Last Friday we went to the V&A in London to see the Video Games exhibition. It was all about concept art, debates and discrimination, and how it has become such a worldwide thing.
The first room we went into was all about game concept. Concept art is one of my favourite things in the world, because sometimes you get to see that the actual games are completely different to what the original concept might have let on. My favourite concept art to look at in the exhibition has to be for the game Journey. The creators actually went to a desert to get the physics of what running on sand would look like. Not to mention the character in the game has some hints to real life style from Asia.
The second room was all about controversy and discrimination in video games. It was all about how main characters always used to look the same way, and do the same things, and have the same motives. There was a video about issues with video games, talked about by people in the field, who have the most to say about them. Racism in video games is one of the worst problems in video games, and I am glad people are finally speaking up about it and doing something to change it. There are many other issues, like sexism, but it is sometimes easier to miss.
The third room was one big screening room, showing a loop of videos that show the different types of video game styles. The most interesting video was about how video games aren't always about playing. In Korea they pay to go and watch a World Championship competition of two teams playing against each other in League of Legends. It was insane to watch the crowds cheering for the teams, when all they were really doing was battling in a computer generated battlefield.
The final room was full of retro and new video games. I had fun playing as a pixel person trying to keep two ex's away from each other at a party. It was a funny idea to have a game about keeping two people away from each other by calling people over to swarm you and sending them away to run through the crowd.
In conclusion, my favourite part of the exhibition was the concept room. The art work was so amazing, and the colour pallets complimented their respective games. I couldn't have imagined it being any better. The whole exhibition blew my expectations through the roof and taught me things about video games I never knew.
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