That’s the question a lot of people hold as the standard for games becoming a mature form of art, capable of engaging audiences in meaningful emotions.
The vast majority of fine art I’ve seen hasn’t made me shed a single tear. I’ve visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York — 3 of the world’s most respectable museums — and I didn’t cry nor did I see any visitor cry (well, maybe a baby or two). Very few movies in IMDB’s top 250 movies of all time are tear-jerkers.
If “making you cry” isn’t a good standard for evoking meaningful emotions in other forms of art, why should it be for games?
March 29th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Howdy!
I think it is more a case that your ability to shed tears should be questioned.
March 29th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Howdy!
Not meant with any malice.
I should’ve stuck this in
March 29th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
That’s possible, but I doubt it. Honestly, do you often shed tears in a museum, no matter how wonderful the art? I honestly don’t recall seeing anyone cry in a museum, so moved they were by what they saw — and that’s the best of the best art.
And which of, say, the top 20 movies of all time according to IMDB made you cry? I’m honestly curious — maybe I AM a heartless bastard ;). I haven’t seen many of those movies — the movie “Rear Window” might be a real tear-jerker for all I know.