They say that money is the root of all evil. I’m not sure there is a root of evil beyond just being human, but failure to communicate probably trumps money when we’re talking about ‘causes of bad things'. When I was in school I certainly thought that failure to communicate was the root of all wars, and that if people would just sit down and talk there would be less fighting. I still think that to some degree, but my view of the world is nowhere near that simple now. People are obstinate, and misinformed, and convinced of their own superiority. Its hard to get people to talk when they don’t want to.

That was quite a bit of hippy-dippy peacenik talk, and probably reveals more of my mostly-liberal upbringing than I realize. Point still stands, I think. Talk more, fight less. 

When we started The Adventures of Captain Quail, we made a conscious decision not to make the comic about video games, because that particular subject material in webcomics is so overdone the oven has caught fire. I’m still happy with that decision, but that doesn’t mean Allison and I aren’t way into games and gaming culture. We talk about video games, and the people who make them, play them, and report on them almost constantly. My only regret in not having the comic be about games is that we don’t get to talk about games as often as I’d like. 

All of the that serves as intro to: Allison, myself, and our friends Nicholle and Marc had an excellent opportunity this past Friday to listen to a concert of video game music. It reminded me how silly the ‘video games as art’ conversation really is. Everything that goes into a game, be it music, or artwork, or the mechanics of the game itself, is a form of art, and the work as a whole is itself a work of art. Like any other medium, not every work is going to be fantastic, but every work deserves to be judged fairly. I get personal validation of this idea from the fact that my mother, who to my knowledge has never played a video game in her life, was loath to give back the CD of video game music we lent her - because she loved it so much. 

I’m saying nothing here that hasn’t been said before, but I’m going to shout this idea into the void every once in a while, until we stop having this discussion. I’ll also keep playing art.

Thanks,

Philip