are video games art essay

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Are games art? We asked three developers. Here’s how they answered.

In a recent interview with Empire Magazine, legendary filmmaker Martin Scorcese was dismissive about movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, kicking the proverbial hornet’s nest by saying “that’s not cinema.” Others have likewise rejected the idea that video games are a work of art. Film critic Roger Ebert famously stated that “games cannot be art,” though he later softened his stance.

For developers, the question of whether video games are technically an art form has a more complicated answer.

“It almost doesn’t do you any good to think about that,” said Sean Murray of Hello Games. “It’s not your motivation for doing something.”

For some creators, game development is comparable to the artistic process in other mediums. “I think that all of the effort and training and discipline and collaboration of an art department is almost like an amazing band working together to create a single piece of music,” said Jeff Sangalli of Pixelopus, the small studio behind Concrete Genie.

Kareem Ettouney, co-founder of Media Molecule and art director on Dreams, had a much more direct response to the question.

“Absolutely, games at the moment are not only an art but It is the art of this era.” Ettouney said.

Those quoted above are credited with developing some of the most visually striking games of the last several years. The Washington Post spoke with the creators of Concrete Genie, No Man’s Sky and Dreams to discuss how art shaped their vision and how it manifests in their creations.

The following interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

Concrete Genie

Art Director Jeff Sangalli and Creative Director Dominic Robilliard of Pixelopus

Can you speak the challenges of taking a group of artists with different backgrounds and aesthetics and what it’s like to bring that all together into one cohesive vision?

Sangalli : It’s sort of a collaboration in the beginning with you just being there to support and try to make sure that there’s people saying ‘yes’ mostly at that early. So it’s getting the best ideas and then creating artwork and then starting to look for commonalities and for artwork stylistically that complements the gameplay and the story.

How do you empower the player to be creative in ‘Concrete Genie’?

Robilliard : One of the things that was there from the very beginning of this concept was the idea that the player-character was going to be an artist. The iterations that we went through early on let us explore and try and understand how we wanted it to feel for the player to be an artist in the game. And then there’s this technical challenge of not requiring the player to have any artistic ability in order to make something beautiful, which has taken years to craft.

There’s a really interesting intersection of technology and creative to make something that’s really fun and enjoyable to play with so that absolutely anybody could make something that looks good.

Denska, the world in 'Concrete Genie,' is a once bright and bustling seaside town that is now dark and polluted. (Pixelopus)

The main character is a bullied teen named Ash, who escapes his troubles by bringing his colorful imagination to life using his sketchbook. (Pixelopus)

Ash discovers a magical paintbrush charged with ‘Living Paint’ capable of creating paintings that can purify Denska with the help of the genies he paints on the town's polluted walls. (Pixelopus)

Sangalli : We do a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that the brushes that we give you will yield a really pleasing outcome no matter how you use them. But they will give a person enough agency to create what they would really like.

Robilliard : The world itself is beautiful and a kind of melancholic way but it needs your artwork to bring it to life. The mission that Ash has is to paint this town back to life with the power of his creativity. Making sure that world still looks appealing and mysterious and some of you want to explore and spend time in — even before you’ve painted it — is something that has taken some time to get right.

How did you come up with the idea to use urban art or graffiti?

Robilliard : Initially you could only paint in very specific places. And so the thing that we realized by kind of making that version of it was that you didn’t feel enough ownership over the art that you were putting into the game and you didn’t feel connected to it and you didn’t care about it as much as we knew you needed to for this for this concept to work.

The story of the game is about bullying and for you to really understand what that character is going through you have to care about that artwork because it’s not just Ash’s artwork, it’s your artwork. Being able to paint whatever you want and wherever you want to paint it actually became pivotal to making the whole concept of the game work.

You’ve talked a bit about empowering the player as an artist. Has anyone made something in the game that you had never conceived of?

Robilliard : Absolutely. That happens regularly but I can remember the very first time that happened. It was an artist from Media Molecule playing the game and they just made this spectacular montage and they used all the brushes in a way that we had never conceived of. At first, I was like ‘well that’s weird. That’s not going to work,’ and then suddenly everything held up and very quickly this image took shape in a way I didn’t see it coming together.

The VR experience in Concrete Genie. (Pixelopus)

Do you consider a video game to be a work of art?

Robilliard : It was weird the first time I heard that question because it never occurred to me that it isn’t. When you work on things like this you know what goes into them and there’s just no way that it couldn’t be. The amount of effort and heart and soul and creativity that goes into making games … it’s for me the most ultimate expression of art..

Sangalli : To me, I think true artwork is something that makes you feel in some way, whether it be extreme happiness or sadness. I think that video games definitely have that effect. And I see it not only as a vehicle to tell amazing stories and to pull a person in with interactivity but I think that all of the effort and training and discipline and collaboration of an art department is almost like an amazing band working together to create a single piece of music. … I think it all comes back to creating emotional resonance with the player. I think that great artwork should do that.

No Man’s Sky

Sean Murray, founder of Hello Games and creative director on No Man’s Sky

Let’s talk about the planets. They are procedurally generated, but they all seem to share a common aesthetic and color palette. Can you speak to the challenges of making each planet visually unique and also maintaining that consistency throughout?

Murray: Yes. It's a really interesting problem. I think when we started out on our journey with No Man's Sky we had no idea how difficult it was going to be.

We were trying to use the hardware to generate the planets and the things they see around you where normally they would have been painstakingly made by an artist. We wanted to create this huge scale and have billions of planets that you could go and visit. But the problem is trying to get that computer-generated image to have some sort of sense of style and aesthetic and to try to generate something that feels very important and feels entertaining and not just bland or repetitious.

That challenge got us to a really unique place. Grant [Duncan], who is our art director would draw concepts. And then I would try and work out what kind of mathematical pattern could create the things that are in his concepts. He would always have kind of slightly craggy hills and overhangs. So we’d have to figure out, algorithmically, how do those things come about? What kind of maps might create those kind of images? Trees — because they’re alien trees — would always have these little twists and turns on them. Nothing would just be directly straight like they are on Earth.

