“Are games art? Here’s my answer…Crack open a two liter of Mountain Dew. Snap into a Slim Jim. Proceed to Xbox Live and shoot your best friend in the head with an M-16.” – Ken Levine, Irrational Games

I believe that art and entertainment are merely descriptors of the same thing, creative work, and that the two overlap so often that most works possess the potential to be both. Art occurs when a creative work elicits an emotional response from its consumer, and entertainment occurs when a creative work elicits a joyous response from its consumer. This is why the debate between what is art and entertainment is so contentious; it is entirely subjective and only decreed upon the individual consumption by a user, not the creator, of the work. Because I firmly believe “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” this blog will refrain from discussing what is art and what is entertainment but rather the how and why of creative work.

“It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.” – Old Man, The Legend of Zelda

My goal with this blog is to discuss creative works, both entertaining and edifying, and hopefully come across the answers to How and Why: How the creative work made a lasting impression, and Why that feature functions the way it does. I believe that although a creative work does not possess a magic formula for success, there are components that can be extracted that can be useful individual to its source, and can be applied across mediums to improve creative endeavors.

“I know why you’ve come, little moth. You’ve your own canvas.” – Sander Cohen, Bioshock

And here is the answer to why you should read this blog, and why I want to write it. I believe that any good creator is also a good consumer, and that to create creative work one must also consume creative work. I also firmly believe that although a book is not a movie and a movie is not a video game, a good creator must consume all mediums of creative work to achieve the greatest possible creative potential. It is my hope that by breaking down creative works to their individual components and analyzing their power this blog will become a useful tool set to creators (myself included!) who wish to make both great art and entertainment.