Is gaming an art form? There are so many opinions and debates on this topic. Last month we reported the passionate words of Jordan Vogt-Roberts, the renown movie director who recently worked on Kong: Skull Island and will make the Metal Gear Solid film adaptation. He wasn't kind to those who even question that gaming can be art.

　　However, for some reason, those who actually work in the gaming industry are a bit more cautious when dealing with this subject. For example, in late 2016 CD Projekt RED's Story Director Marcin Blacha stated that he doesn't believe The Witcher games to be art.

　　Speaking with Metro GameCentral at E3 2017, Machinegames' Creative Director Jens Matthies expressed an opinion on the very opposite end of the spectrum.

　　I don’t know, I sometimes think about: is this a meaningful way to be spending my time? But that is the bigger question of is it meaningful to be an artist? And of course, you would be hard pressed to say that art isn’t meaningful. But then, of course, we have this art form that is considered the lowest of the low.

　　I consider it [gaming] the highest of the high. Because it encompasses all other art forms. To me, it is the pinnacle art form at this point in time.

　　And yes, I think there is meaning in that. At least as much meaning as anything else that humans make. Yeah, there’s a tremendous amount of potential that is yet to be unlocked, within the video game medium.

　　Lofty words, but it's hard to argue the enormous potential that creators can still carve out of gaming with their imagination.

　　Machinegames is now trying to do so with Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, the FPS sequel due to launch in late October for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. In the same interview, Matthies highlighted the deeper characterization that players will see in Wolfenstein II, with each character having his/her own proper arc and interesting moments.

　　Like I said, we had near complete creative freedom… but I think part of it is that the cast of characters grew during the first game. By the end of it we had a lot of characters, and of course, they all roll over and then they grow even more in this game. So just dealing with all those characters and making sure they have their own proper character arc and moments that are interesting…

　　I think that just naturally leads to us having to cover more material. And then, you know, as you start writing more scenes you get really attached to them, and you want to realize them fully.

　　In fact, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus will have twice as much cutscenes time when compared to the original (three hours versus one hour and a half), further highlighting that this won't be a mindless shooter at all. The game's beginning is telling, after all, as you can read in Kai's E3 2017 hands-on preview.