Gargaune
Magister
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2020
- Messages
- 3,136
I don't think it's necessarily a case of one approach always being "better" than the other, videogames can derive artistic value from either and often elements of both, but, in as much as a medium is foremost defined by its unique characteristics, I personally feel that emergent gameplay is a more sophisticated incarnation of gameplay agency and a stronger representation of the craft where applicable. After all, that "freedom" is still designed and it takes careful consideration and balancing, you're not just programming object affordances and letting the player loose among them. As for the traditional multiple-choice paths most commonly used in plot components, they're an instance of agency though probably not the same sort of freedom you meant, as a tangent.Interactivity, or rather "agency", isn't an immutable roadblock for artistic expression, you can tell a story in different ways to achieve the same effects. Obviously, it's a lot more difficult and laborious, but it's feasible.
If videogames themselves are art, not just the assets with them (visuals, writing, etc.), then I wonder where player agency fits in. Is it more "artistic" to create the perfect Doom map with great enemy placement and secrets, or is it more artistic to let you stack buckets up to climb over a security gate and get a shotgun earlier in the game? In the traditional sense the more a designer designs, the more an artist they become, and yet typically a game is praised for how much freedom it gives the player.
Basically, I can enjoy both Doom and STALKER for what they offer, but I more deeply admire the latter.