Ceramics and photography have long been accepted by the mainstream as fine arts while videogames are considered high-tech toys. So is it the medium or the creation that makes something art?