There's nothing wrong with Fifa!

I do love a controversial blog title! Now, for starters, I don't play Fifa, EA piss me off a little if I'm truly honest but that's another rant for another time. I used to play Fifa though, used to love it and buy it every year, even though very little changed each year. I think it's a fantastic game to play, especially with friends, well, friends who like football. It's probably one of the few games with a multi-player were you can sit as a group of friends and have a good time, not sit on your own and play against complete wankers online, who you can hear being complete wankers over your headset. SO, Fifa is a game that can bring people together and play in a group, without being too serious and just have a good laugh, how awesome, that's what game's are supposed to do. Now, as I mentioned, I don't play Fifa, hardly have time to play any games any more, but, when I get a chance, I do like to play games like Gran Turismo, Dirt, MotoGP, World Superbikes and TT Superbikes. This blog isn't about Fifa, but those list of games that I enjoy playing have a lot in common with Fifa. My argument here is that there are many forms of art, but it can be boiled down to two sides, creating art from the imagination, things that don't exist and are non-real, and art from life, art that is created from what exists, now that's quite a generalisation but bare with me. For the first part of the DMU Game Art course, for a big chunk of it actually, we do the latter, drawing and creating game assets from life, trying to translate what we see in front of us onto a page. In the world of art some artists enjoy to explore their creativity by producing whatever they want, and can I point out that quite frequently, or at least in my opinion, abstract art is pointless and quite frankly shit. But, there are also artists who endeavour and pride themselves on creating a drawing or painting on a real life subject as realistically and accurately as possible. Some artists spring to mind. John Constable and his landscape paintings in particular. Marie Rosalie Bonheur, another landscape painter, and, oh, who's that other fella? oh yeah! Leonardo da Vinci! How much more accurate can you get than the Vitruvian man? and if you are following me, this is my argument. Realism in the visual arts refers to the general attempt to depict subjects as they are considered to exist, without embellishment or interpretation. Realism often refers more specifically to the artistic movement, beginning in France in the 1850's but also has had influences on literature and the social-political environment, and now, VIDEO GAMES! i.e, Fifa, Gran Turismo, etc.

Does anyone understand my argument yet? Well, Fifa, and the other games I enjoy playing (Gran Turismo, MotoGP) are video games realist subjects. The companies who produce these games still employ artists you know! These games are the 'depiction of subjects as they exist' in the real world, artists who work on these games, and I can speak on behalf of Gran Turismo here no problem, endeavour to re-create real world objects with unbelievable accuracy for us all to enjoy in the comfort of our arm chairs!


Okay, so counter argument. "Fifa is for chavs and football hooligans", probably agree, and "fat kids sit playing Fifa when they should get off their arses and go kick a ball at the park". Also has some truth, but! but when I play MotoGP, I cant go and jump on Valentino Rossi's bike and fly around Donnington Parl, and like-wise, whoever's playing Fifa, chavs, whatever, cant, in the real world play alongside Steven Gerrard for Liverpool Football Club, or for Manchester United at Old Trafford. At the end of the day the game does what any game does, it gives the player the opportunity to experience something they could not in their real lives.


Im trying my best to be as open minded as possible here, and trying to have a view from both sides. Im not defending any games, or trying to promote any for that fact, but, as I mentioned I do enjoy to play racing games, that's 'my' genre, and other games based on real life event's, just like Fifa, and I know way too many people, people on the game art course too mind, not mentioning any names! who like drawing robots, muscle-y-gun-men, monsters, goblins and playing games like Darksiders, Marvel vs Capcom, Gears Of War, Halo and dare I say, Zelda. Im not having a go at theses games, I'd probably enjoy playing them, for about five seconds, they're just not for me, pixies with pointy ears, Jesus. 


Okay, so you enjoy Zelda, fair enough, just don't completely right off realist games, like Fifa! The beauty of art is that everyone has their own opinions on what can and cant be beautiful. I can imagine people would argue that there is nothing beautiful about football, cant be anything, players, stadiums, but, I've visited Barcelona's football stadium, the Nou Camp, and to me that was beautiful, a man made structure that can seat 100,000 people! and to re-create that as accurately as possible within a video game environment so that you can experience the buzz of the crowd, the atmosphere from that perspective is just awesome! 

To sump up, I'm not defending Fifa, just to make that perfectly clear, I don't own the game and don't play it, like any game it has its merits and it has flaws, although just to mention, Fifa 12 accordingly sold 3.2 million units in its first week of sale, (jobs for me and you). If you like drawing and/ or playing fantasy, non-real that's absolutely fine, just don't right off games based on real subjects because of some negative opinions that can surround hem, because they can be equally as awesome, honest.

Barcelona at the Nou Camp in a Fifa game (lovely grass!)



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