Aside from, Grant’s work, were there any other sources of inspiration for the aesthetic of No Man’s Sky?

Murray : When we started the game, when nothing existed, we got in a tiny little room together. We did this thing, which is almost, you know, kind of oppressive. We covered every inch of the walls with little printouts of images that we liked. We gathered hundreds of images of inspiration and we would sit there for hours with all these printed out images, kind of as a group saying ‘this one I really like’ and then everyone else would say ‘that doesn’t scream No Man’s Sky to me.’ We would just be going through them and almost you get a shared collective vision.

When we first sat down to do it, a question was ‘if you close your eyes, what is science fiction for you?’ We felt that in most games and certainly in a lot of films, science fiction was generally dystopian and it's actually quite gray and it's raining all the time and there’s gray and black and shiny surfaces.

That’s not the kind of sci-fi that I grew up with. So the aesthetic for us was very much like the book covers from the 60s and 70s, the kind of stuff that you would see on Asimov’s book covers. Which is really different. Bold colors and super imaginative in terms of the shape of ships and terrain and in terms of what you were seeing out on the horizon. … And it wasn’t without danger, maybe, but it was a bit more towards the utopian side rather than the dystopian side. And it was certainly colorful and vibrant. Those were the aesthetics that we were drawing from more than anything else. We wanted to make a universe to go out and explore and it should be one that is a bit more inviting.

No Man’s Sky is a game about exploration and survival in an infinite procedurally generated galaxy. (Hello Games)

You can fly from the surface of a planet to another, and every star in the sky is a sun that you can visit. (Hello Games)

"We wanted to make a universe to go out and explore and It should be one that is a bit more inviting," Hello Games founder Sean Murray said. (Hello Games)

Can you remember that first moment when you saw a somewhat complete version of the game and you experienced that sense of wonder for yourself?

Murray : When we sat down day one, we always talked about that feeling of the first time you land on a planet knowing that no one’s been there before and that emotion behind it. I remember throughout development, we would always say, ‘if we can just get people to feel that. That’s something that you’ve never really felt before.’ That was always the kind of through line of emotion. And, you know, when we’re making decisions about features or whatever out there in the game, we would just kind of thinking like we can just give that feeling to people like, wouldn’t that be amazing? Because we can’t really get that anywhere else other than a video game.

I remember sitting with the guys late one night and we were playing through a build. We landed on a planet and just felt and that it was our game come to life. Everything was just a little bit perfect. It was raining and, you know, a bunch of us hadn’t heard the rain sounds working before. We just stood there for a moment feeling like, OK, this this is what we want for people. Knowing that we were going to name that planet and it was going to go on the servers that would go live. The planet will exist when the game launches. And it was just a really lovely moment.

Can you speak to what VR added to the experience?

Murray : A lot of people have kind of said to me, ‘oh, I had an idea for a game like that when I was a kid.’ I think growing up as a kid in the 80s, you couldn’t help but picture that kind of thing when you imagined the future. Everyone was going to be playing some game where there’s no boundaries, there’s a whole universe there. And in that visual, everyone’s using something like virtual reality.

But you know, we're adults and we're running a business and a company. So we're like, well, ‘we can't do that just yet.’ There are other things we need to do. And this idea was hanging around all the time. Then we kind of felt we got to this point where we felt like we had, you know, eaten our vegetable in terms of getting a game out and updating it for a couple of years. And we were like, ‘this is our dessert.’

Putting on that VR headset when things were working for the first time and they were working properly, I had that moment. I could play the game and feel what it would be like for somebody else who had never seen the game before. I felt like I had fresh eyes and that is just such a valuable feeling. Imagine you spent five years of your life writing a book. You would just give anything to be able to read that book with your critical mind as if you would never have seen it before and you would never get that chance.

Has the addition of VR kind of changed how players explore or interact with the world?

Murray : People who are playing in VR actually play for pretty long sessions. And that’s quite rare. The general thinking right now in the world is that people only play short-form experiences in VR. That doesn’t seem to be that true for us. … The thing we always joke about as a studio is whenever a ship flies overhead like playing non-VR, you completely ignore that. In VR, every single person, every single time will track that ship with their head from start to finish. Like they’re kind of hypnotized by it no matter how many times it happens. I think that’s a real sign that they’re a little bit more immersed.

Murray : So I have a slightly weird take on this.

I think as a developer, I sort of don’t think that’s for me to say. Or at least I don’t think it has a lot of value for me to say that one way or another. Do I think that I have poured a huge amount of myself into something like No Man’s Sky? Yes, definitely. Yes, a huge amount of kind of emotion and passion and who I am.

Does it have an impact on people’s lives? Does it change their perceptions of things? Or have a kind of an emotional response from them? Do they get out some of the emotion that we put in? I think that’s all very true. I don’t think there’s any other medium where you can deliver something like that, where you can interact with something and have a completely unique experience that has been kind of that has come about by a lot of passion and emotion that other people have put into that experience.

For the person who is experiencing or enjoying that, the question of whether it is technically art, I don't even know how important that is. I'm not sure what extra kind of criteria that is super valuable that needs to be brought to that conversation.

You can you can imagine if you were writing a book or you were in a band and somebody was to say to you, ‘do you think what you’re doing is art?’ It’s almost doesn’t do you any good to think about that. It’s not your motivation for doing something. At least for me.

(Media Molecule)

Kareem Ettouney, Art Director and co-founder of Media Molecule

How do you develop a cohesive vision for something that’s based on user-generated content?

Ettouney : We first did user-generated content in LittleBigPlanet. That was our first baby. The art direction of LittleBigPlanet was very realistic, but it was trying to be an arts and crafts kind of DIY aesthetic, making the player nostalgic for children’s low-budget school plays. That was a disarming direction. People in the community ended up exploiting it and doing very different visual styles outside of that. So the first lesson we learned is that no matter what you do in terms of cohesion, people find ways of breaking out of it.

The first thing I faced as an artist and an art director was how to make a user-generated 3D package in a time when tools have come a long way.

