Larian Studios Forums General Chat Chat (Anything) Why aren't there any highbrow video games?

is the author hinting that video games do not have prestige as those of other entertainment mediums?

i can agree on certain things such public perception as it is similar to the comics industry (though the comics industry as it is now does in some ways deserve it but that's another story) where it's almost all pop rather than driving a message or to transcend beyond pure entertainment. this i guess is mostly driven by major companies that monopolises the industry therefore dictating or rather influencing heavily the consumption.

i believe there are video games that transcend beyond pure entertainment but they aren't high-brow (which i read as arty & ultra-pretentious). the closest to high-brow in terms of labour of love & artistry being put in the work will always be mods made by fans of games as well as certain works by some new or unknown companies. i dare say Divine <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> is one of them though the last part has obvious flaws.

true as what Cleg says, if we take the word game generally, then chess is a high-brow game. word games are also high brow as the educational value seems apparent in them.

another 'high-brow' video games, as implied by the author of the article, reside in the genre of war/strategy games.

the closest i can find to match this 'high-brow' term, at least in a positive light (causing gamers to think beyond twitching reactions for example) will be in the RPG genre. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 is an example where some options given to the gamers reflect moral quandaries. Divine <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> also provides such situations in some of the quests. i haven't played Planescape: Torment yet but i feel it provides the same as well.

in the end, 'high-brow' as in arty farty does exist for video games but in the pure entertainment intent - games with so much eye candy. what ios the point of Merchant Ivory when it doesn't serve any purpose other than being ultra-pretentious? if that is the intent, then most first-person shooters are the video games' Merchant Ivory.

moral of the story: Merchant Ivory films are overrated. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />