In 100 Years, What Games, Movies, and Television Will Be Seen as Art?: Our Community Responds
Episode 50 of our podcast Rated NA will be going live tomorrow afternoon, but we felt obligated to share these incredible responses to this weeks question: “What video game franchise, film, or television series will be viewed as art in 100 years and why?” On top of getting a ton of stellar responses from our friends and readers, we were also lucky enough to hear back from a number of the people that made the past 15 months at Nerd Appropriate so awesome. One of the best things about being a part of this site is getting to talk with such incredibly creative people about the things we love, and for that we’re immensely grateful. Take a look at what some of our friends in the industry had to say about the future.
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Veronica Belmont (Tekzilla, CNET, Sword and Laser): I was actually thinking about this recently, and I’d have to say the Mass Effect series. It’s one of the most epic science fiction stories of our time, and the marriage of story, graphics and animation, and amazing game play will secure its place in the annals of time. (Veronica just made a ton of new friends with that response on this site.. haha)
Brea Grant (Star of Heroes, Writer: We Will Bury You) : Local by Brian Wood or 30 Days of Night by Steve Niles.
Audrey Le Prince and Emeric Thoa (Former Ubisoft producers (Assassin’s Creed), now running The Game Bakers *SQUIDS*): My partner Audrey says GTA or Red Dead Redemption because it’s true it’s well written, but I think art is a very selfish creation that touches masses because it is personal. A product like Minecraft, made by one guy, with a unique look and feel, that is also a tool for others to create something, has a good chance to be classified as art in a century… if it’s not forgotten already!
Team Unicorn (Clare Grant): Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” film trilogy. Its beauty, elegance and style are perfect compliments to one of the most intricate, beloved and beautifully written book series of all time. (Psst: Clare will be voicing an all new character this week on Star Wars: The Clone Wars!)
Fernando Melo (Former senior producer on Dragon Age, and now part of Bioware’s web development): As for the question… in my mind, if I had to bank on one it would be Star Wars – it’s already lasted 30 some odd years and across many many mediums and age generations… no reason to think it won’t be around for a long long time in this galaxy.
Sean Hackett (Director of Homecoming): Everything at Pixar … Outside of that… Maybe Emma Watson google searches.
Harmonix Allison Thresher
Allison Thresher (Former Community Manager at Harmonix, now part of the Dance Central team): My non serious answer: The Portal series bc why else did great grandma have something from the series tattooed on her body?! (Allison has an incredible Portal tattoo that may involve cake) My serious but short answer: I don’t know how we’ll define art in 100 years but I think just about anything, from Super Meat Boy the The Artist will be valued, debated, and studied as important indicators of popular culture in the 2010s.
Katrina Hill (MTV Geek writer): Pong. Simple elegance.
Community Replies
@MDGaar: I hate to say it, but none. The way technology moves, there will always be better more beautiful games. Old games will……be just “old games” or “classics”… But I dont think they will show up in an art appreciation class. let me do say however, games ARE art.
@pL4tiNumfi5t: BTTF Trilogy – If their events were relevant in 1885, 1955, 1985 & 2015, it’s only natural to assume they will be in 2112.
@KitlerC: I could see DDR being seen as performance art at some point…
@Michael_Coles: Mass Effect and Uncharted immediately spring to mind. Any game where you legitimately can worry about what happens ‘next’.
@Midtown583: The back to the future series for the moral lessons it taught, and all the continuing effects it has on pop culture.
@axl99: Many of the big AAA + indy titles will still be seen as art. Game-based art communities talk about them all the time. Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect, Enslaved, Gears of War, all of them aren’t just pretty pieces of 2d/3d artwork – 100 yrs later we’ll have an even better understanding of game engines work and the technology that makes it come together.
@FluidFyre : I thought about it a lot, but I honestly think it’s Mass Effect, mainly because of this essay.
@Garthanie: Mass Effect. Because not only is it a beautiful game, but also because it’s set in a very rich and detailed universe.
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Gotta say, I almost agree with @MDGaar — it’s really hard to say what will matter to who. And we don’t really have anything we can look back 100 years and compare it to – can we? A few movies, maybe?
How many ‘normal’ people can name some of the first movies made?
That aside, there is the Video Game art display at the Smithsonian (http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/) starting March 16, 2012 — so perhaps it is becoming more publicly accepted as art form.
But who deems what to be remembered as noteworthy art?
I feel so ashamed I didn’t even think of the original Star Wars (-10 nerd cred)! I really agree with that – I think it’ll still be having an impact in the future. That people will still love it just as much, because it has already proven to have the staying power. So long as Lucas doesn’t screw with it too much anymore?
Awesome response Fluidfyre. I really enjoyed that article you linked to us as well. I too agree with Fernando that Star Wars is already something bigger than a science fiction franchise… Star Wars is already an entire universe filled with the art and creative juices of thousands of fans from all over the world.
One thing to consider might be those games, movies, comics, and TV shows that all inspire their fans to create on their own. For example, all of the fan-fiction stories and pictures created by fans of Star Wars, Mass Effect, Lord of the Rings, etc. I know many of you guys are musicians, wouldn’t you say that those pieces of music that you considered ‘great’ in the past inspired yo uto some of your own work?
Totally! There have been so many films and games that have inspired me creatively. And they just keep getting better and better!