One thing that struck me on my second reading of Understanding Comics was how much of the concepts presented could be generalized to other forms of visual art. In particular, I find there's an interesting parallel in the discussion of iconography and caricature in comics to the subject of art in video games.
McCloud asserts that depicting characters in a more simplified, cartoony style makes it easier for readers to identify with those characters, and project themselves into the role of that character. I think this is a concept that can be just as effectively applied to games, where it is even more important that players be able to view themselves within the context of the story.
In the early days of video game, the limitations of technology meant that the art pretty much had to be iconic of it was going to be recognizable at all. Clever artists were very deliberate about what they did and didn't describe with the pixels at their disposal, and relied heavily on the players' imaginations to fill in the blanks (another form of closure). These methods, perhaps ironically, led to a slew of colorful and memorable characters, whom players had no trouble identifying with. Characters such as Mario or Link, Guybrush Threepwood or the nameless protagonist of Doom, resonated with audiences in part because of their simple graphical style. And when these characters get modern, hi-definition makeovers, they tend to retain that style, while still making use of the technology of modern systems.
Unfortunately, a lot of people today, both players and developers, seem to think that the only way for a player to identify with a character is the "blank slate" method: that by making these characters as totally bland and generic as possible, this will leave players with a "hole" to fill of sorts. And this philosophy has led to a wealth of game characters rendered in the highest technical fidelity, with not a single memorable character trait, such as Master Chief or Commander Shepherd. Meanwhile, other modern characters such as Minecraft Steve, Darksiders' Death, or the Scythian, continue to demonstrate that the best way to get players to truly project themselves into the world of the game is with simple, iconic characters, with a life and personality all their own.
I guess this didn't really have anything to do with comics. But I suppose it shows how each new art form can feed off of and learn from its predecessors, and that nothing exists in a vacuum.
Video games are definitely one of the most immersive mediums out there, just inherently so since the player controls the characters and sometimes the environment. I find intense visual realism in most mediums kind of a bore, whether its comics, movies, or video games. It takes away from the reader's experience and closure, as you said. It's much more fun to use your own imagination to make those 8-bit faces expressive based on their dialogue or to imagine the full spectrum of color in a pixelated limited palette world—which again, applies just as much to comics.
ReplyDelete—M. Dean