[The Eyes of Evi]

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to my little rant about computer gaming's lacking recognition as the art form it is. If you're anything less than a geek of truly colossal proportions, I suggest not reading this thread, because you'll be instantly repelled by the sheer nerd-factor of it all.
If this is uncontestably a wrong forum for this post, please move it.

The reason I'm posting this on the PS: T forum is that Planescape is just that. It's a masterful work of interactive art; if any of you people who helped make it by some chance read this, my hat is entirely off to you. Walk the streets of Sigil and marvel at the weirdness of it all. Pause for a moment to simply look at the otherworldly creatures that stalk the cosmopolitan promenades of the City of Doors.
This is art, my friends. This is like a series of paintings with several absolutely marvellous novels of material behind it; imagine what they could have done given more time and less pressure - imagine what Black Isle and their tragically-fated successor, Troika Games could have accomplished with the cultural support and financial backing of a recognised art form. How many painters are not allowed to sit in their studios and produce pictures that reach only a small fraction of pretentious individuals, living(admittedly, not richly) off of tax money?
Culture for the masses, people. Culture for the masses. It used to be books, now it's computer- and console-based games.

Now, RPGs like Planescape only reach a relatively small percentage of the gamer market - but that's still a lot of people. If gaming could be made a little less profit-oriented, you'd see a lot more games like this; games that, as opposed to making cash-cows for safe return of investment. Subsidise the gaming industry, and you'll find masterpieces pop up far more frequently than they have before.

There are books titled things like "the Art of Film" and "1001 films to see before you die". Film is a recognised art form, and as a result you find a lot of very, very good stories told in films(yes, it's not perfect - there's a lot of trash in films as well, I know).

I would like to see something like this happen to gaming, as well. Playing Planescape: Torment again made me realize that computer games have it in them to be truly great pieces of art.

And thus, since I'm no good at writing endings, we come to a conclusion. Just my little bone of contention, as it were.

Yours Truly
The Eyes of Evi.