Are video games an art form??

[Akatosh]

Are they? A lot of people have given good arguments over the years as to why video games are or aren't art.

I feel that the industry still has to grow and develop for people to truly consider video games art.


Go ahead and discuss your thoughts and opinions here.

[Saph]

Yes video games are in every aspect of the word, an art!

There goes a huge amount of people to build a unique building in a large city, and its considered artistic. A painting is a huge undertaking of 1 man, and a novel is 1 mans ability to formulate themselves.

Video games is the signature of a game dev! Each game dev has their own feel, their own creations, their own contradictions and exceptions and unique games which all stand out in their own way. No 2 paintings are the same, neither are 2 games!

You could even say that Video Games are a mix between building an artistic architectually challeging building, painting a picture, music/acting, AND writing a novel

For example:

It all starts with the idea! Aka the novel! Building the storyline, writing the plot, developing the characters, their feelings, their hopes, their fears, and how the game continues until the breathtaking end! It is in essense, writing a novel!

Then comes the illustrations! Aka painting! Professional artists draw, paint, or digitally mold 3 dimensional images of the characters from various direction, and also create the world itself! If it takes place in a castle according to the storyline? They draw the castle, its interior, its secret pathways, the dungeon, the ENTIRE layout of the whole world is DRAWN or PAINTED on paper by people, and the executive producer then decides which he likes the best! It is in essense, painting!

Then comes the Music/acting! Having verbal artists make voice to the mute characters! Reading out the plot lines meant to be said by his character, and making it sound believable! And music, composers, singers, various musicians creating beautiful works of artistic audio to give an atmosphere to the game!

Then comes the task of putting it all together according to the blueprints! Aka building an artistic architecturally challenging building! A massive group of professionals well versed in code, scripts etc. works like a single massive being to pick up all of the scattered pieces and places them in the right way according to the blue prints! With the executive producer overseeing everything from the ground, all of the actors, illustrators, digital professionals, scripters, coders etc. are crawling all over this massive thing, tweaking the graphics here, fixing a bug there, making this HUGE effort fit together with one another to create a single, masterful piece of digital art!

A VIDEO GAME!

Yes, video games are by ALL means deffinately its own personal perception of visual and interactive art! Like a painting with a moving screen with audio with it!

[Exentenzed]

Completely agree with Saph on this one. :)

[paecmaker]

Yup, video games are totally art.

If movies count as art then video games must also be art.

[Jayhmmz]

+1 on everything said.

Two games, right off the top of my head, set the reason in concrete as to why video games are an art form; Mirror's Edge and Prince of Persia 2008.

[Saph]

Dont forget Silent Hill!

[paecmaker]

Dont forget Silent Hill!

or braid, or escape from the monkey island serie, or any other awsome game that can be called art.

[LemonRising]

Yes yes! Of course they are ( :

Theres so much creativity and skill needed to make one, so of course! O:

[Akatosh]

Yes yes! Of course they are ( :

Theres so much creativity and skill needed to make one, so of course! O:

A good one anyway.

[Muffincat]

or braid, or escape from the monkey island serie, or any other awsome game that can be called art.

Braid was brilliant o.o

And yeah -- I wouldn't say all of them are art... but a good one, certainly :P I wouldn't call like "Wild Busty Babes Huntin' Deer Shootface Hunter III" a work of art, but... ;D

[EpsilonX]

I wouldn't call Call of Duty art or anything, unless you consider milking a franchise to death to be art, but games like Shadow of the Colossus is like interactive art.

[Jayhmmz]

I wouldn't call Call of Duty art or anything, unless you consider milking a franchise to death to be art, but games like Shadow of the Colossus is like interactive art.

This.

Developers who churn out games do not produce art.

[DirtyDMan]

Yes I think video games are art.

[LemonRising]

I still consider any game art. It might not be 'groundbreaking' art or anything, but it doesn't mean that people weren't drawing and programming and creating. Even a crappy story is still a story.

[Akatosh]

Definition of art: The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.


I don't know about you guys but I don't think most video games are beautiful(unless your talking graphics wise) or emotionally provocative. Only very rarely will a developer create a character or story that has emotional power. So I don't think every video game is art, I feel only truly great games with great design and story can be defined as "artful." However every video game is a work of imagination and some creative skill, so I guess that its hard to define what games are and aren't works of art.

[Muffincat]

That also makes it tricky because different things cause different emotions in different people... I've definitely cried in video games before, or felt happy, or inspired, etc.

And they can definitely be beautiful.

But art is difficult to define... is a terrible painting still art? or a bad novel? an awful song? Someone's going to probably like it, and I suppose it would be art to them.

In any case, I don't think a lot of video games are fit to be called art, just like a lot of other things aren't. There's definitely a lot of hard work and creativity (sometimes), and definitely skill... but that doesn't necessarily add up to make something artistic.

I think, as a whole, video games often short themselves of what they could be, and reinforce the idea that they aren't "art." There is so much more that they could do, if they were aiming for that... but they usually aren't. They're aiming for sales. And specifically doing something for the sake of money... well, that's not true art :(

[paecmaker]

They say movies are art but, movies can still suck with bad acting and a sucking story.

Why shouldnt this accord to games to? For every good game there 10 bad games but shouldnt the good game be called art?

[Saph]

All movies are art, but some suck

All paintings are art, but some suck

All music is art, but some suck

All buildings are art, but some suck

All games are art, but some suck


End of story.

[paecmaker]

All movies are art, but some suck

All paintings are art, but some suck

All music is art, but some suck

All buildings are art, but some suck

All games are art, but some suck


End of story.

Couldnt say it better myself.

[Saph]

It was the best and shortest way to say what I think everyone meant :)