Are Video Games Art?
This post was created as a response to video:
This may sound like an old — and by today’s standards — obvious question, but I wanted to chime in on this one. To answer this question we need to ask ourselves, what is art? This is a loaded question that I don’t want to spend months answering in its entirety, so for the sake of this short response, let us consider; art is an expression of creativity, intent on provoking an emotional response from its audience. So, do video games count as art? “… according to most major theories of art, many video games should be considered art” (Smuts, 2005).
It goes without saying that video games have come a long way since their inception. As they first came about, yes, I would agree that video games lacked true emotional expression, and were more a form of ingenious creativity. As the scale and complexity of games has evolved over the past couple of decades however, so has their capability to express the passion and emotion of their creators, or artists. Having such a basic interpretation of the creation of games is no longer a valid point of view, when games are able to touch their audience in just as profound a way as traditional art. I’d take that train of thought a step further, and say that gaming has overtaken other forms of art, possessing the ability to touch audiences in its own unique way is unrivaled. Gaming offers a much deeper level of engagement than other mediums, resulting in deeper immersion and overall user emotional investment in the product (Brown & Cairns, 2004).
Lack of acceptance or recognition to upcoming forms of cultural change is not a new development, what we have in this situation certainly constitutes a case where history continues to repeat itself. Squire (2002) writes of the growing disconnect between video game violence research being little more than anti-gaming rhetoric these days, and that it’s often contrary to what people actually experience. That is to say, I’d wager much of the societal perception to issues within the games industry, amounts to little more than propaganda — I am edging towards off-topic territory so let me reiterate that this is relevant — it’s these kinds of barriers which delay and bastardise ‘official’ recognition to new forms of culture and expression. Serious games could have seen their rise much sooner in the education industry, and our modern schools might have turned out very differently as a result. Who’s to say that rise wouldn’t have caused a domino effect, if the supply and demand for serious games was nurtured a couple of decades sooner; the entire games industry might have turned out very differently today! That brings us to our next topic, alternate realities and the multiverse.
Just kidding.
Creativity as a form of personal expression from its creator is artistic. A dance recital is just as much considered art as a lengthy novel, or even street graffiti, I’m sure Banksy would agree. Consider this the next time you pick up a game controller, and if you never have before, now’s a better time than ever. If you find yourself feeling connected to a character in a novel, that’s because the writer wanted you to feel that way. The same goes for a character who you control in a game, just think of them as a book character come to (virtual) life.
Bibliography
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Smuts, A. (2005). Are Video Games Art?. Contemporary Aesthetics, 3(1), 6.
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