The debate on whether video games could be art has been held at a low simmer for quite some time. Roger Ebert threw down the gauntlet on which many picked up, including recently Clive Barker, who stirred the pot again. In what I deem is a “final thought” on this issue, Ragnar Tournquist (of Dreamfall fame) invited Wayne Santos to deliver a very well written essay on the state of the question “can video games be art?...
Its definitely nice to see Ragnar’s characters getting a little love. Zoe and April come in 4th on a list of top 25 Video Game Heroes. I don’t think it is without merit either. The Longest Journey and Dreamfall have some of the deepest and satisfying protagonists in gaming. I still need to try Indigo Prophecy which I hear is just as deep. Ragnar’s new project, The Secret World was announced a few months ago but no additional details, as of yet....
Ragnar let spill the very happy news that Dreamfall’s story will continue. He’s already fended off nay-sayers of the episodic format with a follow up Q&A. First of all I’m ecstatic that Funcom decided to continue the story. TLJ and Dreamfall represent the equivalent of a very good independent film that was meant to tell a very long story, and you keep hoping they continue to fund it (see Firefly). Even more so than TLJ, Dreamfall ended abruptly, obviously wrapping up a small part of a much larger story....
Back in the summer of my sophomore year in college (2000 or 2001) while Jeff and I were working at Vialta, one lunch time we stumbled upon a review of a new game from Finland. It hadn’t yet been released in the US (I don’t think they had yet secured a US publisher). It was a rave review. Harking back to the classic puzzle & character driven adventure game that had made the Sierra classics so popular so many years ago....