Most of the tools that we see are all about the result. If you look at, for example, any animation out there or any game that is fabulous from the very realistic to the very stylized — most of the time if you watch the artist or animator doing the act, you will look at someone using a very sophisticated user interface and it’s full of graphs and buttons and you don’t really know what is going on. While if you watch a painter painting or a sculptor sculpting or a guitarist playing a guitar or a caricature artist in the street, the act of doing the piece is a product in its own right. You can watch it and immediately know what is going on. So there was a gap in user interface design and tools that have that kind of intuitiveness.

The user interface of Dreams lends itself more towards taking liberties and artistic risks. If you want to make something cartoony, that’s fine. Just like using a pencil doesn’t force you to draw like Michelangelo.

The core of Dreams is an environment in which players can create their own games for others to play. (Media Molecule)

"If you want to make something cartoony, that’s fine. Just like using a pencil doesn’t force you to draw like Michelangelo," said Kareem Ettouney, art director on Dreams. (Media Molecule)

Media Molecule also developed LIttleBigPlanet, another game focused on user-generated content. "The first lesson we learned is that no matter what you do in terms of cohesion, people find ways of breaking out of it." Ettouney said. (Media Molecule)

What were some of the challenges of making those tools accessible while still getting out of the way enough to maximize creative potential?

Ettouney : That was a very long journey.

I was very interested in pursuing a toolset and engine features that have minimal buttons and features in front of you even though, technology-wise, there is a million features going on under the hood. As a result of this philosophy you end up with tools that are both expressive for the advanced user and appealing to the beginner. Sometimes people assume that the beginner needs tools that guarantee success.

I believe in piano-style tools — my children find the piano very alluring because you press a button and it makes a sound. I like that more than the kids toys where you press a button and it plays you a whole sample of a song.

Screenshot from Dreams (Media Molecule)

Ettouney : Absolutely. Without hesitation.

The same questions are asked with every new medium. When oil painting was invented, it was questioned because the previous mediums were fresco. When they started using lenses and prisms and things to transfer imagery in the 17th century, that was scrutinized. People will always use whatever means and whatever techniques they can to recycle tradition. We just find new mediums to turn them over and over and in doing that, we assemble things in slightly different ways. Definitely games are now in the heart or in the core of this generation in this era because it combines all mediums — animation, visuals, music, sound, storytelling, filmmaking and interactive design. So, absolutely, games at the moment are not only an art but it is the art of this era.

Can you envision anything else that isn’t technologically possible yet that would take Dreams or other games like it to the next step?

Ettouney : I think everybody in software is trying to improve user expressiveness. The art form of animation is only less than a hundred years old and there have been so many advancements — from keyframing to timelines to stop motion and green screen motion tracking. I think there is definitely lots more to be done in making breakthroughs in user expression across all mediums.

Here’s a hypothetical: If you had all the time in the world to just sit down and make any game using Dreams, what would that be like?

Ettouney : What a lovely question. My background is preproduction and scene design, so Dreams encourages me to move a bit. So rather than making a wonderful aesthetic space, it’s not hard for me to sequence some cameras going through that space and then it’s also not hard to make choreographed events happen when my camera is at a certain point. One of the things that I find myself not getting bored of doing is journeys into dreamlike collages of spaces that start forming something meaningful. It could start having a theme and a story and a bit of meaning.

Joe Moore works in sports and throughout the newsroom on print and digital projects. He previously worked as the lead sports designer at The Boston Globe. His work has been recognized by the Society for News Design.

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Yet another “video games as art” essay

My English class assigned me to write an argument on any reasonably controversial subject. I chose the question of video games as art. The organization is horrid, the attention grabber is hokey, and I’ve written about similar subjects before , but I figured some Dtoid readers still might be interested. Read it after the jump.

A monster stands in a barren field, over fifty feet tall and covered in stone armor. A young boy stands before him, armed with nothing but a sword and a hope that killing this beast will save the woman he loves. This is a moment from Shadow of the Colossus , a 2006 video game that attempts to marry enjoyable gameplay with deep, universal themes.

As an avid gamer myself, I am aware of the attempts of games such as Shadow of the Colossus to elevate the medium of gaming. Still, it is still the opinion of much of mainstream America that video games are nothing more than superficial, uncultured, escapist entertainment. While it is true that many video games do fall into these categories, it is absolutely essential for society to understand that many games are filled with significant artistic meaning, and that the medium itself has great potential for artistic expression.

Before examining video gaming as an art form, it is necessary to specify the definition of “art”. For the purpose of this argument, art will be defined as any creative work with a thematic meaning or purposeful message. This definition is actually one of the most constricting, in that it excludes particular works from every art form: a shallowly entertaining film, for example, is not “art” by this definition.

Because the media constantly targets specific, inartistic games such as Grand Theft Auto , it becomes necessary to examine especially artistic games as well as identify the aspects of the medium that can be conducive to artistic creation. That being said, it is commonly (and incorrectly) argued that all video games, by their very nature, cannot be art. Film critic Roger Ebert has stated that games are not art because, “video games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control.” This may appear to be a sound argument until one considers any works of art with deliberately ambiguous messages. If one were to, say, look at an abstract painting and attempt to derive meaning from it, then the audience is actively participating in the enjoyment of that piece of art. The audience is consciously deciding what to take from the painting, and, thereforem the artist has handed over authorial control.

The same would be true of any film with a “cliffhanger” ending: the audience is forced to choose their own conclusion. The absence of authorial control does not harm the artistic value of a piece, but rather enhances it: instead of being spoon-fed ideas and messages, the audience is forced to choose their own interpretation of the work. In video games, the choices are simply intrinsic to the piece itself, instead of just the consideration of the piece’s meaning. For this reason, the accusation that video games are an inherently inartistic medium is a fallacious one.

