# Defining Games as Art

Pierre Depaz

► To cite this version:

Pierre Depaz. Defining Games as Art. DiGRA 2014, DiGRA, Aug 2014, Salt Lake City (Utah), United States. hal-04272815

HAL Id: hal-04272815

https://hal.science/hal-04272815v1

Submitted on 6 Nov 2023

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>
Defining Games as Art:

A Sociological Study of Reactions to

*Bientôt L'Eté*

Pierre Depaz

NYU Game Center
2, MetroTech Center, Brooklyn
NY, 11201
(347)-458-9804
pierre.depaz@nyu.edu

ABSTRACT

Upon its release, *Bientôt l'été* was met with mixed receptions, from outrage to high praise. Tale of Tale's interactive experience threads several, parallel paths around the definition of what is a "game", asking questions such as how and by whom can such an artefact be defined. This paper will examine the critical reception and the related discourses that took place around *Bientôt l'été's* commercial release, instead of relying solely on a formal analysis. By drawing from Nathalie Heinich's sociological definition of the artist<fnref n="1" /> as well as Jason Mittell's analytical work on TV genres<fnref n="2" />, I will analyse the content of the debate

<footnote n="1">¹ HEINICH, N., « *La Sociologie de l'Art* », La Découverte, 2001.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² MITTELL, J., « *A Cultural Approach To Television Genres* », Cinema Journal, No. 3, 2001</footnote>
over whether *Bientôt l'été* is a video game or not, which was the starting point of
the discussion. The afore-mentioned debate had three main groups of
contributors, all of them having a particular role to play and a particular voice to
be heard in this attempt to define what exactly is *Bientôt l'été*. Through this
double theoretical lens and the cross-analysis of three different rethorics, it will
become clear that, while this piece of software isn't a work of art *per se*, it doesn't
belong either to the category of digital games as they are traditionally
understood by the mainstream audience.

Keywords

Art sociology, Bientôt l'été, player definition, public reaction

INTRODUCTION

As the videogames industry's profits sky-rocket beyond anyone's wildest
hopes, the collateral consequence is the leveraging of most games being
produced, in their formal aspects as in their publication. Yet, the low barriers to
entry in order to be part of that industry, that is, to develop and distribute a
video game also allow for more original experiments. This tension between
mainstream digital games (with a wide player base and commercial success,
relying on large development teams and proven game mechanics) has
contributed to a debate attempting to define what is a digital game. Does it have
to respond to certain codes? Does it have to be distributed to a certain audience,
through certain channels? *Bientôt l'été* (Tale of Tales, 2012), seems to lie at the
heart of these questions. Released on Steam in December 2012 by a studio
known for its artistic experiments, it sparked a discussion typical of those
happening whenever a non-traditional digital game is released among the midst
of mainstream games.
This paper will aim at examining the rhetorics of the different parties involved in that discussion, examining the different opinions regarding the status of *Bientôt l'été*. The theoretical frameworks used here will mainly be Nathalie Heinich's sociological definition of the artist —as Tale of Tales are formally trained, self-reference and are often considered as artists— applied to digital games and their developers, along with Jason Mittell's cultural approach to Television Genres. Mittell's work will be helpful by his take on how to define a cultural product beyond a formal, textual analysis and classification.

Finally, I define three categories of actors in the debate aiming to define, or at least classify a digital game. The first one is composed of the broader audience of players, individuals with no or little ties to or interest in the videogame industry, mainly voicing their opinion through community-dedicated channels (forums, community hubs on Steam). The second one consists of critics, developers and academics. These individuals have a higher knowledge of the intricacies of defining a digital game, as well as more influence over the community of players, as the concerns they voice appear more relevant due to their close ties with the videogame industry and their dedication to the medium. The last category only consists of the two developers of Tale of Tales, and they are here being given a special status due to their role of creators.

This paper will thus shed a light on the different voices at stake in the definition of a digital game, and will make clear to what extent is *Bientôt l'été* considered a game, and to what extent does it stretch the traditional definition of a digital game.

# AN AMBIGUOUS FORMAL AND PROCEDURAL REPRESENTATION

*Bientôt l'été*, as a formal experience, walks a thin line between a product featuring original experiments, drawing from more artistic intentions and aspects of a digital game, as they are traditionally understood. We will first
examine the first category, which is the one that defines Tale of Tales' previous
releases, and then switch our focus to the second category to see why *Bientôt l'été*
creates a kind of tension regarding the definition of a game.

The most obvious cue that a player experiences is the disclaimer featured
at the start of the game:

"This is not a game to be won. Play for experience. Walk and look. There is no goal. There is no story. Simply allow the atmosphere to embrace you. Do not think. Do not want. Just be."

