Micro-thought #2: Video Essays

The cultural context in which we talk about games is too often overshadowed by its consumerist association.

Games are often first seen as a form of entertainment, works of art next (if that ever happens). It’s not the general public that perpetuates these myths, but the consumers as well. For example, how many times have you considered how a game should be longer based on its market price? Have you ever thought anything along the lines of “This felt like a $30 game but I played it for +60 hours?” I for sure have.

Video essays change this perspective by nature of being intellectual/creative exercises. Basically, being an “essay” makes us go big brain because essays are supposedly for smart people. But, does a video essay have to be good? Even if an essay is trash or it recycles another writer’s thoughts, it still impacts the way we talk about games. As a wee lil’ lad, I would have never thought that people would talk about games in a braingasmic style.

What I like about essays like this one by Jacob Geller is that he doesn’t tell us the value of an art (like most analyses or reviews). Instead, he makes us question how we even extract/share that value. In this case, how we write about games (His piece inspired me to write about games).

We can’t separate perspective from our purchases.

We need to see that games are works of art, embedded with a loving curiosity and technological skill that serves to relate us back to the world and ourselves. That way, we can spend 2hours on a $20 game and proudly say, “That was worth it.”