Poll: Should they be considered a form of art?

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  1. #1
    Stood in the Fire Tethrys's Avatar
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    Video Games - an art form

    Good afternoon everyone. I'm writing a paper in English write now about why video games should be considered an art form. The general public probably doesn't view them as such, but I believe that most gamers would say otherwise.

    What's your opinion on the matter? Should they be considered an art form, or no? Keep in mind that this doesn't mean every single game. It just means as a whole.
    "We all make choices, but in the end our choices make us." - Andrew Ryan

  2. #2
    It's not like there is some kind of universal authority that decides what is and isn't art. Art doesn't even exist as a tangible thing. It's just an abstract human concept, something can only "become" art by how we percieve it in our minds. Whether it was made to be sold as a product or if it's some random result of nature etc etc is utterly irrelevant.

    If the question is wether games should be judged on equal footing with books, movies and other more historied media, then yes I believe so.

  3. #3
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    Of course it is, if movies or books or paintings are art so are games as they combine all of them. A painter doing art for a game is still a painter (and thus an artist). A music composer doing music for a game is still a composer (and thus an artist). A writer writing the story of a game is still a writer (and thus an artist).

  4. #4
    If you believe in existance of such thing as art, whatever you consider art will be so for you. Simple as dat.
    Modern gaming apologist: I once tasted diarrhea so shit is fine.

    "People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an excercise of power, are barbarians" - George Lucas 1988

  5. #5
    Definitely. It's just an interactive form of art, so you can say it's an advanced form of theatre where the audience does a lot more than just watch.

  6. #6
    It depends on the video game, video games with a story or meaning deeper than just playing the game are a form of art. Heck there are 'art' teams working on graphics and such which is art. Art on a non-visual level should have meaning.

    If you look at a lot of games with stories, they have themes in the stories the tell, the only difference is you to some extent get to interact with the story in front of you. Some games let you decide for yourself what happens at different points, some at almost every point, and some just let you play through the action and puzzles but leave the story untouched by the player.

    Yes video games are forms of art, it annoys me when I heard this argument on why people shouldn't play video games (by a big a movie critic who reviews almost every movie in theaters)

    "Well when you watch a movie a movie is a form of art, however playing a video game is just a game, no art there," or something to that extent, but he was dead wrong video games are just as much art as movies. Are they more time consuming, arguably sure, but still art.

  7. #7

    Cool

    Art can be anything to anyone.

    So do I consider games art? Certain games, yes.


  8. #8
    I would call It a Interactive kind of art.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Markluzz View Post
    It depends on the video game, video games with a story or meaning deeper than just playing the game are a form of art. Heck there are 'art' teams working on graphics and such which is art. Art on a non-visual level should have meaning.
    I've never understood this reasoning. For me it's actually opposite, if by story you mean the traditional cinematic narrative everyone goes for. I think it's a big problem in the industry how people feel video games need to be more like movies to be deemed "artsy" and I think this is largely holding games back from growing as their own artform.

    I don't mind video games having stories or themes per se, but the way this is implemented in the vast majority of cases makes the player experience the narrative dictated by the developers in a passive fashion and I think that inherently defeats the very point of games: the interactivity. I'm much more a proponent of the player creating his own narrative in the game, or at least having a much bigger control of it. Sadly this philosophy remains mostly unexplored. CRPGs showed some potential in heading down this direction but has remained stagnant for many years, and even regressed if you look at Bioware's more recent offerings (and not surprisingly, this is because they want to make their games more cinematic).

  10. #10
    Art is ultimately in the eye of the beholder. Some people seem to think a bunch of toilet bowls stacked in a room is art.
    ~ flarecde
    Reality is nothing; Perception is everything.

  11. #11
    Moderator chazus's Avatar
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    No offense, but games are considered art by the educated/academic/scientific community.

    http://americanart.si.edu/exhibition...ve/2012/games/

    If the Smithsonian American Art Museum considers games art, I think you could say that the general public already does. It sort of kills your paper, trying to argue something people already accept as true, but.. There it is.

  12. #12
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    I wouldn't want to think of games as a whole to be an art form. A game is a combination of many things. Some of the things are arts on their own and some parts are not related to this at all.
    It's easier to think games to be games, perhaps artistic games. If you want to define games that are made from many different dimensions to simply be art, it is not helpful.

  13. #13
    Herald of the Titans Mechazod's Avatar
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    I do consider video games art and it happens to be one reason I am against purely download only video games, when a company can decide to stop supporting the distribution of a game because its not making enough money or they want to make it a promo limited time release (looking at you Four Swords remake and Doc Louis's Punch-Out) then I have a big problem with that because I personally consider many heavily under rated and forgotten games to be pure art and in an age where their entire existence is dependent on how many times they are downloaded leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

  14. #14
    Stood in the Fire Tethrys's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by chazus View Post
    No offense, but games are considered art by the educated/academic/scientific community.

    http://americanart.si.edu/exhibition...ve/2012/games/

    If the Smithsonian American Art Museum considers games art, I think you could say that the general public already does. It sort of kills your paper, trying to argue something people already accept as true, but.. There it is.
    Well yeah, the Smithsonian does. But if you were walking down the street, randomly polling the masses, do you think everyone would agree that it's an art form? I may be naive here, but I'm going to go with no.
    "We all make choices, but in the end our choices make us." - Andrew Ryan

  15. #15
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    Yes i do consider some games art take Bastion or Trine 1/Trine 2 for example those games just look amazing and beautiful and specialy how the story is told with the voice acting and such.

  16. #16
    I think the real question is: what is the 'art' part that everyone is setting their definition to. IE., are we just looking at the actual art itself, the gameplay, etc.? Just basic fun factor? Can a game be terrible in the fun department, but still considered 'good' from an overall 'art' perspective?

    I think that because it's more of an interactive medium, it's harder to draw a common point of interest between all pieces of gaming 'art'. For example, a painting is, for the most part, a visual experience. But a good game can be a visual experience, a book that you can go through, a collection of music; it's several mediums at once.

  17. #17
    Almost every game requires and ARTIST to create a video game. You think a person off the street can produce quality textures out of the bag and make them aesthetically pleasing? Most likely not. How about modeling? Sure it's easy, but what about saving polygons, being able to model anything given to you by your art director? That's a whole different ball park. I can't forget our dear CONCEPT ARTISTS for CHARACTERS in a video game, weapons, terrain / environments, layouts, etc.. Game as a whole is part artistic and requires artists from all corners of the industry to pull together and create it.

    Very few parts of an actual development in the creation of everything you see and enjoy in a video game is not labeled art.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Tethrys View Post
    Well yeah, the Smithsonian does. But if you were walking down the street, randomly polling the masses, do you think everyone would agree that it's an art form? I may be naive here, but I'm going to go with no.
    If I am walking down the street polling the masses, I would find all sorts of crazy stupid things people believe in. Anything that requires creative input is art. Car design, music, architecture, landscaping. Sure there are examples of things done with poor taste in any field, but all something needs is creativity to be art.

  19. #19
    Of course it is. Why do you think every art school offers a video game developer program?

  20. #20
    High Overlord Eliathe's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by chazus View Post
    No offense, but games are considered art by the educated/academic/scientific community.

    http://americanart.si.edu/exhibition...ve/2012/games/

    If the Smithsonian American Art Museum considers games art, I think you could say that the general public already does. It sort of kills your paper, trying to argue something people already accept as true, but.. There it is.
    Pretty much exactly what I was going to say word for word.

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