Is being a good soldier an art?

[!Woodstock!]

When playing a video game you are trying to follow the rules of a system that was made by others. That is the exact opposite of art.

So, Shakespeare was an artist because he wrote plays. (I hope we can agree to this.)

Actors are not artists because they did not write the play. (Follow me here, don't add anymore than what I gave.)

Are actors artists because they chose the way in which they perform the play?

Here Shakespeare made the system by which the actors are bound to live by. A true Shakespearean troupe will never change the words, blocks, movements of a Shakespeare play. But yet they have freedom of expression.

----------------------------------

Valve is an artist because it wrote a game. (valve = the game devs.)

Players are not artists because they did not write the game.

Are players artists because they chose to play in a certain style/fashon. (Lets not consider skill here at all.)

All players are bound by the rules of the game. Clearly this is so. But not all players of TF2 are bound to play the exact same way. (suicide pyro vs. reflection pyro; healing medic vs. battle medic; taunting heavy vs. cole train heavy) This freedom in play style allows a player to express himself.

So I leave you with this: Is self-expression an art?

 

[xosniper]

So, Shakespeare was an artist because he wrote plays. (I hope we can agree to this.)

Actors are not artists because they did not write the play. (Follow me here, don't add anymore than what I gave.)

Are actors artists because they chose the way in which they perform the play?

Here Shakespeare made the system by which the actors are bound to live by. A true Shakespearean troupe will never change the words, blocks, movements of a Shakespeare play. But yet they have freedom of expression.

----------------------------------

Valve is an artist because it wrote a game. (valve = the game devs.)

Players are not artists because they did not write the game.

Are players artists because they chose to play in a certain style/fashon. (Lets not consider skill here at all.)

All players are bound by the rules of the game. Clearly this is so. But not all players of TF2 are bound to play the exact same way. (suicide pyro vs. reflection pyro; healing medic vs. battle medic; taunting heavy vs. cole train heavy) This freedom in play style allows a player to express himself.

So I leave you with this: Is self-expression an art?

you had me at hello

 

[DUCE]

you had me at hello

Win

 

[opscomm]

Based on the dictionary definition, skill is art, so therefore, playing a video game well is art.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/art

 

[Noise]

Playing Spy and Soldier Is an art !

*Cough* Being a SpY CrAb Is an art *Cough*

All the times I have played with you, not once you were a spy crab.

 

[Noise]

Based on the dictionary definition, skill is art, so therefore, playing a video game well is art.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/art

Art is created with imagination.

You think people would be in an art museum watching some guy play WoW Or something?

 

[Sabion]

Of course it is...Rockets take time to hit from a distance and not everyone can rocket jump to where they exactly want to be

 

[Drip]

The person who drew the server is a great artist indeed.

 

[EyelessHunter]

A person who is good at video games is expressing a skill. Therefore, a much better comparison would be that of an athlete instead of an artist.

I disagree with your Shakespeare comparison.

Shakespeare does not specifically spell out exactly how an actor/actress should play a role. There is much more variety in "creating" the subtleties of a character in acting than there is in playing a video game. Many incarnations of his plays are dramatically different from each other. Also, if an actor just mimicked a certain way of portraying a character I would suggest that he wouldn't be an artist.

The difference about video games is this,

When Valve created TF2 they created the soldier class. They gave him every single ability he uses in the game (rocket jumping, rocket launcher, shotgun shoveling). You are just using the exact actions Valve has permitted and planned for you to use.

Playing chess well is much more impressive skill than playing TF2. Is playing chess an art form? No, it is a skill. There is no logical way you would consider the act of playing chess closer to the definition of "art" than that of "skill."

In TF2 there is no creative process. Creative process is a necessary piece of what makes art.

Think of what the word "creation" really means.

Did the first person who figured out how to rocket jump create rocket jumping?

No, they just learned how to perform a task Valve had already mapped out for them.

Analogy:

Art is to playing TF2

as

Creating a painting is to drawing in a coloring book.

 

[!Woodstock!]

Analogy:

Art is to playing TF2

as

Creating a painting is to drawing in a coloring book.

I can use what ever color I want in my coloring book. I can personalize it.

You should rather say:

Creating a painting is to painting a paint by number.

 

[Goretex]

Soldier+blackmesa is amazing. I love anticipating exactly what the other players are doing. My favourite thingl in this game is anticipating with soldier rockets. I love shooting a rocket near a vent opening, or shooting into a blind spot, and turning away before the rocket makes contact, knowing that you will get a kill message.

 

[Kamon]

Soldier+blackmesa is amazing. I love anticipating exactly what the other players are doing. My favourite thingl in this game is anticipating with soldier rockets. I love shooting a rocket near a vent opening, or shooting into a blind spot, and turning away before the rocket makes contact, knowing that you will get a kill message.

We know, Goretex.

We know.

 

[holy poop godly]

its a way of life..

 

[Yossarian22]

If you watch any competitive games, and I mean high level, not some blackmesa, you know it is an art. It is just a pleasure to watch a good soldier, be he a long or short leash player type. It reminds me of some old school quake skill.

 

[EyelessHunter]

Playing TF2 takes about as much creativity as making a myspace page.....

 

[hydrazine]

Haha, man...

Gotta agree mostly with Eyeless here.

Calling your scout and sniper endeavors "an art" is either an immense compliment to playing TF2 or an immense insult to artistry.

You can't just call anything that takes skill "an art" even though there is a difference between "art" and "an art".

"An art" still requires artistry.

Also, I disagree that writing music is "art" but playing it is "an art". Both are both. Both take lots of skill and lots of expression and creativity.

But back to your slaughter of the term "an art".

The TF2 system is so small, limited, and self-contained that you should just call it "a skill". A broader category (all FPS or all video games in general) you might call "a science" (I extremely hesitate to call it this because real science is much harder than a video game, but it's the closest term) rather than "an art". When you play:

1) yes, you are using skill... however unimpressive that skill is, you're using skill.
2) You are using skill in the manner of *precision* and *accuracy*, not *variation* and *expression*. Thus I'd classify it as--not an art --- but a skillset or a science.

Keep in mind my use of "a science" is not referring to the actual scientific method but rather a differentiation of skill as used for quantitative/precision-based results rather than qualitative results.

The game's mechanics are too objective (as opposed to subjective) to call it "an art". You are NOT an "artist" by playing TF2. At all.

 

[Danzyyg]

Can anyone of you rocket jump as a pyro, flare in mid air, and come down with an axetinguish?

 

[QB]

I can create any kind of boundaries I want and then tell you that, within those boundaries, something is or isn't art.

Andy Warhol is not an artist in the estimation of hordes of past and present artists. I myself do not like anything he ever created, but I recognize a creative process in his work.

You simply want to create a rigid definition in an attempt to be "right." It's only human for us to categorize and compartmentalize things. Just recognize the action for what it is.

 

[M3flow]

Sometimes when I launch people then shotty them at the peak of their flight, my eyes well up a little

 

[DRaGZ]

Every class in TF2 is played like a craft, not an art. It's precise repetition, not true innovation, that drives the success of a player.