Messages in Art

Recently I finished playing a game that made me think deeply about the story and the message it conveyed. I’ll tell you right away that the game was Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. I don’t want to spoil the ending by telling everyone what the message was, but it was both profound and comforting. It also seemed to fly in the face of the “experience” many gamers, myself included, are looking for in a game.

The narrative made this point lightly, almost as if the “message” I inferred was unintended. Just a side effect of a well-written narrative. It wasn’t heavy-handed or preachy, just a natural conclusion that I was able to make based on how the story played out. It reminded me, once again, that games can, and often are, masterworks of art.

A quick detour before we continue. In 2014, I started cohosting a podcast that explored the art in pop culture, studying books, movies, comics, and games (among other things). Over the course of a decade, we interviewed authors, musicians, sculptors, graphic artists, game creators, and voice actors. Hundreds of hours spent examining the artistic value of popular media. One of the most important concepts I learned over that decade is that, no matter what message may be conveyed in a work of art, it doesn’t mean a thing if the art itself is mediocre.

I also know that art is subjective, so I’m not going to play gatekeeper by telling anyone whether or not something they like is art. Or if it’s high-quality art. I do have strong opinions on that point. But the reason I’m writing this opinion piece is because the masterfully crafted narrative I experienced in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty facilitated a point that resonates with me specifically because it was conveyed through art of the highest quality (game bugs, persistent glitches, and rocky launch aside).

One of the reasons the story impacted me is because the game and experience (the art) was the point. Not the message. This is a lesson the world of Christian media should embrace because, over the last 30 years of my life (since I was old enough to start appreciating art around the age of 10), I’ve seen a lot of art (from every corner of the pop culture machine) that is presented to an audience as if the quality of the “product” doesn’t matter as much as the message. As long as the message itself is valuable, the book, movie, song, or game can be “passable.”

This mentality should be rejected. After all, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.1” The message is important, and so is the heart behind it. However, if an artist is capable of more than stick figures, they better make art that glorifies God and is also better than a simple stick figure.

The reason an art piece’s quality is just as important as the message is because bad art makes the audience walk away. Often before the message has a chance to appear. I don’t care who the artist is (secular or Christian), if the art is bad, I’ll drop it. In fact, when Cyberpunk 2077 was initially released, I did just that because it wasn’t a finished product. It was broken, glitchy, and almost unplayable. It took them more than a year to fix it and make it a true piece of art. I don’t know how well the game did in general after the creators fixed it, but they missed opportunities to tell their story because of how the game was initially released to the public.

Christians, brothers and sisters, don’t miss your opportunity! The message of the gospel is the most important message of all time, and it has inspired some of the greatest pieces of art in all of human history (Sistine Chapel, anyone?). The quality of the art that conveys that message, be it video, audio, written, drawn, etc., should be better than every piece of art on the secular market. Again, art is subjective, so many of you may already hold the opinion that Christian-created art is just as good or better than anything from the secular world featuring secular messages. I won’t tell you you’re wrong because I have examples in mind (like the bands Disciple and Remedy Drive) that prove that point. What I will say is that the message alone isn’t enough.

I’ll say it again: the message isn’t enough, when it comes to art. It is when preaching, don’t get me wrong! In fact, overstepping the message is one of the biggest mistakes any preacher can make. But we’re not talking about evangelism, apologetics, or preaching here (though all should still engage the listener). We’re talking about art. The art is what hooks the audience. The pictures I’ve seen of the Sistine Chapel (I’ve never been) hold my attention, drawing me in so that I cannot help but remain engaged and focused on the message behind the art. Perhaps not all art is capable of this, but I argue that not enough artists strive for it, either.

I’ll leave you with an example. My top five favorite video games (currently and in no particular order) are Fallout 4, Red Dead Redemption 2, The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker, Cyberpunk 2077, and Helldivers 2. None of them are created with a Christian message in mind, and some of them even have a cynical view of God and Christianity. But the visuals, mechanics, and narrative are engaging, and they keep me thinking about the story even when the game ends. Christians have yet to develop a game that does the same thing, and even if they have a positive message, the graphics, story, and mechanics fail meet the bare minimum standards expected from a video game (though I know some studios are out there trying to remedy this, and I’m hopeful that they’ll succeed).

I say all of this because the art needs to convey the message, not as a fork conveys food to the mouth, but as God conveys love to his people. When someone views the art, they should see the art and experience the message as one, and when they remember the message, they need to also remember the art. If the art is subpar, it’s nothing more than a blunt instrument to hammer a moral lesson into the brains of an unwilling and uninterested audience. But when it’s masterful, both the art and message can transcend the bonds of time to stick with audiences for generations.

Sources and Notes

1 Colossians 3:23-24. At Disciple Gaming Ministry, we encourage people to read the Bible using an accurate translation that is also easy to understand. With that being said, the translation we use is the ESV® Bible. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.