Are Video Games Art?


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There are many games that can be considered art.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Mass Effect 2

Half Life 2

What these three games have in common is that they all have stories. It is not just a random splatter of objectives, events and achievements. You are living in a world that has a director who has orchestrated everything to push you in to a story, one in which you play the main role.

It is no different to a movie. Many directors and writers of screenplays try to cast the main character as someone everyday people can relate to. Why is that? Obviously so that you can see yourself as that person in those events doing the same thing they are doing. In the best case scenario the lead character does things that you yourself are sat there thinking you would do in the same position.

That is no different to games, at-least the good ones that can be considered art within the same context as movies.

I respect ebert but I think he is dead wrong about this. Not all games are art but there is quite a few that fit the bill and give people the same emotional response as a great film.

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It really depends on the game. Many games adapted from movies I wouldn't consider 'art' as they are just simply a way of income. However, games such as Fable or FF show such elegance and amazement that how could it not be art?

A video game is just another form of 'art'.

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Who actually cares if it is viewed as an art form? An immersive video game needs good narrative work, cinemetography, art style and music. Video game creators don't need a movie critic telling them what their video games are, they'll leave that to their consumers.

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Like any form of media that is made videos games are art. The grassy plains, sunny coasts and amazing story lines. Maybe not all games are art but for the most part a lot are. Video games are just another medium that should be explored like any other. I whole heartedly disagree with this man!

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Games tell stories, they convey information that forms a story, a narrative. Therefore they are an art form.

Old prescriptivists like this reall **** me off.

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Too long and boring to read. I dont understand why we listen to these "critics" anyway. Who died and made him boss? Why the hell does what he say have to be truth? It's obvious to most of us that video games are and art form if we so choose to believe. I dont care what he has to say, he's not right because he thinks he is. I don't consider a lot of things to be art but others do. Am I right? No. Are they? No. Are we wrong? Not really. It's a difference of opinion. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it Roger.

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Who actually cares if it is viewed as an art form? An immersive video game needs good narrative work, cinemetography, art style and music. Video game creators don't need a movie critic telling them what their video games are, they'll leave that to their consumers.

Actually, a good game needs good gameplay. And those designs are the artist (or in this case, designer who is no less an artist) is trying to portray a certain feeling and experience through the mechanics he sets into place. A system is about the experience a person has with it, and the true art shines when a user never sees that system working. It just works.

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I thought the definition of art was that it had no function except to be looked at?

I don't think so. Just because something is functional doesn't make any less a work of art. Think of a website, a building, or an automobile. They are functional ,yet are also designed to be atheistically pleasing.

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Not art? Tell that to the traditional and graphic artist, composers, writers, directors etc that work on games. If movies, music albums, novels are art why not video games?

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Too long and boring to read. I dont understand why we listen to these "critics" anyway. Who died and made him boss? Why the hell does what he say have to be truth? It's obvious to most of us that video games are and art form if we so choose to believe. I dont care what he has to say, he's not right because he thinks he is. I don't consider a lot of things to be art but others do. Am I right? No. Are they? No. Are we wrong? Not really. It's a difference of opinion. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it Roger.

Ebert made a statement a while ago saying he thinks video games are not art. It could have been left as that. But the internet has been pestering him about it. That's why he wrote this blog entry.

And if you've taken the time to read his blog entry, you'll read him saying the same things you are saying. He's asking why his opinion matters so much to gamers? He never appointed himself for that role. It's just his interpretation.

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Not art? Tell that to the traditional and graphic artist, composers, writers, directors etc that work on games. If movies, music albums, novels are art why not video games?

Exactly. The creative process utilized to create a video game is almost the same as that of movies. So, what's the real difference? Is it the fact that it's being played and not watched?

Also, why does Ebert describe art as something that requires authorial control? Besides, even though you can make some choices about what you do in a game, the results of your choices are dictated by developers.

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I thought the definition of art was that it had no function except to be looked at?

Yes... decades ago. You are talking about what Duchamp described as "retinian" art.

There are many interactive art pieces now.

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From Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art)

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way to affect the senses or emotions

Games are art. :) Good or bad art is a subject for debate, but if you declassify them by saying they're just " a piece of software just like any other PC/Mac/linux software" then the Mona Lisa isn't art either: it's just some canvas with some paint on it. ;)

One of Warhol's main points was that even commercialized creation is still art.

