Video Games as Art

[noops]

What do you think they are? Art form or not?


I personally think they are because, like traditional art, it is almost entirely subjective. Not everyone enjoys the impressionist styles of Van Gogh and Rembrandt, likewise, not everyone enjoys shoot-'em-ups. But I'm curious as to you guys' thoughts on the subject.

And sorry if this has already been done before, but, you know, whatevs.

[unoriginal name]

Sure. Consider if we were killed by an asteroid a lá the dinosaurs, and all that survived of out culture was Halo or something, any alien archeologists that manage to get it working it would find it cryptic and surreal. I doubt they'd be able to see any other purpose for it than artistic expression, assuming they're familiar with the concept. To argue my point less hypothetically and laboriously, video games are art because, as spoon says, art is entirely subjective. They're as much art as candy wrappers, lava lamps, and frescoes are. It's not really a debatable question, if you ask me.

EDIT: Wait, what do you mean, "impressionist styles of Rembrandt"? That is ridiculous bullshit and I am calling you on it.

[Tunco]

Video games are art.

[SlappyMcGee]

Debate forums? Entertainment? Video Games?

[smartalco]

For some (or many) video games, yes. For Roster Update 20**, no.

[scythe]

It probably depends on the game. n is focused on gameplay, not storyline. Star Ocean has hour-long cutscenes, which apparently appeal to someone.

[toasters]

Games like Okami and Pyschonauts are more easily classifiable as art, but what about N's appealing minimal style and elegant physics system? Or the impossibly expressive characters of Cave Story? I think those are works of art. I guess it all depends on your point of view.

[noops]

EDIT: Wait, what do you mean, "impressionist styles of Rembrandt"? That is ridiculous bullshit and I am calling you on it.

I... I really don't know why... Hmm.. It's probably because I was looking for an artist in a hurry, and I'd been lead to believe by a this guy I know (who happens to be an artist) that Rembrandt was, in fact, impressionist in style, and I was too lazy to actually go and look it up..

Or it could be due entirely to my ignorance.

[29403]

To me, only old ones are art. New ones are just video games to me, nothing special.

[SlappyMcGee]

Video games have only truly become an art form for me in the last few years. I've written at length about the similar rise of video games as there was in film after the invention of that technology, and similarly, film was initially novelty (8-bit era) and later became sprawling and prolific. That being said, video games are happening in a fucking super-fast time motherfucker or something, because it is already at Citizen Kane. (mgs2.)

[Donfuy]

For some (or many) video games, yes. For Roster Update 20**, no.

Bad music exists. Ba paintings exist. Bad books exist. But they're still art! Awful, but art.

That said, yes, I do think video games are art.


Gosh, I can't believe what I said above makes this big piece of shit, art.

[T3chno]

Anything that expresses something (feeling/emotion, whatever) is a form of art.


Yes, it's art. TF2 ART IS BEST.

No wait, Okami wins for best art-related game.

[yungerkid]

Quite an art form. The video games that i play, i mostly play for their artistic value, and their atmospheres. i think that video games are potentially an even more potent medium than books, for various things.

[squibbles]

I do. I personally think that everything is art. But that's just my opinion...and god knows I have a fair few weird ones.

[toasters]

Video games have only truly become an art form for me in the last few years. I've written at length about the similar rise of video games as there was in film after the invention of that technology, and similarly, film was initially novelty (8-bit era) and later became sprawling and prolific. That being said, video games are happening in a fucking super-fast time motherfucker or something, because it is already at Citizen Kane. (mgs2.)

This is probably a big part of it as well. Video games now are no longer just toys for nerds living in their parents' basement. As they become more culturally accepted (at a blindingly fast pace as Slappy says), people become more willing to use them as a medium for creative expression.

[SkyPanda]

I don't think the medium has anything to do with whether or not something is art, or that an entire genre/thing can be classed as art or nonart by default.

Also, 'art': silly word. Often easily replaced by a more specific term. Causes more trouble than it's worth.

[noops]

Hmm... It seems pretty unanimous here. I like that. I like that very much.

[yungerkid]

Jennifer wrestled her friend playfully to the ground in front of the snowcone stand and began licking at the girl's eyeballs, as if they were sugar cubes. Their bodies convulsed and flailed with an almost seizure like intensity. At times their pale limbs seeming to shift back and forth from one torso to the other. A crowd gathered almost immediately to watch these two girls tie and untie their bodies like a pair of pit-vipers. They were confused, or concerned, or shocked, or aroused, or all of the above. But no-one dared interfere with the performance. Jennifer's long ashen hair hung down concealing the girls face like a curtain around a hospital bed. No one had any idea that the girls eyes were revolving under her ruby tongue. "This is disgusting, it's pornography" exclaimed a pasty slut white woman in a fur coat, vanilla ice-cream smeared across her double chin like a money shot. Counting a balding professor type in his mid-forties, his left hand stuffed crassly down the front of his pants "No, no, no. This is beautiful, this is art."

That was a quote, by the way. Gee, if one looks at the state of the boundaries for regular "compositions", of course video games are art. They're made to be art. They have music, they have plots, they have visual art that takes time to make and is designed quite masterfully, and they involve the player in unique ways. I think the idea that video games are at all illegitimate as forms of high art is merely a dogma of the baby boomers etc.