This disclaimer voluntarily refocuses the expectations of the player, and
therefore hoping to let him experience the product as it is designed, and not as a
part of socio-economical construct implying the necessary presence of goals or
story as a standard for a digital game experience. In the virtual environment,
the player then wanders on a beach, as each wave bring about a poetic sentence
that displays on the screen. There is indeed no goal. The only possible
interaction is to enter a building, where the player is then connected through the
internet to another user. Together they can play a game of chess, stripped out of
its original rules, drink a glass of wine, or smoke a cigarette. There is indeed no
story. Another option is too chose a background music, from a set of popular
French songs in the 1960s, which will then echo through a distorted filter. This
brings about a familiar element from the real world into a game, disregarding
popular concepts such as the magic circle or the fourth wall that are foundations
for most people's understanding of a digital game.

On the other hand, *Bientôt l'été* presents some interesting aspects of a
traditional digital game. It has been released both on the developer's website and
on Steam, the go-to distributor for dematerialized games. It features a somewhat
classical control scheme, involving the mouse and the keyboard, and even a
dedicated screen to help the player figure out those controls. It is ergodic
(Aarseth, 1997), in the sense that it responds in interesting ways to player input,
especially when playing with another user over the Internet. In fact, one might
argue that the game is even more interactive than other, because the lack of
clarity about what needs to be achieved in the game can be an incentive for the
player to explore that system even further.

ART AS THE INTERACTION OF AGENTS

If we try to analyse the status of *Bientôt l'été* by using Nathalie Heinich's framework of the artist's definition<fnref n="3" /> (work conditions, legal status, institutional integration, hierarchy, category of belonging, wealth, lifestyle, fame, criteria of excellence, representation by their selves, and by others, of their position), we can distinguish the origin of the ambiguity. While Tale of Tales consider themselves as artists<fnref n="4" /> and only use videogames as a medium, the player base assumes that the opposite: that videogames should be their end, and therefore fit into a particular mould. The idea of videogames as a means to a different end, to a more experiential and artistic end, was however well-understood by critics and journalists. The biggest tension that appears, then, is the one between the players' understanding of art and Tale of Tales'. One the one hand, it is seen as something pretentious and aloof, while the developers are trying to use Steam, and some familiar tropes of digital games to bring their art, and that experience, closer to the player. Referring to Jason Mittell's analysis of cultural products<fnref n="5" />, it is obvious that the discontinuity between the audience and the producers is what creates the blur around the definition of *Bientôt l'été*, and such a blur is either embraced by the developers, critics and some players, trying to enlarge the definition of digital games, or rejected by others, as it asks them to take an extra step to grasp that *this is not a game* (like any other).

<footnote n="3">³ HEINICH, N., « *La Sociologie de l'Art* », La Découverte, 2001.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ See full interview in the Appendix.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ MITTELL, J., « *A Cultural Approach To Television Genres* », Cinema Journal, No. 3, 2001</footnote>
MULTIPLE SOURCES OF DISCOURSE

Because of this ambiguity between two possible frameworks (an
interactive, digital experience and a digital game), *Bientôt l'été* was received
among players with confusion, and sometimes resentment. Based on the Steam
Forums posts related to the game, the majority of users seem to wonder whether
this is a game or not, and dismiss the game for being too "fartsy", that is being
too pretentiously artistic. On the other hand, a vocal minority tries to persuade
them to "give the game a chance", and to approach it as an experience different
from what they know.

As for critics and developers, it was well-understood that this was not a
traditional digital game, and it was welcomed as such. Some critics, for instance,
didn't feel like that could properly evaluate the game experience or review it on
an objective scale<fnref n="6" />. As a technical product, writes Chris Schilling for the
Telegraph, it is not particularly worth mentioning, but because of the intent
behind it, he says, it is a game worth celebrating<fnref n="7" />. This seems to be a common
ground, that the game industry needs more experiments like these, even if the
end product isn't as polished as traditional games –numerous bugs were
mentioned in critics' and users' reviews alike.

This second category seems more in line with the developers' position.
Tale of Tales, throughout the development phase, regularly posted notes and
thoughts about where the project was going as well as what would be the best
way to make it enjoyable for the users. We can see here an awareness of the fact

<footnote n="6">⁶SCHILLING, C., “Bientôt l’été review”, The Telegraph, http://www.edge-online.com/review/bientot-lete-review/</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷ ANONYMOUS, “*Bientôt l’été review*”, Edge Magazine, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/video-game-reviews/9877814/Bientot-lete-review.html</footnote>
that players might not be completely open and tolerant regarding this new kind
of work. Even though they personally consider this as a work of art, they want
to make the said work as accessible as possible to the broadest audience.

GAMES AS ARTISTIC PROCESS

Our first perspective on defining games as art through the lens of Mittell and Heinich seems to lead us towards the conclusion that the public isn't ready to accept games presented as works of art. As a major component of games consumption and a defining force in how games are presented in the public space, the public's reluctance to accept them as art would tend to appear as a significant obstacle to critics and developers.