Another complaint often aimed at video games is that they are unimportant, irrelevant wastes of time. One need only look at the statistics to see that the opposite is the case: as of a 2004 study by The NPD Group, video games are a ten billion dollar a year international industry (that’s more money than the entire film industry makes annually), and, according to Forrester Research, nearly half of all North American homes own at least one video game console. Social critic Chuck Klosterman has defended the medium, saying “people in America who do not take video games seriously are the same people who question the relevance of hip-hop and assume newspapers will still exist in twenty-five years” (47). He also likens video games in 2006 to rock music in 1967, and the comparison is fitting: both mediums are unfairly demonized as corruptors of America’s youth, both mediums are and were extremely prevalent amongst a younger generation, and both mediums, in Klosterman ‘ s words, “ have meaning, and reflect the worldviews and sensibilities of their audience†(47). Video game designer Ernest Adams concurs, but calls the medium an “ easy target” because “ unlike the movies, games have no powerful friends and no beautiful film stars to argue for them” (1). To dismiss video games as irrelevant is to ignore mountains of statistical evidence to the contrary, and to deem them unimportant is to make the same mistake the eldest generation of the 1960 ‘ s did.

Most importantly, it is necessary to note that certain video games have proven that the medium is already capable of delivering artistically meaningful experiences, such as my personal favorite game, the aforementioned Shadow of the Colossus . The main draw of Shadow of the Colossus is how consistently and effectively it mixes story mechanics with game mechanics; everything you do in the game helps develop a relationship or convey an idea, and vice versa. Most games attempt to convey a story solely through pages of dialogue or numerous “ cutscenes” (noninteractive movie clips), but Shadow, not content to rely on conventional art forms to tell its story, relies solely on actual gameplay to do so. The story (which is to say, the raw narrative itself), like almost everything else in Shadow, is extremely minimalist.

There are only four main characters and only one of them is explicitly named:the protagonist ‘ s horse, Agro. The protagonist and Agro journey to the Forbidden Lands in order to resurrect a dead girl who evidently means a lot to the hero. In order to do this, the god of the Forbidden Lands commands the protagonist to destroy the 16 Colossi, enormous beasts made of metal and earth: if the player can somehow bring them all down, the god vows to revive the girl. In addition to the beautiful graphics and exciting gameplay that accompanies a game of such epic scope, Shadow seeks to convey legitimate thematic messages to the player. Benjamin Sherman, video game theorist, points out that the main character’ s constant reliance on his horse for transportation across a completely lonely game world helps emotionally connect the player to both characters. Though neither the protagonist nor his horse companion ever speak, the sheer amount of time they spend together, the intentional loneliness of the lands the two have to travel across, and the incredible usefulness of the horse in fighting the colossi, results in a strong emotional bond between the player and the horse. When Agro dies at the end of the game, the player feels a sense of legitimate loss, and does not feel like “ the hand of the game designer came down and decided” to kill the horse (Sherman).

Another theme the game develops is the morally ambiguous nature of the protagonist’s actions. At first, the player naturally assumes that the killing of the colossi is, all in all, a morally good thing: the colossi are huge, look terrifying, and have weapons, so the player naturally assumes that they are evil. However, after the player slays about four or five of the beasts, a strange thing happens—the player meets colossi that do not immediately attack him. It is a subtle game mechanic, but an incredibly important one: instead of trying to destroy the player, the giants will examine you, run from you, or ignore you altogether. The giants begin behaving more like confused animals than evil killing machines, and in order to complete his assigned goal, the player is forced to instigate battle, and literally murder a creature that had not attempted to cause him any harm. The player begins to realize that the music that plays as a colossus slowly dies is not triumphant at all, but almost funerial in tone.

The game forces the player to re-examine what he is doing: is it morally right to kill these colossi? Why is the player even doing it? Because the player was simply told to do so? Of course, the player continues playing, wanting to get to the ending and find out the overall reasons for his actions, but as the player meets certain colossi–like a smaller bull-like animal who is terrified of fire, and cowers back like a frightened child at the sight of it–the game subtly but efficiently coerces the player into asking himself serious questions on the nature of right and wrong. The themes of friendship, loss, and moral ambiguity can be found in countless works of noninteractive art, but Shadow of the Colossus successfully develops these themes through interactive gameplay alone.

It is, however, essential to understand that Shadow of the Colossus is not some sort of artistic fluke: I personally own many other games that present the player with equally artistic themes. In Splinter Cell: Double Agent (2006), the player takes on the role of an undercover spy who has infiltrated a terrorist organization. The player is then forced to reconsider the definition of loyalty as he befriends terrorists who have helped him progress through the levels, but is then asked by his government to kill them in order to maintain his cover.

In Ico (2001), an earlier game made by the Fumito Ueda (the developer of Shadow of the Colossus), the player leads the daughter of an evil witch through a lonely castle, hoping to find a way to escape. Through leading the princess along, helping her solve puzzles, and defending her from evil monsters, the player becomes emotionally connected to her and is personally invested in the climax of the game, whereupon the princess is possessed by her mother and the player is forced to consider what to do if the companion he has spent the entire game with has turned evil.

In Deus Ex (2000), the player works his way through political conspiracies and underground organizations, and, in the end, has to choose whether to help the terrorists, the government, or neither. What would be an otherwise simple choice is made morally ambiguous as the player discovers both ruthlessness and compassion in both groups, and must decide which of the organizations is the “right” one. It is necessary to understand that there are many available games that have important messages to convey through gameplay alone.

Despite what much of the mainstream media assumes, video games have always had the potential, if not the desire, to function as art. Since video gaming is, in many ways, a combination of several different art forms (illustration, filmmaking, and music come to mind), the medium has the ability to tackle any of the “heavier” subjects that most established art forms address on a regular basis. In the words of Ernest Adams, an ideal video game would be about “ history, science, technology, politics, music, art, religion, diplomacy, family, manners, love, death, duty, sorrow, revenge, depression, and joy” (3).

