Do you see video-games as a form of entertainment, or as a form of art?

[Leih]

Just like movies and books, it can be both (or can be one or the other).

Some books are trashy junk written for light entertainment. Some are true literary works of art. Games and Movies are the same.

[Katchii]

In direct response to the OP.

Yes

[Zigrifid]

It can be both , depending on the game, for example metal gear games are a form of art like a good movie other like DOOM games are a form of entertainment.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

They're both. It depends what the author has in mind. A game can be purely for entertainment purpose. Shoot X, win X, kill X, beat X, etc.

It can be a form of art, with story-rich games like Mass Effect or Quantic Dream's games.

[Fencers]

Art.

I have almost no enjoyment of playing games just as a past time. All my interest is the game's mechanical expression of metaphor.

[Linri]

video games for me will always be about fun, an interesting story, characters, and gameplay will forever come before "graphics" for me

i see games as entertainment, a good art department is just a bonus... if your goal is to have the greatest soundtrack, the greatest graphics, and your story is trash, its not going to be fun to play "look around at stuff simulator 12"

[Borfl]

Entertainment because I play videogames for fun.

[Video Games]

Doesn't matter. They are my everything.

Entertainment because I play videogames for fun.

Get out.

[Lochton]

Both, as it should be. It is entertainment for the player but an artstyle for the maker.

[minteK917]

Art is a form of entertainment...

This. If you arent entertained any an artform, either the art sucks itself or simply not to your taste. Art is literally just expression of skills and imagination. Even the plans for an house is art.

[Taso]

I would say video games are both. The best examples are the bio shock series. The aesthetic mixed with the stories bring about a heightened awareness to a reality that few even know exist.

[StrawberryZebra]

So to me video games are just a natural evolution of enjoying stories, with the potential for absolutely best and most immersive experience of all the story telling mediums (subjective).

Games, of any description, have historically been associated more with teaching than with storytelling. This held true for the early days of video games too, where there was a strong emphasis on spatial awareness and problem solving skills. It wasn't really until the run away success of FF7 and the PS1 era where games shifted their focus onto narrative over gameplay.

Too much focus on narative over gameplay kills games. We should be pushing video games to be something better, not praise them for being second rate movies. Interactivity makes video games unique as a medium, cramming a story in there seriously limits just how interactive a game can be and subtracts from what makes video games special.

I've seen those "artistic" video games. They're pretentious garbage.

Yes. Yes indeed. Video games should be video games first, and Art a distant second.

Very few people would prefer Dear Esther or The Beginners Guide over something like Rocket League.

[shadowmatrix]

It should be both. The artistic potential of video games is mind-boggling.

Unfortunately, for the most part it's just entertainment, a shallow one too.

Shallow? You read a book's story and have no input towards the flow of the narrative, a movie you watch and can at most pause it but you still can't change how things flow, but with a game you can pause it, end it early, go through the story at a pace of your own choosing, make the battles easier or harder, choose a different character to romance, etc. Video games are a deep form of entertainment depending on the game. Name the last book or movie that kept you entertained for 40+ hours.

[Pull My Finger]

Shallow? You read a book's story and have no input towards the flow of the narrative, a movie you watch and can at most pause it but you still can't change how things flow, but with a game you can pause it, end it early, go through the story at a pace of your own choosing, make the battles easier or harder, choose a different character to romance, etc. Video games are a deep form of entertainment depending on the game. Name the last book or movie that kept you entertained for 40+ hours.

To be fair, art is much more than "keeping someone entertained". And it's not measured in minutes or hours.

The fact that games have lots of functions, modes and stuff you can interact with doesn't make them deep. Most of them are a superficial experience with no lasting value or deep impact on how you perceive yourself, the others and the world, hardly make you reflect at all, and often revolve around truly stupid and simple things.

It's just information on the screen. You may think it's highly interactive, but in reality, you're being presented simple preconceived arrangements which you are allowed to tamper with on the surface, for the sake of pre-baked feedback and visual stimuli.

Nothing wrong with that. But it makes no sense reading more into it than it is.

[shadowmatrix]

To be fair, art is much more than "keeping someone entertained". And it's not measured in minutes or hours.

The fact that games have lots of functions, modes and stuff you can interact with doesn't make them deep. Most of them are a superficial experience with no lasting value or deep impact on how you perceive yourself, the others and the world, hardly make you reflect at all, and often revolve around truly stupid and simple things.

It's just information on the screen. You may think it's highly interactive, but in reality, you're being presented simple preconceived arrangements which you are allowed to tamper with on the surface, for the sake of pre-baked feedback and visual stimuli.

Nothing wrong with that. But it makes no sense reading more into it than it is.

I'm not reading anything into it, people respond to different mediums in a personal way. There is nothing a painting, book, or movie does that a game can't. If there is please set me straight.

[Schattenlied]

it's both.