To use some examples from earlier in this thread, there is absolutely no way I would have ever heard of That Dragon, Cancer, or Papo y Yo, or Florence, if I were not deeply following gaming enthusiast press. Most big games are Avengers: Infinity War or Bad Boys II, and it's exceedingly rare that anything even attempts to be Schindler's List. If big games don't push tougher subject material into games occasionally, I worry that we'll get stuck in the cycle of "big publishers think all that sells is frivolous entertainment aimed at teen boys, so as a result, the only games that get made are frivolous entertainment aimed at teen boys." I think this assumption limited comic books and animation in North America for decades since the art forms were assumed to be frivolous entertainment for youth, and video games are facing the same uphill battle due to their start as simple games in arcades for children. Cinema got to bypass this uphill battle entirely because even at their most primitive, films were already "plays, but on a strip of film you project onto a wall."
Movies did faced the stigma of being "low class art" partly because they were seen as just plays put on a strip of film. And those detractors weren't entirely wrong. A play you put on a strip of film makes for, and always has made for, a bad movie. It strips a play of everything that makes that medium great: live performances, audience interaction, and the spectacle that plays out in front of your eyes.
There's a reason that Citizen Kane is heralded as the most important films of all time. It did things that would be impossible for plays to do, and as a consequence signalled the turning point for movies to be taken as "serious art". Movies trying to live up to the expectations set by plays is as wrongheaded as videogames trying to live up to movies.
Of course Citizen Kane made no money. Artistic innovation is very rarely rewarded in the mainstream marketplace, which is why it usually comes from the independent space regardless of medium.
Also, that whole thing about movies being labelled low class art and Citizen Kane proving the detractors wrong? That's bullshit. Part of the reason movies were looked down on were because they were seen as static plays, but another part is that it brought art to the masses at an affordable price. The art world is steeped in classism, so anything that makes art more available or appealing will be met with snobbish disapproval, even by those who otherwise champion the medium. The fact is that any form of artistic expression is a valid medium regardless of what it does well or how accepted it is by the mainstream public.
You may lament the limitations of the north American comic market, but there was always an underground scene for people who wanted it, and even mainstream comics pushed boundaries in ways that can still be appreciated today. Despite what limitations one may see in them, comics have always had artistic merit and been worthy of respect, just like videogames are now.
At the end of the day, if someone dismisses a medium out of hand its their loss. The medium loses nothing for it.
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