Advertisements for video games are fairly common around New York City.  Walking around Manhattan during the past two months has invariably lead to sightings of Grand Theft Auto V advertisements involving a bikini-clad woman taking a “selfie” at the beach on the tops of taxis or as posters.  Similarly, recent Call of Duty: Ghosts advertisements can be seen on the sides of buses and buildings, with a mysterious looking man in a camouflaged hat looking towards a dark background.

As some advertisements aim to do, these ads draw attention to the name of their respective games.  Both “Grand Theft Auto V” and “Call of Duty: Ghosts” are painted in bold, white letters on the ads.  But there is no communication in these ads of the content of the games – they’re so popular that the name association is what advertisers believe will sell.

Granted, these are large franchise games with huge budgets (known as AAA titles), and the ads aren’t meant to be informative.  But in the streets, this is all that New Yorkers see of video games.  AAA titles like these dominate the streets, not only because of their popularity, but also because of their ability to advertise, whereas smaller titles get cast aside and only a small portion of the gaming world as a whole gets represented to the public.

Walking inside the Applied Design exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, however, feels like a breath of fresh air compared to the streets in terms of how video games as a medium of entertainment and as art are represented.

The mere fact that video games are being exhibited at all inside of a reputable art museum such as the MoMA is a step in the right direction of portraying games as something more than simply entertainment.  MoMA’s exhibit has aims of showing games that are examples of superb interaction design, and funny enough, mostly lacks AAA titles such as those from the Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto franchises.  There is a clear distinction between the sort of game that MoMA will exhibit and the sort of game that gets seen in advertisements across Manhattan.  Even so, there is a greater variety to the genres represented at the MoMA than there is on the streets of Manhattan.

AAA titles of the streets of Manhattan happen to be violence-heavy games, whereas games represented at the MoMA largely differ in their type: some are puzzle games (Tetris), others involve violence (Another World), and others are strategy based (SimCity 2000), etc.  Said AAA titles happen to be more graphics intensive than other more modern games at the MoMA exhibit.  Canabalt, for example, has black-and white visuals and utilizes a low-end pixel visual design for a simple looking and feeling game.  But there were no in-street advertisements of Canabalt when it was first released.

This points to a split in the gaming industry between AAA games and smaller indie games.  Not only that, but the first-glance perception of the gaming world as a whole is overshadowed with games that can afford to advertise heavily.  Such is the way of many of the varying entertainment industries, with Broadway musicals taking the spotlight away from smaller shows in New York City, and Hollywood films seemingly the only movies to be advertised on television or on billboards.

Games that profit the most get seen the most – consumers spent over $1 billion on Grand Theft Auto V within three days after its release, and retailers spent over $1 billion to secure copies of Call of Duty: Ghosts for launch day.  It cost $60 for a copy on launch day for both of them, as all AAA titles have taken to as the standard cost for a game.

Canabalt, however, costs $3 per copy.  “It was a five day game – it was made in a weekend,” says Canabalt’s creator, Adam Saltsman.  “Usually, I’m more interested in accessible gameplay, so making something that I enjoy and that I think is fun but that my mom can play or even my grandma might be able to pick up and at least interact with and understand what’s going on.”  Despite its low cost and low budget (“I did all the sound effects myself,” says Saltsman), Canabalt is the type of game to get displayed at the MoMA rather than a game in a franchise that has yearly releases (Call of Duty) or a franchise game that takes years to create (Grand Theft Auto).

What the Applied Design exhibit at the MoMA is effectively doing is portraying a different vision of what video games really are to the public.  While MoMA’s exhibit isn’t as widely viewed as advertisements in the street are, those who see the exhibit are sure to get their eye caught on the wall covered in SimCity screenshots and take a closer look, whereas one might simply pass by the advertisement and not give it a second glance.  That isn’t to say that the advertisement doesn’t work – it reminds the consumer that X game exists, and either conjures images of countless hours of fun or brings back memories of controversy, if only for a brief moment.

The representation of video games and of what video games are differs based on the profit aspirations of the game producer, be they high or none at all.  However, between games that are heavily advertised and games seen in a museum, there lays a middle ground, untouched, which is difficult to conceive of.  In the end, the only way to get a proper view of what video games truly are is to pick up a controller, pop in the disk, and play.

Works Cited

Antonello, Paula.  “Video Games: 14 in the Collection, for Starters.”  Inside/Out.  Museum of Modern Art, 29 Nov 2012.  Web.  20 Nov 2013. <http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-collection-for-starters/>.

Ivan, Tom.  “Retailers spend $1 billion on Call of Duty Ghosts for launch.”  ComputerAndVideoGames  06 Nov 2013, n. pag.  Web.  20 Nov. 2013. <http://www.computerandvideogames.com/436950/retailers-spend-1-billion-on-call-of-duty-ghosts-for-launch/>.

Stevens, Tim.  “Canabalt creator Adam Atomic talks indie gaming, documentary on the way (video).”  Engadget  2010, n. pag.  Web.  20 Nov. 2013. <http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/17/canabalt-creator-adam-atomic-talks-indie-gaming-documentary-on/>.