{"id":6709,"date":"2015-10-01T23:41:11","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T03:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arts.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=6709"},"modified":"2015-10-01T23:41:11","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T03:41:11","slug":"game-tube-thing-its-a-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2015\/10\/01\/game-tube-thing-its-a-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Game-Tube-Thing: It’s A Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, okay. I\u2019ll admit it. I\u2019ve been keeping a secret from you.<\/span><\/p>\n

I, Jeannie Marie, am a game tuber.<\/span><\/p>\n

Or…game tuber watcher. Game tuber-er? I don\u2019t know what we\u2019re called, but I watch GameTube. *gasp*<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks to Jimmy Kimmel,<\/a> there\u2019s a large percentage of people who know what game tube is. But for those of you that don\u2019t know, which I\u2019m still assuming is a large percentage of people, GameTube is the new Youtube website specifically devoted to gaming. Or rather, watching people game. And I mean game as in video games (like people actually play football anymore. Pshhhhhhhhh).<\/span><\/p>\n

And yes, you can laugh. The thing I found the funniest about Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s segment is that yeah…it\u2019s stupid. I will be the first one to admit that. Watching people play video games is kind of weird and silly. So I\u2019m not here to defend people who watch them, or even defend myself. I\u2019m here to think. To wonder.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is game-watching a new form of entertainment? And if so…can it be art?<\/span><\/p>\n

Well let\u2019s think about this. Art, of course, has to be defined before game-watching can be put in this category. And I have no clue how to define art. If you have a nice handy dandy definition, please share, because this is something I\u2019ve been struggling with since coming to this university. <\/span><\/p>\n

In one sense, I guess game-watching is art. I mean, it\u2019s entertainment, and it\u2019s on a platform where people can view it and share it. I know there are plenty of things on YouTube right now that I\u2019d consider art, mostly of the audio\/visual kind, for obvious reasons. There\u2019s adaptations of novels, music videos, original short series, and everything in between. I don\u2019t think you can call YouTube art, but it\u2019s pretty dang close, especially when art is closely aligned (but not defined as) entertainment. So yes, game-watching is entertainment. Part of the reason why people watch other people play video games is because of the people, not because of the game itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what is the game itself? Is that art too, or is that something completely separate from the personalities playing the games?<\/span><\/p>\n

This, I think, is a bit clearer. Yes, video games are art – commercial art, yes, but art nonetheless. It isn\u2019t fair to call the latest Pixar\/Miyazaki\/Dreamworks movie \u201cart\u201d and not call video game design art. There\u2019s some dang beautiful video games out there, both in visuals and specs. Ever heard of Limbo<\/a>? There\u2019s also a lot to be said about the storytelling aspect. I mean, open-world games like Destiny or Grand Theft Auto might not really float your boat, but if you play a game with a really good story, you\u2019re mesmerized. <\/span><\/p>\n

So there\u2019s the video game side. But then there\u2019s people…some comedians for all intents and purposes. Are they art? Certainly entertaining…but art?<\/span><\/p>\n

Hmmm. The world may never know.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, okay. I\u2019ll admit it. I\u2019ve been keeping a secret from you. I, Jeannie Marie, am a game tuber. Or…game tuber watcher. Game tuber-er? I don\u2019t know what we\u2019re called, but I watch GameTube. *gasp* Thanks to Jimmy Kimmel, there\u2019s a large percentage of people who know what game tube is. But for those of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,782,781],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6710,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6709\/revisions\/6710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}