Granted, many video games choose not to aspire to such a lofty task. Popular mainstream games such as Halo, Doom, Grand Theft Auto , and Super Mario Brothers , while endlessly entertaining in their respective genres, have no messages to convey, no themes to develop, and their storylines are usually nothing more than scenarios for entertaining gameplay. Under the current definition being used, these games are not artistic. However, this situation is typical of every art medium: while certain noteworthy works will reach aesthetic and thematic greatness, others will, whether by choice or a lack of quality, remain nothing more than pointless entertainment. The film industry has slasher flicks and the music industry has “bubble-gum pop”, but these mediums are still universally agreed upon as legitimate art forms (Adams 2). With video games, the amount of pointlessly entertaining works is simply much larger than in most other mediums.

But despite these entries of lesser artistic value, the fact remains that video games have an inherent ability to function as art. Though many video games are indeed nothing more than flashy entertainment, many existing games develop meaningful themes through gameplay alone, and the medium has the potential to produce many more games of this type. It may be some time before video games are regarded as a relevant art form, but, inevitably, it will happen. As technology gets more and more advanced, and as the audience of gamers grows larger and larger, it will eventually become impossible to ignore the prevalence of video gaming in modern society.

But, for now, gamers can take on the role of a young boy attempting to slay a building-sized beast to resurrect the woman he loves: they can feel his triumph, his heartbreak, and they can take part in his moral dilemmas firsthand. In the end, if that is not art, what is?

Video Games Are One of the Most Important Art Forms in History

• Chris Melissinos

They’re the only medium that allows for personalizing the artistic experience

I believe that video games will prove to be one of the most important mediums of art that humanity has ever had at its disposal.

Technology has expanded the canvas upon which artists are able to paint and tell their stories. As an art form that has only existed in the digital space, video games are truly a collision of art and science. They include many forms of traditional artistic expression—sculpture in the form of 3D modeling, illustration, narrative arcs, and dynamic music—that combine to create something that transcends any one type.

Video games are also the only form of media that allows for personalizing the artistic experience while still retaining the authority of the artist. In video games we find three distinct voices: the creator, the game, and the player. Those who play a game are following the story of the author and are bound by the constructs of the rules—but based on the choices they make, the experience can be completely personal. If you can observe the work of another and find in it personal connection, then art has been achieved.

Our kids are growing up in a world where they’re finding equally meaningful connection on both sides of the digital line. Video games are a natural evolution of what we’ve always done, play—to discover our world, discover each other, and discover ourselves.

Melissinos is director of corporate strategy for media and entertainment at Verizon and curated “The Art of Video Games” exhibit at the Smithsonian.

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A Journey to Make Video Games Into Art

By Laura Parker

The critic Roger Ebert once drew a crucial distinction between video games and art: he said that the ultimate objective of a video game—unlike that of a book, film, or poem—is to achieve a high score, vaporize falling blocks, or save the princess. Art, he argued, cannot be won.

But Journey, which was released last spring, is not like other games. You play a faceless, cloaked figure who glides through a vast desert towards a mountain on the horizon. Along the way, you may encounter a second player, with an identical avatar, who is plucked from the Internet through an online matchmaking system. Both players remain anonymous—there are no usernames or other identifying details—and communication is limited to varying combinations of the same, one-note chirp. No words ever appear onscreen during gameplay. The idea of the two-hour game is to make a pair of players connect, despite those limitations, and help each other move forward. Along the way, they solve puzzles and explore the remnants of a forgotten civilization.

This kind of purity of form is at odds with most contemporary games. As the gaming industry has increasingly come to resemble Hollywood in its pursuit of guaranteed blockbuster franchises, the titles that dominate the sales charts—the shooters and the sports games—are designed to trigger the kind of escapism that rarely invites contemplation or self-reflection. Few games are willing to stray from familiar territory, and even fewer do so successfully. By delighting critics and smashing sales records, Journey, a weird game from an unconventional game-development studio, joins the small pantheon of titles to have done both with ease.

Thatgamecompany, the independent studio responsible for creating Journey, is a fourteen-person firm that operates out of a small, one-room office in suburban Santa Monica, California.

TGC’s creative director, Jenova Chen, sits by the front door, next to a shelf packed with a growing collection of industry trophies and awards. Now thirty-one, Chen co-founded TGC with Kellee Santiago during his final year at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, in 2006. Since Santiago’s departure, in 2012, Chen has become the company’s leader, ideas man, and public face. He believes that TGC is “the Pixar of games”: “Right now, most games feel like summer blockbuster films, all explosions and crappy dialogue,” Chen said. “A big part of the games industry still hasn’t figured out how to give players something new. That’s what I want to do.”

The concept of the auteur is relatively new to gaming. Only a small group of developers have earned the title, people like Shigeru Miyamoto , Hideo Kojima, and Warren Spector. Chen considers himself a commercial artist, whose role is as much to create “real art”—the kind that Ebert referred to—as it is to produce marketable entertainment. He wears suits to work instead of the jeans-and-T-shirt uniform adopted by most game developers. And he describes himself as a perfectionist; he redesigned TGC’s 2009 title, Flower, twelve times before being convinced it was ready for release. Even his name is overly designed: he adopted “Jenova” from the antagonist of one of his favorite video games, Final Fantasy VII, while he was in high school. (His real name, “Xinghan,” means “Milky Way” in Chinese.)

In the industry press, TGC’s games are often described as “experimental.” The studio’s past three titles, released on the PlayStation Network as part of an exclusive three-game deal with Sony Computer Entertainment America, featured no dialogue or conventional protagonists. Flow, released in 2007, requires players to guide a microorganism through a series of underwater two-dimensional plains; in Flower, the player guides a single flower petal across different environments. Journey, released in spring of 2012, was TGC’s first online game. Following its release, it became the fastest-selling PlayStation Store title in both North America and Europe. (Sony did not reveal how many copies the game sold, saying only that it broke sales records.)

In the first week of sales, TGC received over three hundred emails and letters from gamers expressing awe at Journey’s ability to rouse their altruistic spirit. Meanwhile, critics pointed to Journey as evidence of a cultural shift in gaming—the start of a new era of thought-provoking, meaningful experiences that stretch the boundaries of the medium. This year, Journey was nominated for almost every recognizable game-of-the-year award, eclipsing games with many times its budget. Overnight, TGC became the gaming industry’s new heroes.

