‘Starchitect’ Theory and Thoughts Towards Video Games

Over the past few days I’ve been considering what to write about for this week’s entry.  Recently I have found myself not being 100% what to write about or needing to know a lot more about a topic to give it a proper assessment (North African Kasbahs being one of them).  However, like those odd ideas that you have at 2am this one came across while thinking about something somewhat unrelated; the Guggenheim Museum by Frank Gehry in Bilbao, Spain. 

The Guggenheim is an iconic structure from 1997 that has been heralded as a moment for architecture, culture and society to coexist within the context of a super-modern aesthetic.  Its flowing structure is rather striking and personally makes me think of a modern, modernism (reinterpretation of 1920s Modernism) if one could be allowed to say such things.  Personally, I’ve not been too informed on the piece because as with my history, I’m pretty much a ‘bottom-up’ theorist and find a lot of my interest in things like housing projects and the sorts, but a term used to describe the Guggenheim did get me thinking. 

You see, I had originally looked at the Guggenheim recently due to a couple job postings for museum staff and I was interested what level of involvement they entailed.  As with all my job hunting, I look to do research into the site and its archives through a varied mixture of the official press and opinion pieces, but an interesting discussion appeared on the subject of ‘Stararchitects’ which naturally has some crossover with other forms of art.  For those of you not aware of the term, ‘Stararchitects’ describes pieces of Architecture (or Architects themselves) that get risen to the status of fame and celebratory note, where people can align themselves with a fan mentality.  During my studies of architecture, the general census from my fellow students was that of Corbusier and his greatness (which of course the guy is very influential), but aligning with my previous viewpoint I found interest in his housing concepts and how I could discuss it alongside theorists.  I can very much remember visiting Villa Savoye in France during my 1^st year field trip and upon being asked what I felt about it I gave a response of respect, but of a reserved nature to which my tutor replied with, what I felt, was a combination of dislike and surprise.  Since then, I’ve kind of built a bit more respect for the piece but for me the human side through interaction has always grasped my interest which I hope to present here in some fashion. 

(Anyway, towards games)  If you take this concept you could probably attach it to any form of media, but I feel games have a unique way to show this through the combination of multiple factors which I hope to discuss here. 

Originally I felt there were three rough ways that games present high-regard in today’s world: the individual, the presenter and the genre.  The individual is what I would call the auteur designers or influential people making games for a particular studio.  To give a couple examples we can say David Cage or Roberta Williams.  These people attain significant recognition for the work they do for a specific area which they become known for.  For these examples, their genres of cinematic/narrative/action and point-and-click/80-90s adventure games define them where it may seem odd to discuss them outside of these genres.  Lastly, their companies of Quantic Dream and Sierra are known for these people and for these types of games and that’s what gives them high regard and status as a piece of the history of video game culture. 

In today’s world, there are examples that follow this and add to the extent that we can create both positive and negative connotations of the ‘Starchitect’ theory.  One of which is Ubisoft where the name has become ubiquitous with yearly open-world franchises that follow a ‘theme-park’ selection of mini-games and collectables to engage the player.  Another can be Bioware, with fantasy RPG’s with a strong narrative base, mature elements and recognised voice actors like Jennifer Hale.  On the complete opposite of this, Activision publish the Call of Duty series that has defined a multiplayer generation even beyond its FPS construction bring quasi-mmo progression into the larger public eye (of course, mmo-style progression was done before this in titles like battlefield 2 but CoD is the big one). 

When I look at other forms of media like film, I may see directors with specific genres or production companies with very specific stories, but I don’t necessarily feel that they all come together as often as in the earlier days of cinematography.  If I were to think of an example I would probably say Hammer Horror but if you are more versed in film media please feel free to comment as I would like to discuss this concept. 

To bring this to a conclusion, it’s in our nature to recognise trends in a number of fashions, but I believe that games have been able to find their own little way of showcasing this topic and continue to reinvent its meaning.  Recent years has seen the YouTube personality come into the fray as our method of consuming content has significantly changed with the advent of higher speed internet and I will be interested to see how the grow culturally along with the media of video games.