Thus, it is while watching the opening ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympics that I finally return with a fresh outlook.  The opening ceremony of the London Olympics held strong to one idea – evolution.  The evolution of technology and society, how they have brought us together and drove us apart simultaenously.  This stands true in every facet of life – and for the sake of this column, it also has strong connections to the world of entertainment.

With the advances in gaming and social technology, the world of video games has evolved substantially from the way I experienced it as a child.  As a child in the 90′s, the prospect of multiplayer and social gaming was a difficult one; you either had friends to come over to share the console experience with, or you were forced to navigate the local arcade for some multiplayer mayhem.  The rise of social networking crushed this dichotomy, while at the same time introducing many, many more.

Evolution in gaming can be a dangerous thing.  The video game industry has seen the rise and fall of trends faster than arguably any other (save maybe fashion).  From gritty, brown-grey first person shooters to simple, point and shoot casual games, the latest revolution in gaming may not be greeted by every gamer with an open mind.

Picture courtesy GiantBomb

The upcoming winter reboot of the Devil May Cry series illicited a lot of fan response, and many mixed feelings from myself.  It’s difficult to grasp the fact that individual video games have to evolve alongside the industry.  With such a drastic change to the main character, many were (and still are) worried that the game is evolving into something they don’t want to be a part of.  We grow fond of familiar faces spanning across multiple games and long to return to familiar mechanics set forth by previous titles.  It’s often intimidating to find the ideas driving an entire series have been completely rewritten.

Ninja Theory decided Dante, the face of the Devil May Cry series, needed a major makeover.  While it was a cool, edgy game when it was first released, modern gaming’s definition of “cool” and “edgy” has drastically changed.  It makes sense when looking at it from the bigger picture, but it’s hard to drop the sentimental feelings tied to a character’s original design.  I feel the problem here is that the change is a lot less subtle than most other series.  Unlike Solid Snake’s steady progression through the Metal Gear Solid series, Dante’s drastic design change feels more like a revolution than an evolution.

Nostalgia plays a huge role in how we react to change in video games.  Our mind tends to store favorable memories for long-term recall, and some psychologists believe this is why our feelings become so strongly tied to familiar elements.  You are more likely to recall the excitement you felt when playing a favorite game in your childhood than you are to think of the boring atrocity of a game you had played as recently as this year.  I personally remember all the times I fired up my SNES and plowed through a game of Super Mario World or Donkey Kong Country, but struggle to remember anythingabout a game I found to be a boresome chore (like Prototype).

It’s these reasons that I was unable to immediately accept the Dante redesign as a welcome change.  I remember the fast-paced, action-packed fun I had with the original series and for some reason, something as ultimately trivial as an aesthetic change of the main character makes me worry that the series will never be the same.  That it will never offer another lasting memory.

If it wasn’t for this evolution, gaming as an industry, and just as importantly, as an art form, would grow stale.  An abstract painting has less of an impact today than it did in the early 20th century just as another Devil May Cry game could easily be overlooked in today’s market.  Tameem Antoniade of Ninja Theory believes that “…for Devil May Cry to have [the] same impact, it needs to draw on new things. New music, new ways of cinematography, new fashion.”  And, honestly, does this really sound like a bad move?

Series evolution has brought us many great games we never could have imagined in the past.  If Mario had remained stagnant in his two dimensional platforming roots, we never would have seen the likes of Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Galaxy.  On the extreme end of the spectrum, every Mario game would have merely been a Donkey Kong rehash.

For video games to ever be taken seriously as an art form, they must evolve like the classical art forms they follow.  We wouldn’t have rock without the blues.  We’d have no expressionism without impressionism, and no fantasy literature without classic epics.

And we’ll never have another great game without the desire to move forward.

You can check out more art at the official launch site for Mists of Pandaria:

Mists of Pandaria Launch Site (us.battle.net/wow/en/game/mists-of-pandaria)

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Mike Iverson is the mastermind behind Blind Squirrel Props, and the creator of some of the best replicas of fantasy and sci-fun props you could hope to find.  His fascination with prop making stems from a history of model building and costuming, and he got into the hobby just as anybody else would: self-teaching through tutorials and peer advice.  Now spending roughly 18 hours a week on his prop making, the time he puts into his work can be seen clearly through the results.

Be sure to check out his website for even more projects, as well as complete write-ups detailing the process he takes for each piece.  You can even commission your own build through his blog!

P.S. – Bonus points to whoever can name every prop.

Blind Squirrel Props (blindsquirrelprops.blogspot.com)

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Laurel Austin (www.ldaustinart.com)

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Jose Emroca Flores (www.emroca.com)

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Gadget-Bot (www.gadget-bot.com)

Robert Simons (www.robertdraws.com)

Peggy Chung (www.pegconcepts.blogspot.com)

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Danny Gardner (www.dannydraws.com)

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Art by Daniel Dociu, Jaime Jones, Jason Stokes, Kekai Kotaki, Richard Anderson

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Art by Rebecca Guay

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Art by Gilles Beloeil and Ubisoft

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