But in a keynote speech shortly after Journey had won Game of the Year at the 2013 DICE Summit, Chen announced that the studio had run out of money while developing the game.

TGC had begun work on Journey in 2009. Sony’s strict budget for the title determined many of the firm’s design decisions: Chen originally intended for the game to be set in a forest but switched the backdrop to a desert because there was “less stuff to draw.” The fully animated human protagonist was reduced to a pair of matchstick legs. The game’s striking visual aesthetic was the fortunate result of limitations.

At the end of 2011, a few months before Journey’s deadline, TGC asked Sony for an extension. It was the third in as many years—the development cycle had been unusually long, and Chen didn’t want to submit the game until it had “achieved its intended emotional impact.” He had spent twelve months reading sociology books. Knowing he couldn’t anticipate players’ reactions, he reasoned that they might be more willing to invest emotionally in the game if they were forced to play anonymously. (This runs contrary to current conventional wisdom about how online speech becomes more civil if you attach people’s real names to their actions.) “Right now, when you think about online players, you just think of jerks that couldn’t be happier than when they see you suffer,” Chen said. “I wanted a game where players could connect to someone, someone they could trust but who they knew nothing about.”

Sony gave the studio more time but no additional money. Chen used the last of TGC’s savings to finish Journey; it submitted the game to Sony in January, 2012. A week later, the company shut down. Most of the employees left for new jobs; the rest were quietly let go. Chen, his lead engineer, and his lead designer held on to await the verdict on the game that had bankrupted them.

Chen waited long enough to be convinced the game would succeed before flying to San Francisco to meet with Benchmark Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm whose list of investments includes Twitter, Instagram, and Yelp. Mitch Lasky, the Benchmark general partner who agreed to meet with Chen, was already impressed by Journey. After Chen finished his pitch and left the room, one of the partners who sat in on the meeting told Lasky, “Don’t let him leave the parking lot without a handshake.”

A week later, Benchmark signed off on a five-and-a-half-million-dollar investment. “I’m a venture capitalist, not a patron of the arts,” Lasky explained to me. “He’s an outlier, and in our business, it’s the outliers who can produce the biggest returns. Journey may be the video-game industry’s ‘Toy Story’ moment.”

A week before our interview, Chen stopped at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in downtown Los Angeles, to see if anyone had one-upped him on his next idea. “I was proud to see that no one is doing what we’re doing, but also worried because I know why,” he said. “It’s risky.” Earlier this year, an ex-TGC employee promised that the company’s next game would “change the industry.”

Chen called it “the bastard child” of all his past games and a continuation of TGC’s past themes of connection, nostalgia, and self-reflection. He aims to give people who play it a memory as vivid and emotionally gratifying as their most cherished childhood moments; he compared it to watching “E.T.” for the first time.

In the as-yet-untitled new game, which, according to Chen, is at least another two years away, people can play alone or with others. It will again feature non-verbal communication, although the studio hasn’t yet planned how players will interact. Chen just wants to enable people to play side-by-side in the same room: “A lot of people asked us why Journey didn’t let them play with friends or family, and obviously we had a reason—because that would have defeated the purpose of the game. But for a game to be truly be accessible, to both children and adults and to men and women, it has to allow people to play with the ones they love.”

And, unlike before, the game will be released on multiple platforms. Chen, at first, said the game would “obviously” not be made for devices that don’t make sense, like BlackBerries. But then he added, “Well, why not?”

After talking about the game, but swearing me to secrecy about some of its details, Chen showed me a letter he received earlier this year from a fifteen-year-old girl whose father had passed away from cancer a few months ago. The girl describes spending hours playing and re-playing Journey with her dad in the last weeks of his life, and how it was their last activity as father and daughter. “Every artist wants his or her work to connect with someone,” Chen said. “I think that’s why people make art.”

Illustration: Thatgamecompany.

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By Evan Osnos

By John Cassidy

By Kyle Chayka

By Idrees Kahloon

Why Video Games Are Works of Art

Noodle93/flickr

I've stood at the top of a grass-blown knoll overlooking the sea, a view that stretched to cover a land of sprawling islands traversed only by my sailboat and me. I have played a musical instrument that controls the wind. I've been a sword-wielding teenage adventurer, a ghostbuster, and a short Italian plumber in search of his kidnapped love.

Roger Ebert would say that none of these experiences were real or meaningful because they happened through video games. In a recent post, simply entitled " Video games can never be art " published on his Chicago Sun-Times blog , the famed movie critic shoots down one of my favorite art forms as unable to fulfill his definition of 'art'. The critic reacts specifically to a TED talk given by independent game developer Kellee Santiago of thatgamecompany , a video game production firm known as a forerunner in a movement that takes for granted that video games are art. The trick, according to Santiago, is to make them great art. I agree.

But let's hear Ebert make his argument for himself. The critic first dismisses videogames as art on the grounds that they are foremost games, and games, having rules and objectives, can be "won". Traditional art forms, "a story, a novel, a play," he writes, "are things you cannot win; you can only experience them." He measures video games against the Platonic definition of art as an imitation of nature and reality. Ebert writes, "[art] grows better the more it improves or alters nature through a passage through what we might call the artist's soul, or vision." He concedes that he thinks art is "usually the creation of one artist," and does not believe video games, the products of large teams are capable of having a singular artistic "vision" behind them.

But video games are nothing if not experiential. They are visuals and music and poetry all wrapped up into a single package. A video game isn't just a game—it is a controlled passage through an overwhelming aesthetic experience. This is also the basis for my own definition of art as any sensory aesthetic experience that provokes an emotional response in its audience, be it wonder, anger, love, frustration or joy.

Yoshi's Island fills me with the same awe as a full-bloom Matisse canvas . Super Mario 64 is as much of a world to me as that created in The Godfather , with as much directorial vision as Coppola. And I can even explore it at my own free will! Video games are art because they inspire us and make us feel and give us experiences unreachable within the realm of the real. It doesn't matter if it's the fantasy of Pokémon and taking pride in caring for something as it grows or Ta-Nehisi Coates' escapist immersion in World of Warcraft as a place with politics and race and social conflicts all its own. These emotions and experiences are gifts given to us by video games just as any other art form.

