Games just as much an art form as Film or Literature?

[Nihal]

The first thing I've heard at my History of the Art classes at university is that you can't define "art". Numbers of intellectuals discussed the matter and attempted to fight to death over their preferred definitions, but "art" cannot be easily defined because it's a matter of taste. What moves a person, speaks to him/her looks like utterly **** to another. Attempting to define it to include or exclude certain works or categories is a major waste of time.


Having this in mind, I personally consider games as a branch of art. I'm not talking about concept art, what is, as the name hints, easily accepted as "art" for being nothing more than an illustrated designs and conceptual ideas. I'm talking of the work as whole, the combination of storytelling, music, visual and how it speaks to me. I fail to see how the interactive factor eliminates games as a form of art. Surely it can't be the "entertainment" factor, since movies, books and paintings are forms of entertainments (and they also present certain degrees of interactiveness).

 

[Shockley]

I still think that you are relying on subjective means to define objective terms. Your further explanations just make that more apparent. I completely understand the reasoning for your point of view, but I just don't think that it stands up to logic.

My problem there is that I'm not sure you can objectively define something that prides itself on its own subjectivity. I am a logic-oriented guy (I am, due to some shifts in my life goals, currently a TA in the Philosophy department at my school) and I'm pretty objectively minded, I'm just not sure how far that applies into art.

Anyway, I'm ok with agreeing to disagree, or whatever the cliche is.

Aight.

 

[SeverinR]

IMHO
I think pong was no work of art. It was the video break thru game. The software wasn't great but it opened the world to video games. I wouldn't classify it as art.

Modern games are alot more then two bar lines with a bouncing point of light (and beeps and bongs for sound).
They are scenery, game play, sound effects, storyline and how they are combined draw the player into the E-world.
Pong was a simple game, modern games are art.

 

[Writeking]

i consider final fantasy 4 and 6 to be works of arts

 

[yachtcaptcolby]

Games certainly are art. I'd argue that all forms of human expression are art.

That said, not all art is "good," however you prefer to define that. There's a lot of bad art out there in every medium that's ugly or juvenile or lacks a coherent message or doesn't communicate what the artist intends. Even though I classify all games as art, I readily admit that most of them have little, if any, artistic merit.

 

[Ireth]

Dunno if this has been posted here yet, but I found it pertinent:

 

[Writeking]

Though not all games are masterpieces, they certainly are art. I mean someone paints a can of Campbells Soup, and they call it art. Something doesn't have to be a painting to be considered art.

 

[Lunaairis]

just in case you all have not heard yet. The Museum of Modern Art ( MoMA) bought 14 video games for the start of their collection. wanna hear more check out the article on their website: MoMA | Video Games: 14 in the Collection, for Starters

 

[GeekDavid]

Just look at some of these Guild Wars 2 screenshots and tell me that's not art.

 

[Dragev]

Just for argument's sake, Richter's "Grey" appears to be a monochrome, which is technically very difficult. More here: Monochrome painting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I agree that it doesn't make it a great work of art, though.

As for games, the art part for me comes from the interactivity, which has not been present in any art form until now; beyond the (obvious) artistic reach of the visuals, and story and music, we have the possibility to influence these elements (especially the story part) and thus participate in a "new" story at every playthrough!

 

[Kn'Trac]

I don't know what the Art History museum people would say, but as luck would have it, the US Supreme Court has ruled video games to be an art form. So, huh.

I thought that games were a fixed item in London's MOMI (Museum Of Moving Image), so yes games are art (good and bad).

Oh yes, I enjoy games more than films, I'd actually wager that games are more rewarding experiences which actually stimulate the mind more. I mean if you are going to complete a game you have to be on the ball, paying attention, honing your skills and thinking carefully about how to get past the next challenge. With films you just kind of sit there and watch. So yes, I think these interactive simulations are certainly art.

Certainly in this day and age, you have well respected professional composers with full soundtracks, often orchestral. You have professional actors, both talented voice-over artists and increasingly motion-cap actors as well. Then of course there's all the sophisticated physics engines and graphic art, and the story writers as well. Games like Assassin's Creed, Red Dead Redemption, and the Fallout series have deep, engaging stories that have stayed with me, and have taken effort to write. To be honest films don't make me cry, some games have left a stubborn tear in my eye. I think as critics get used to this relatively new artform it will be seen as that. Yeah, I'm a real game-nerd, but for the reasons above I don't mind .

Most games are very engaging and make you use your brains to solve problems, take quick decisions and immerse yourself in the fantasy. Another aspect games can have is its use as therapy. I used to be very introvert, but thanks in large parts to RPG's (tabletop). Now I'm considered extravert and I have come to relish my game time in EVE Online, where running an alliance and corporation takes a lot of knowhow and even bring new insights in real life processes which are useful in professional life: Cooperation, Coordination, Communication, PR, Economics, etc..

