I won't yet expound upon my views on the 'Video Games as Art' topic in full just yet.  It is 2:15 a.m. and I need some sleep.

What I will proselytize is a free, twenty minute gaming experience I can honestly and wholeheartedly recommend to anyone:

(ALERT!!  Turn UP the sound on your computer!! The music tells as much of the narrative as the graphics.)

Anyway:

http://armorgames.com/play/4850/small-worlds

Go there.  Play.  Yeah.

Wow.

My thoughts:

While the author has mentioned his desire to leave certain aspects of the experience open to interpretation, a brief glimpse across a few forums on the game highlight a common public construction of narrative consistent with my own.  I don't wish to divulge further for fear of hampering the experience and direction of anyone else.

What I am most impressed with in this game is the delivery;  the purposefully simple style and structure of the interactivity.  Combined with deliberate musical cues and accentuation, a story forms out of the most basic of game elements and ends with a (likely) unexpected meditation.  There is a holistic series of events here, and it may only come together after another play-through or two, picking up the visual and audio clues that were originally overlooked.

Of course, you might just whizz through it and apathetically wonder what I'm carrying on about.

You monster.    ;P

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