In the week that saw the death of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, celebrated Russian author, I can't help wondering what legacy videogames will leave. Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich offers an insight into 24 hours in the life of a prisoner in a Soviet labour camp. It shook the Soviet Union to the core, exposing the brutality of communist Russia, as well as throwing cold water in the face of the West's complacency. We all like to think that games are art, but without anything truly great to say, I somehow doubt that they are.
The death of Solzhenitsyn marks the passing of a great mind who touched many people with the power of his words and even rocked governments. Okay, so your average bit of literature, even the good stuff, doesn't regularly shake the world, but it still leaves videogames a bit lacking. Is there even one game that we can hold up as an example of great thinking, social insight or a leap in philosophical debate?
Maybe my definition of art is too lofty and high-falutin. Maybe it's enough for games to reflect the zeitgeist, rather than offer intellectual meanderings on the human condition in the 21st century. In the grand scheme of things, this is still a young industry. I mean, heck, even comic books have got decades on us and they're only just getting past the hosiery and underpants section in the department store of creativity.
I suppose part of the problem lies in the fact that videogames are a new kind of art and as such it's difficult for us to appreciate them on their own terms. We're forever looking for the Citizen Kane or Midsummer Night's Dream of the gaming world and the fact is it's never going to come.
That's not to say gaming won't have its own creative masterpieces. Maybe one day, when we're all living in an Orwellian future, a game creator somewhere will shake the foundations of the uber network controlling our collective unconscious, starting us on the long road to freedom. However, in the meantime, we have to make sure that we don't make masterpieces out of the best of a bad lot. It's all too easy to lower our standards and herald a good game, as a revolution in the face of all gaming as we know it.
In some ways technology is hampering our progress. The Holy Grail of the industry isn't creativity or great storytelling, it's beautifully realised pores and rust stains on the walls of warehouses. We're privy to one slick, inane shooter after another. Just because a game's really, really, ridiculously good looking doesn't make it the best game ever – okay.
One look at a game advert and it's all about the cosmetics – hair blowing in the wind, big guns, explosions and fast cars (for cars also see, jet planes, big tanks, space ships or anything with a gun). Is it about character motivation or a stark look at the world we live in? Probably not, but look at the size of that gun and ooh, shiny.
We need a Dali or a William Blake to shake up the games world and throw in a Dostoyevsky, a Scorsese, an Orson Welles and a Woody Allen for good measure. Let's have Virginia Woolf, Martha Graham and Emily Bronte too, just to add to the mix. Sure we've got Kojima, Miyamoto and Molyneux, but they don't really stand up among the greats of art and literature.
Games can move us and speak to us, but it's an all too rare occurrence. I'm sure games will produce an artistic masterwork one day, but they haven't yet. Games aren't art, but that's not to say they won't be. And when they are, you can be sure we won't be stroking our chins, marvelling at the size of the guns, we'll be gasping at the intelligence and how they touch us at our very core.
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