Video games are everywhere, and something tellls me that if you are here right now you probably think so too. You are not alone, 40 percent of American adults play games on a computer or a console, according to the Washington Post. The gaming industry is big, and it isnt going anywhere. But what makes video games so amazing? What makes millions of people sit down for hours on end and play a game? In this article am going to derive what I like most about video games and what I think makes them amazing to not just me, but probably to a lot of other people too.
Art Style
This section is not, I repeat, IS NOT a flame between the video games are art and the video games are not debate. If you think video games are art, great. If not, great. Who cares? Anyways no matter what side of the argument you are on you simply cannot deny that video games can have a distinctive art style that differs from movies, paintings, and even other video games to an extent. Some of my favorite art styles in games are Cell Shaded, like Borderlands, the Prince of Persia reboot, and De Blob. Another would be Hyper Realistic, much like the Crytek engine games. Regardless of art style, frame rate, or animation sequences videogames have a distinct art style that usually make me feel very happy about myself. It makes me feel like I am playing in anther persons world and this is what it looks like in the creators eyes.
Music
Video game music is an interesting thing. You know of Elton John, Beetoven and Bach, but what about Koji Kondo, Kazuki Muraoka, or Kevin Riepl? These are the musicians for the highly popular Legend of Zelda, Metal Gear Solid, and even Gears of War.
Music adds a lot to a game and frankly I just love listening to it. I probably listen to music from video games as much as I do from The Beatles, and I'm a Beatles fan.
Story
Almost every good game or movie and especially book have one thing in common, they have a good story. For a game to be amazing for me it needs to not only have a good plot, but it has to have characters that feel alive. Naturally, one of my favorite games is Grand Theft Auto 4. The character development is absolutely amazing. I had to think before I shot Playboy X in the face. The story doesn't need to be new though. I still love Mario and Legend of Zelda games even though the story is "save the princess." Even better is the fabulous game Bioshock which may have some of the best story telling in a game that I've ever seen in a video game.
Conclusion
In conclusion, video games are amazing, and I hope you think so too. Please review my writing so that I may become a better writer. I want to work for the gaming press someday and any help to improve my writing would be very appreciated.
The endgame music from Starfox is my ringtone. I know, loser, right?. But I love it. I couldn't agree more about the artistic merit of game theme songs (as you say, regardless of whether games *are* art or not). The music from the Street Fighter 2 stages is with me to this day. Not to mention Tetris, Super Mario, Mario Kart, and a load of others. Mostly older games, sadly.
I wish I could agree with your positive attitude towards storytelling in games, but I just don't think it's quite where it should be in most games. I enjoyed GTA4, and Red Dead for that matter, the voice acting was decent in both but the scripting is at times poor and the plot isn't as involving as the vast majority of decent books or films. The quesiton is, I suppose, whether it *needs* to be or not. "It depends on the game", is probably the pragmatic but uninspiring answer.
I'm no expert (obviously), but as you asked, I'd suggest your piece could do with being expanded to really get into the detail of the subject matter. More sections, perhaps covering areas like cultural influence, emotional investment, etc. Also, perhaps more detail in the sections you have got.
One last very minor point - on my browser at least, the header 'music' is tight against the previous image, rather than on a line of its own.
Good stuff.
Ben