Ebert denies video games the status of art on a de-facto basis, having never played one himself; no video game yet has deserved his "attention long enough to play it." This is the biggest red flag in a series of holes in his argument. After all, aren't movies also produced by a team, led perhaps by a director? Video games likewise have their auteurs, directors whose overwhelming vision is the soul of their games. Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto , creator of the Super Mario, Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong series of video games, is acclaimed as the greatest. Miyamoto's oeuvre, with its postmodern sense of play and worlds-within-worlds-within-worlds, is as defining a body of art as we can hope to have for the twenty-first century.

Sure, video games can be "won", but "winning" a video game isn't just earning the most points. Winning, in most single-player video games, involves completing the game's narrative arc, reaching the end of the plot in a way very similar to a movie's climax and denouement. Video games don't just stop at the narrative resolution, though. "Winning" often gains the player the ability to explore and wander at will through the game, an experience driven by aesthetics alone. Beat Super Mario World and you'll go back and play through levels simply because they're as beautiful as Kandinsky's Blaue Reiter paintings. Finish the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and head back to the mountains to look out over the world, to feel the virtual wind. Video games are, if anything, more experiential than films.

To conclude his post, Ebert writes, "No one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great poets, filmmakers, [and] novelists." Here's my shot: the sailing sequences in The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker are worthy of comparison to Coleridge's Mariner . Pokémon is a coming of age story that doesn't pander or condescend to its young audience, a self-guided Catcher in the Rye. Miyamoto has said that he came up with the original Zelda game as a " miniature garden that [gamers] can put inside their drawer." Likewise, the endless castle of Super Mario 64 is certainly a "world in a grain of sand".

Video games allow us, as William Blake says, as children do, as Miyamoto does, to "hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour." The question is not if video games qualify as art, or if video games can stand up to the art of the past, rather, it is how to find a new language to speak of video games as art. In this Ebert fails entirely.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, games vs. art: a point-by-point response.

From: Sgt. Jeremy Ricci, Fort Riley, KS

Ebert: The word "prejudiced" often translates as "disagrees with me." I might suggest that gamers have a prejudiced view of their medium, and particularly what it can be. Games may not be Shakespeare quite yet, but I have the prejudice that they never will be, and some gamers are prejudiced that they will.

On the contrary, Mr. Ebert, I find that rarely will 'prejudiced' translate to 'disagrees with me'. What he was suggesting, however, was that you have come to a conclusion in which you have deemed video games as 'less than art', which was formed without knowledge, thought, or reason. By definition, sir, you are prejudiced toward the concept of video games as art forms. Your suggestions that you have a prejudice that games will never be 'Shakespeare' simply suggests that you have come to that conclusion without any knowledge or reason pertaining to the realm of video games.

Ebert: Perhaps if the experience moves your bowels, it is worthy of some serious medical study. Many experiences that move me in some way or another are not art. A year ago I lost the ability (temporarily, I hope) to speak. I was deeply moved by the experience. It was not art.

You have a point sir, but you also prove one. While your loss is tragic, should you write about it, would that not be considered art? Or would that book merely be a collection of words to describe an event in your life? You can define art however you want, but in its most simple form, art is nothing more than the expression of self. Given that there are many people who come together to express themselves and certain ideas in videogames, I think it's safe to say some degree of art is involved. Do you not think it unfair, at least in the slightest, to come to a conclusion based only on your inexperience?

Ebert: A reviewer is a reader, a viewer or a player with an opinion about what he or she has viewed, read or played. Whether that opinion is valid is up to his audience, books, games and all forms of created experience are about themselves; the real question is, do we as their consumers become more or less complex, thoughtful, insightful, witty, empathetic, intelligent, philosophical (and so on) by experiencing them? Something may be excellent as itself, and yet be ultimately worthless. A bowel movement, for example.

If I understand you correctly, and I think I do, you are saying that we should judge games and compare them to a bowel movement, and by that you mean they are ultimately worthless? I apologize for what I am about to say, but you are being extremely absurd. Can you tell me what form of art makes us more insightful, intelligent, or even philosophical? Did the wonderful smile of Mona Lisa make you any more thoughtful, insightful, complex, or witty? Does watching a play on Broadway, or attending your local Opera showing make you any more philosophical or intelligent? If it does, then why, sir, is it not possible for a video game to stir the same emotions and though behind these simple forms of art? Unfortunately, that is an answer you cannot deliver, as it's not there.

Ebert: He is right again about me. I believe art is created by an artist. If you change it, you become the artist. Would " Romeo and Juliet " have been better with a different ending? Rewritten versions of the play were actually produced with happy endings. " King Lear " was also subjected to rewrites; it's such a downer. At this point, taste comes into play. Which version of "Romeo and Juliet," Shakespeare's or Barker's, is superior, deeper, more moving, more "artistic"?

Again, by your definition, we are all artists. Many games give us the ability to change what we participate in. From simple plot line deviations to deep insightful side quests, games offer us the opportunity to alter the experience presented to us. To construct these stories as we see fit and effect the outcome (however minor the result of our actions) gives us the ability to control this art and our journey. Does a musician not control the instrument he plays?

Ebert: If you can go through "every emotional journey available," doesn't that devalue each and every one of them? Art seeks to lead you to an inevitable conclusion, not a smorgasbord of choices. If next time, I have Romeo and Juliet go through the story naked and standing on their hands, would that be way cool, or what?

Does being sad and angry that you've lost a loved one, but being happy at the same time that you still have your family devalue any of the prior emotions? Even in a poem such as " The Raven " by Edgar Allen Poe, there are multiple hints of mixed emotions and confusion. Would you doubt his work as well? Is he any less of an artist?

