Are Video Games Art?

Aesthetics Video Games
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Joining this thread late because I joined late.

This comment strikes close to the heart of the matter:

However to only judge a game based on it’s plot, theme, or character seems like a very narrow way of judging video games. You’re trying to define the artistry of the game based on a standard that’s used to judge mediums such as a novel or a movie, while completely ignoring the gameplay and the interactivity element of video games. A multi-player strategy game for example can, through gameplay, teach and emphasize values like resource management, efficiency, long term and short term planning, and for people that are really trying to be good at it – competitiveness, mental calmness, problem solving on the fly, reading the mind of your opponent, the importance of diligence, practice, and hard work, etc. All of these things can be funneled back into reality and teach you real life values that can be applied to virtually any task you want to do.

Some of the the value-judgements implemented by the game designer qua game are: the scarcity/abundance of resources, importance of speed vs. efficiency, importance of long term vs. short term planning. Designing a game such that certain strategies are effective and others are less so or ineffective is a value-judgement, but the question is really “Are these metaphysical value-judgements?” Are they comments about reality as such that the player is meant to carry away from the game? Some are, some are not. I think any game that uses a strongly representational art style with an emphasis on realism is making a claim about the relevance of its strategies to reality.

I think the relative inaccessibility of these judgements makes them hard to perceive. It takes many tens of hours to explore a game’s options and the artist/game-designer is radically dependent on the player being active for that amount of time. If the artfulness in a game cannot be perceived by those who do not play it then naturally a game won’t be thought of as art by those people.

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I haven’t read all of th posts yet, but I will give my opinion on the matter.

I agree when you say that vidoegames have the potential to be art but their media is still immature. Many videogames that are considered art borrow a lot form cinematoghrapic language, like Metal Gear Solid, which has great cinema sequences.

However, I think that the true potential of videogames to become art resides in the next:

According to Rand’s definition of art, this has to be a recreation of reality that reflects the values of the author. Videogames don’t create an imitation of reality (with exceptions like war games) but a reinterpretation of it. Like someone above said, is more a creation of the basics aspects of reality, than an imitation of it.

Videogames, like some fantasy or sci fi novels, can create great an complex worlds that are offered to the player, and, in most cases, he’s free to explore them at will. This could be call the “physical” aspect of the vidoegame, a world which contains basic elements of reality, like people, society or history. The second aspect of the videogame would be its “metaphysical” aspect. A player can explore the world, but his own morality and values can be reflected into it. Is like having some sort of a canvas. We have a world, we have other people, now the player will decide what to do within it that game. However, his choices need guidance, and here’s where the plot of the game comes in by telling a story the player can modify through his actions.

But the videogame, to be a form of art, still lacks certain unity. A common RPG game, like Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, gives this enormous freedom to the player, tells an interesting story, and yet cannot be considered a work of art. Why? Games do not only reflect the values of the people involded in its creation, but should also reflect the values of the player. A recent videogame, Mass Effect 2, besides telling an epic tale full of action and heroism, present the player with a series of choices that affect the outcome of the game, including which characters live or die. The valuable aspect of ME2, is that some of this decisions, if not most of them, present the player with ethics choices (like deciding which of two characters will die, knowing they are both innocent) There are not right or wrong answers, but the player will still have to face the consequences of his (her) choice.

Here comes the resource videogames should exploit in the future to become true forms of art: interaction. The player not only becomes inmersed in a vast world, but he also becomes involved wiht moral choices within that world, and these have an impact on the sub-universe that is created.

However, these choices, as well as the worlds presented, are still very limited to reflect the true identity of the player, an, in order to be a unified work of art, it still requires elements like a plot and a story.

Some videogames I consider within this definiton:

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Nintendo Wii)

Bioshock (PS3 and XBOX 360)

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (X BOX)

Mass Effect 1 & 2 (X BOX 360, PC)

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Video games are themselves not art, but sometimes may contain a piece of art. Thus the “game” aspect of it is not art, it is recreation, but it would be stupid to say the “story” of a video game is somehow not literature. When one puts a mural on the side of a building, the mural doesn’t cease to be a painting, nor does the building cease to be a building. Rather, the painting becomes subsumed by the building, remains a work of art, and can be isolated for the purpose of enjoyment/study. So it is with video games.