Gaming and culture are inextricably linked. Culture helps to create game lore and informs the player through visual shorthand. Both the stories that are told and the characters that are encountered in games come, more often than not, directly from the culture and beliefs of the developers. However, this is not a one-way street. Gaming has had its mark on culture over the years. Many 20 something’s grew up during the original Pokemania and have memories of playing the games and trading the cards. Gaming icons like Sonic the Hedgehog, Pikachu, and Master Chief are easily recognizable to even non-gamers. But gaming’s true influence can be best seen in the art that it inspires.
Some of the most well-known video game fan art is fan fiction. Websites like fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own are sites dedicated solely to the fan fiction community. Aspiring writers can publicly post their stories and receive feedback from their peers. Some people will write smaller stories that are no more than a few hundred words long. Other’s will write entire novels and even create their own series of novels whose length would put George R. R. Martin to shame. The writers on fan websites explore and expand upon the stories they love. In some cases, these fans help to keep alive universes that were abandoned by their creators.
Video game fans have also found a way to express themselves through more traditional forms of art. Art focused websites like DeviantArt are saturated with fan art ranging from traditional paper media to digital art to crafts and even hand crafted items. Some artists like Kaitogirl (Underfell) and Samantha Whitten (GaMERCaT) create comics that are inspired by video games. These artists pay homage to their beloved franchises and in some cases, even poke fun at the media.
Many fans take their creations one step further and create shows, fan games, or even movies that are inspired by the video games they love. Rooster Teeth is a famous example with their popular web series "Red vs. Blue". The show uses the Halo games as their base to record the episodes and actions of the characters. However, the story line and the characters themselves are unique to Rooster Teeth. Toby Fox, creator of Undertale, started out by creating an Earthbound Halloween Hack game. Another group of developers created an entire Pokemon game that they dubbed Pokemon Uranium (although the game was pulled due to a cease and desist from Nintendo). Even Hollywood got in on the action with the recent Warcraft film and upcoming films like Assassin's Creed. Although, it wouldn't be hard to argue that the movies are more of a cash in rather than a labor of love.
Music has been heavily influenced by games as well. "Video Games Live" is an immersive concert that tours around the world and features fully orchestrated covers of hundreds of different video games. Many Youtubers will create covers of video game music, perform parody songs about their favorite video games, or even create original music that is inspired by video games. Gavin Dunne (Miracle of Sound) is well known for doing both original metal songs (such as "Sirona") and video game inspired songs in a multitude of genres including: rock ("Get the Gang Back"), world ("Legends of the Frost"), metal ("Shadows of the Ash"), country ("Dream of the Sky"), and more. Nathan Sharp (Natewantstobattle) performs both parody songs ("Dark Pulse"), covers ("Hopes and Dreams"), and original sounds ("Drowning"). Mandopony ("Nothing Can Hurt Me") and Dan Bull ("Fall Out 4 Special Rap") are just two more in a long line of examples of music artists who take inspiration from video games. The songs mentioned earlier are only small samples of what these artists have done.
The impact that video games have had on art and the culture at large is undeniable. Fan art allows gamers to express their love for the media, stories, and characters while simultaneously personalizing the games through interpretation. This additive process can turn a singular game into a multifaceted experience. Now if only we could settle the argument about whether or not video games are a form of art.
