The Medium of Video Games

Ctrl as an Art Form

The other day I was thinking about what goes into a medium (pun unintended but welcomed). Arts like painting is a visual expression. Music is an audio expression. A movie is something like a narrative expression. But what does one engage with in a Video Game?

The consumption of Art, Music, and Movies involve a receptive and passive audience that gives room to the art form to ‘speak’ for itself. However, to fully engage with a Video Game, you (or someone) actually must be a participant. Games are an art form where the choice of the ‘audience’ is the medium. Player Control is the brush of the designer of the Video Game and all of the other components are meant to capture and express this choice. Video Games are about Control expression.

The implications is that Control and the manipulation of control is a kind of art form. In a sense, we know this but I had never consciously thought about how fundamental Control really was until recently. Control goes hand in hand with our sense of consciousness. The most fundamental Control is a control of Awareness — where you put your focus. And then you have the diverse ways in which control is stabilized or lost and the interplay between those states. Waking and Sleeping. Doing and Being.

And the most fascinating thing about Control is that is always implies Purpose. Something to think about.