However, the work of other sociologists allow us to shed a new light on
this process. Assigning artistic quality to a product is a long-term unfolding of
interactions between different groups of actors, and the public might not be the
most important component of such a process. Howard Becker<sup>8</sup>, in his
conceptualization of the art world, lays out the idea that contemporary art
creates a rupture about the very nature of the work of art. The switch is operated
from being a work of art to being the work of an artist. As a technological,
interactive media, games are eminently part of this contemporary art shift. The
work of the artist is also a work that is documented, justified and communicated
to an audience, and we see clearly the correlation with the multiplication of
development blogs (<em>devblogs</em>), where designers write down and explain their
design and formal decisions. This was particularly the case during and after the
development of Bientôt l'été, with the developers actively explaining and
justifying their position on the game<sup>9</sup>. As such, designers and critics are putting

<footnote n="8">⁸ BECKER, H., *Art Worlds*, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.</footnote>

<footnote n="9">⁹ http://tale-of-tales.com/bientotlete/blog/</footnote>
together a body of text, on which the product relies in order to be set as an
artistic work, which, Becker argues, will then be accepted by the public.

More than a simple struggle between different groups having different
opinions on the same definition, then, we can see the debate surrounding *Bientôt
l'été* as the on-going process of inserting a new kind of discourse within the
public space, a discourse emanating from different actors and justifying the
belonging of this game in an artistic sphere. Interestingly, Becker also talks
about the cycle of contemporary art, as it circles from transgression to
reintegration into the institutionalized art world and veers back towards
transgression. Player reactions to the release of the Tale of Tales game is a
strong incentive to believe that it is the manifestation of a transgression phase,
with *Bientôt l'été* at its forefront, which could ultimately lead to the reintegration
of "art games" as a common genre within the commercial sphere.

## CONCLUSION

The reception of *Bientôt l'été* was, because of both its ambiguous formal
and procedural representations, met with mixed reviews. However, after
analysing the origin of these reviews, we notice that the discourses behind the
game consisted in a part of the public of players denigrating the game as a work
of art, while another group of individuals, namely critics and developers, argued
in favour of it being an artistic product. Through the lens of art sociology, it has
become clearer what such a phenomenon represents. On the one hand, the public
is still a major component in the acceptance of games as a product of art,
particularly in this highly-commercialized medium. However, the production of
text and intellectual justification behind *Bientôt l'été* being as much as a work of
art as it is a game is, according to sociologists such as Howard Becker, a first
step towards public acceptance and artistic legitimacy of digital games.
# APPENDIX – Tale of Tales Interview

This interview was conducted over e-mail with the two developers at Tale of Tales on the 25th of February 2014.

**AUTHOR:** On your website, you describe Bientôt l'été as "an interactive computer program that requires 3D hardware acceleration" while, in the software's disclaimer, you refer to it as "video game". Is there any reason why you would make the distinction ?

**TALE OF TALES:** We also describe it as a way to "Smoke, drink, play music, play Chess™, speak French (to others!)"; as The Intergalactic Holocom Transmitter II which is "a state of the art virtual reality simulation and communication unit specifically designed for deep space conditions."; and "an interactive program that uses realtime 3D videogame technology."

The web page for Bientôt l'été is part of the fiction. It creates a frame within which the story takes place. It's also a joke.

**What kind of reaction did you expect from players when you released Bientôt l'été on Steam (as a platform for the most traditional digital games of all) ? Did you want to push its status as a game and not an art work to the broader audience ?**

We only release our games on Steam to reach a bigger audience of people who actually play our games. Which is always preferable to people who look at our
work from afar and nod approvingly. Bientôt l'été is very similar to other videogames when compared to, say, film or sculpture or books or utility software. So why not distribute it in a similar way?

**Do you know what was Michaël motivation behind his post on the Steam forums telling players to "give it a chance" ? Was it a need to justify the relevance of Bientôt l'été among other, more traditional digital games ?**

I felt that Bientôt l'été was being dismissed too quickly by players expecting this or the other. Since I don't think Bientôt l'été is an especially difficult game, I wanted to encourage people to try and meet it on its own terms. Because I have seen the joy it can bring to people who play it. I wish for others to experience that joy as well.

**Are you glad that some "non-orthodox" games generate conversations (e.g. Proteus, Dear Esther, Journey to a certain extent, etc.), or would you rather have them being accepted as games without questioning ?**

These conversations make clear that videogames have been stuck in a mold for decades. I think it is good to recognize this. There is finally a group of creators willing to take videogames seriously as a medium for the generation of beauty. Any conflict this causes simply illustrates that it was high time.

**During the making of Bientôt l'été, how much of it did you want to be a game, how much of it was going to be an "interactive experience" (that is, deliberately ignoring accepted commercial tropes of the medium) ?**
Bientôt l'été was entirely created as a work of art. But we did do a lot of playtesting to make the playing as smooth and pleasant as possible. This brought us to remove some conventions (like an inventory) because they distracted from the pleasure that could be found in the game. I think of Bientôt l'été as the first piece where we were entirely liberated from game conventions and free to use this medium as is, as we find it. So much so that we could include a chess board in the game. And a score in Luxuria Superbia.

**Finally, are you even interested in defining what a digital game is ?**

We're more interested in exploring what they could be. Why nail things down? Our job as artists is to expand, to always look at things in a different way, to see alternatives for everything. We will challenge ANY definition through our work. We can't help it. It's a reflex.