Are video games art?

[Randy]

Are video games art?

This is an argument that has been thrown around since the very birth of the medium. And I do mean the very beginning!

The first video games weren't just Pong and Space Invaders - text-based role playing games were asking serious questions of their players way back in the late seventies.

Today, mainstream, multi-million dollar franchises like Mass Effect ask its players to think about what constitutes humanity. Bioshock builds entire worlds to examine extreme libertarianism and extreme communitarianism. Untitled Goose Game lets you be a horrible goose.

And people question the artistic validity of the medium?!

Seriously though, at their best, video games offer an artistic experience like no other: The ability to examine yourself through choice.

When playing Dishonoured, is your first instinct to kill your enemies or sneak past? In Fallout, who do you ally with and who do you oppose? What does Harry Du Bois become in your hands, in Disco Elysium?

If that doesn't make gaming an art form to you, perhaps you should think about what *does* constitute an art form.

Thoughts? Do you consider video games a form of art?

 

[Scarlet Rose]

They definitely have the potential to be art, but whether or not they are will come down a lot to the philosophy underpinning their development process. I would not acknowledge games that are designed to promote microtransactions as art, nor those which are simply being developed by the numbers. There definitely are games out there which have soul put into them and it shows through their artistic vision.

 

[Smiley]

If paintings are considered "art", why wouldn't the games be? Both are man-made and serve no purpose other than the author(s) profiting from them. Philosophical aspect to them is subjective and as such open for interpretation. For example, Mona Lisa is considered a masterpiece. Personally, I don't see what all the fuss is about. It's just a painting to me.

 

[KenDaGamer]

Of course video games are art.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Yes, some of the modern games are absolutely beautiful. I spend more time looking at all the detail in the background than what's going on in the actual game.

 

[Scarlet Rose]

If paintings are considered "art", why wouldn't the games be? Both are man-made and serve no purpose other than the author(s) profiting from them. Philosophical aspect to them is subjective and as such open for interpretation. For example, Mona Lisa is considered a masterpiece. Personally, I don't see what all the fuss is about. It's just a painting to me.

It does depend entirely on how you are defining art, if you are simply using it to describe anything and everything which is man-made, then obviously all videogames would be considered art. It would be a much less subjective definition than the one I would favour, but it was also make the quality of being art less substantive.

 

[Webster]

Thoughts? Do you consider video games a form of art?

Most definitely yes.

You look at some games the realness is almost in Uncanny Valley territory (whether that's good or bad is another story, though).

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Uncanny Valley

Never played that one, whats it about?