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What I don't get is why we even care whether games are art or not? Enjoy them for what they are. It's not like they're held in any lower regard.

I'm an avid gamer, but I think he makes a great point: games have objectives. You're not just watching something (unless you're playing Metal Gear Solid *rimshot*). You're actually doing something. Games can be beautiful and well done, but in the end, it's the same deal. You don't try and complete a goal while watching a movie or looking at a painting or listening to music. If games are art, then by the same logic, sports can be art.

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What I don't get is why we even care whether games are art or not? Enjoy them for what they are. It's not like they're held in any lower regard.

I'm an avid gamer, but I think he makes a great point: games have objectives. You're not just watching something (unless you're playing Metal Gear Solid *rimshot*). You're actually doing something. Games can be beautiful and well done, but in the end, it's the same deal. You don't try and complete a goal while watching a movie or looking at a painting or listening to music. If games are art, then by the same logic, sports can be art.

Sports does not have a narrative, nor a discourse.

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Game making involves many things , viz; Coding , Artworks of characters , logos , etc etc , which are themselves one or another art.

Game playing involves way of playing , which can also be said as "art" of playing games. This is how i take it as

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If you see what things get labeled 'art' then anything in this world can be considered art. Every game is a combination of many art forms. The music, the graphics, the story...

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Sports does not have a narrative, nor a discourse.

A game's narrative, artwork, etc. can individually be considered art, of course, but I don't think the final product is necessarily art in the current (albeit loose and wildly varying) definition of art. It's certainly not art in Ebert's definition.

Again, though, I don't see the point in even caring (and neither does Ebert). Play games. Watch movies. Listen to music. I think feeling like you need to define something as art at all is pointless. Does being called "art" get you some sort of prestige?

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A game's narrative, artwork, etc. can individually be considered art, of course, but I don't think the final product is necessarily art in the current (albeit loose and wildly varying) definition of art. It's certainly not art in Ebert's definition.

Again, though, I don't see the point in even caring (and neither does Ebert). Play games. Watch movies. Listen to music. I think feeling like you need to define something as art at all is pointless. Does being called "art" get you some sort of prestige?

Narrative is not only the plot. It's also how the plot is presented and executed (Gameplay). Take the movie 21 grams for example, the narrative is not "three individuals with connected lives" but also the deconstruction of time used in the movie.

The current definition of art (Postmodernism) very well validates games as art.

I dont see Ebert's name among art theorists.

It's not about prestige. These debates helps to expand the possibilities of art and art form.

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Just as I am not an art theorist, I think Roger Ebert has just as much a right to discuss it as any one of us. I happen to disagree very strongly with his opinion but I don't think his opinion should be discounted just because his primary job is to criticize movies. My job in life is to analyze numbers and in my free time I enjoy games.

I think to me it is important that games be recognized as art because I want to feel like I am part of something more than just mindless interactive software. The same way that I feel books are art (it takes creativity to write a book and it take creativity of the reader to interpret that book in the mind) I feel that games take so much from so many other art forms. Software engineering is art in itself because it takes creativity but to me games are visual, audio, written, interactive, social and interpretive art all in one package.

What's that famous saying: Art imitating life, imitating art. Games like World of Warcraft take that one step further.

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Just as I am not an art theorist, I think Roger Ebert has just as much a right to discuss it as any one of us.

I agree. It's just that Elliott seems to think that Ebert's opinion carries more weight because who he is.

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Video games can never be an art. its just a piece of software just like any other PC/Mac/linux software.

Would you consider a software an art????????

It def have some cool graphics and interesting when compared to other software but not an art.

I design software and website. I dont consider them art.

i think you are forgetting about the art side of video games... you know, the purpose of all that software and programming?

the technical goal of a video game is to pump out artistic assets like 3d models and textures as quickly as possible... but that means having these assets in the first place... not to mention, the software is merely following instructions, a script written by a writer... that is also a form of art, no?

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As I see it, a game is not art, but a game can include art in it. For example, each piece of music in a game is a piece of art, but does not make the game itself art.

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