So, in short: Yes games are art, whatever form they have, whether they are big budget or indy. This does of course leave the discussion about the quality of the Art in question completely open.

Kn'Trac

 

[Sparkie]

Hoo boy. Where do I start?

Whenever I see this question asked, I have to shake my head. It's not just because of the subjective nature of the topic, although I admit I find the arguments both for and against video games as an art form exasperating. What really bothers me is the question that doesn't get asked: Why are we talking about this?

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying this isn't a point worth debating. But really, ask yourself the above question and think about it. Why does it matter to you whether or not video games are seen as art? Perhaps a better line of questioning is this: Who is it that brought up the question in the first place? To whom does it really matter that games are, or are not, perceived as an art form? To answer, let's consider a medium of expression that has come under similar scrutiny.

Not long after the inception of motion pictures, observant men and women saw and understood the power of cinema. They realized that people enjoyed watching the images on the screen and that people would pay to see this new form of entertainment. An entire industry sprang up around the making of movies. Theatres were converted to show off this new bit of technology. Folks looking for a good laugh or a good cry would stand in line, pay a few cents, and experience a fledgling wonder of light and shadow. Word of mouth and advertising brought more people, and soon enough the money began to roll in.

But that was not enough.

The people who made the movies weren't satisfied with mere monetary currency. The actors, writers, photographers, directors, all of them wanted something more: Respect. Some of these people didn't just want respect. They needed it. They needed accolades and atta-boys. They needed the attention. In time, some of these people set up an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in order to honor one another's achievements. They took the fight to the critics who said that their medium was a novelty. They furthered their filmmaking techniques and, eventually, added sound to the pictures, creating a whole new era of cinema.

The rest is history. While there is still, and may always be, some debate as to whether movies are art, none can deny that the people who make these films, by and large, crave respectability.

Now compare the bit of simplified history above to what is happening in the arena of video game creation. As video games draw closer and closer to becoming interactive movies, the creators of these games are starting to want more recognition for their work. They too want more than just money. They too want respect. Why would they not argue that their chosen medium should be accepted as art, and why would they not give those arguments as much exposure as possible?

On the other hand, you have people who engage in crafts and work in industries that are more commonly accepted as art (such as painting, sculpting, writing and, yes, filmmaking) who see such arguments as a threat. They already have the respect, and they want more. Why would they allow a competitor to intrude upon their hard earned reward? Put another way, it's like these people are members of an exclusive club that now is suddenly not so exclusive anymore. The perception of importance will be diminished if 'everyone' is allowed to join. So they dismiss the notion the newcomers could have something worth sharing, and they deny that what they can do matters in any meaningful way.

So what is my point?

Well, if you think video games are art, fine. If not, fine. Just don't get too caught up in a petty tiff that is more about the craftsmen than the enthusiasts of the craft. And, if you work in any of the industries mentioned above, remember that the greatest compliment you'll receive from an average person is the cash that they'll hand over to enjoy your work. Indeed, what could be better than knowing that people love your work well enough to pay for it? Shouldn't that be enough?

/rant.

 

[Sam Evren]

I started working in theatre in the late '80s while still in college. I stumbled into it, really. I was a Creative Writing major at the time. I would spend much of the remainder of my college time in that theatre.

It was a road house, by which I mean that we didn't create our own productions, we put on those that toured. So we did your national tours of Cats, Les Mis, Duran Duran, but we also did national ballets, small national folk companies, concerts of every size and dimension. We even hosted the Red Army Chorus, back when it was still the Red Army.

For the next 18 years I worked in theatre. I spent the majority of those years working in tier 2 opera. "Tier 2" in this case meaning larger, well-funded regional opera with budgets in the lower millions---as opposed to tier 1's like the Metropolitan Opera or San Francisco.

I also love games. Been playing computer games since the early mid 80s. I even have my own PC gaming blog. I tend to be more drawn to CRPGs than anything else, but I dabble.

I know I was on stage when I had this epiphany---personal epiphany though it may have been---, but I understood in the flash of a moment that games were a continuation of what I was doing. Standing there on stage, preparing to put on an opera that was more than 100 years old, I understood that we were about to tell a story to the audience.

Playing a game, especially a more flushed-out game like a computer role-playing game, I'm being told a story, but more importantly allowed to interact with it.

Games can be interactive storytelling. They're in their nascent stages, really, but that's what they're capable of, in truth. Not all games tell stories. Not all writing is "literature." Not all drawings are masterpieces.

Novels were once considered the utter trash of literature. Rock and roll was going to degrade society. Comic-books rotted the minds of children. Television was going to turn your brain into soup. MTV was going to kill radio. Games are going to destroy all mankind.

If having your medium under attack is a sign of art, than games certainly will find their place on the firing line.

What art "is," well, that's different to every person asked. You might as well ask, "What is truth?"

That games are a continuation of the heritage of story-telling, I think that's undeniable. They may be in their earliest stumbling steps, but they're on the path.