Ebert: Spoken with the maturity of an honest and articulate 4-year old. I do not have a need "all the time" to take myself away from the oppressive facts of my life, however oppressive they may be, in order to go somewhere where I have control. I need to stay here and take control. Right now, for example, I cannot speak, but I am writing this. You lose some, you win some.

Ah, wonderful choice of words sir. To go back to Edgar Allen Poe, whom you seem to believe represents art, specifically in horror stories, I want to talk about his essay, "The Philosophy of Composition" written after "The Raven." He talks about how he wrote the poem, and how none of it was constructed by mistake or chance. He claims that no aspect of the poem was an accident, rather, it was based on total control by the author. Would you now stoop so low as to call Edgar Allen Poe an honest and articulate 4-year old? He acknowledges that control can be a definitive factor in the creation of art, yet you scrutinize Barker for similar ideals?

In conclusion, I ask only that you refrain from the grouping of all video games as one non-artistic medium, and come to accept that in the end, art is what we make of it. There are good movies, and bad, great books, and poor. The same applies to video games, where some stories are great, carefully crafted and artistic, while others are chaotic, unorganized, and sporadic. Experience is necessary to be one of those reviewers you spoke so highly about, only it seems you write not for an audience, but for yourself, and even then, you lack the experience in the said genre to do that. Learn and let live, as education is also a part of understanding art.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Are Video Games Art?

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In this paper I argue that by any major definition of art many modern video games should be considered art. Rather than defining art and defending video games based on a single contentious definition, I offer reasons for thinking that video games can be art according to historical, aesthetic, institutional, representational and expressive theories of art. Overall, I argue that while many video games probably should not be considered art, there are good reasons to think that some video games should be classified as art, and that the debates concerning the artistic status of chess and sports offer some insights into the status of video games.

video games, technology-based art, gamers, game design, game designers, narrative art

1. Introduction

In a Newsweek article from March of 2000, Jack Kroll argues that "games can be fun and rewarding in many ways, but they can't transmit the emotional complexity that is the root of art." [1] Kroll's article sparked a series of angry replies, mostly from gamers writing for industry magazines on the web, [2] but the controversy was not confined to fan culture and journalism. In an article published in MIT's Technology Review called "Art Form for the Digital Age," film scholar Henry Jenkins criticized Kroll for dramatically underestimating the potential of video games. [3] Outside of academia, Kroll's article was also cited in an amicus brief advising the Seventhth Circuit Court of Appeals on a case regarding an Indiana video game censorship law. [4] The extent and diversity of the response indicates that Kroll hit a nerve, and it is worthwhile to dig a little deeper into the issue.

Despite the cultural prominence of video games and technology-based art, philosophical aesthetics has completely ignored the area. Scholars in other disciplines, such as film, have taken the lead in the conceptual debate. This is unfortunate, since seldom are there questions in the philosophy of art that have direct, real world consequences. Philosophical inattention to video games has a de facto effect on the multi-billion dollar industry by inadvertently making hasty censorship attempts easier. The fact that philosophers have not raised the question of whether video games can be art lends credence to the assumption that they are not.

In this paper I argue thatby any major definition of art many modern video gamesshould be considered art. [5] Typically, one advances the art status of a purported art form in a deductive fashion, by first picking a favored definition of art, then demonstrating that the candidate satisfies the sufficient conditions for art according to that definition, and finally concluding that the art form in question is art. Rather than defining art and defending video games based on a single contentious definition, I offer reasons for thinking that video games can be art according to historical, aesthetic, institutional, representational and expressive theories of art. If we can agree that all these theories generally track our intuitions about what should be considered art, then when they are all in agreement we have good reason to think that we have successfully picked out an art form.

My argument proceeds in three major steps: I begin with a brief description of three recent games that have received extensive praise from gamers and game reviewers. I then attempt to situate video games with respect to larger issues about art and games by assessing the relevance of arguments about the aesthetics of sport and chess. Finally, I offer a host of reasons why some video games should be considered art according to several major theories of art. Overall, I argue that while many video games probably should not be considered art, there are good reasons to think that some video games should be classified as art. [6]

2. Three Candidate Games

It will be useful to give a brief description of a few important games from which I will draw key examples. Max Payne (Remedy Entertainment, 2001), Halo (Bungie, 2001), and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (Ubisoft, 2002) are three recent games that have earned significant critical acclaim. The sophistication of these games indicates the promising aesthetic potential of the purported art form.

Max Payne (Remedy Entertainment, 2001) is a third-person shooter, a game where the camera takes a perspective from slightly behind the character, allowing the player to control the direction in which the character looks and moves. Max Payne is a noir -revenge thriller in which the player's avatar [7] is a rogue cop on a mission to avenge the death of his wife and child. The game employs first-person, voice-over narration, like many works in the film noir genre, and it includes periodic graphic-novel cut scenes, inserts that develop the narration between levels or major sections of play. Although the cut-rateChandler-inspired dialogue and voice-over could use some extensive rewriting, the game makes a great effort to motivate revenge-directed anger by forcing the player to work through hallucinatory flashback episodes in which Max is impotent to prevent the slaughtering of his family. The elaborate plot, complete with double-crossings and evidence of conspiracies spiraling out to the highest levels, helps to evoke classic noir -inspired dread.

Halo , the most successful game for Microsoft's X-Box platform, is an elaborate science fiction adventure set in an artificial world. The game mixes play modes, moving from the first-person perspective of a cyborg warrior, to driving and flying modes of play. Like Max Payne , Halo takes over 20 hours to complete. The levels (or long, goal-directed segments of play) are highly integrated with the narrative, and much of the pleasure in playing the game derives from slowly uncovering the purpose of the world on which your army has crash-landed. The narrative development is highly sophisticated for a video game and involves plot twists, double-crossing and surprise introductions of new characters.

Splinter Cell , also a game for the X-box, is renowned for its graphics and life-like character movement. In the game's jingoistic narrative, you play a secret operative set to infiltrate a hostile country. As in the other two games discussed, Splinter Cell has an elaborate narrative that is tightly integrated with the game play. It is a third-person shooter but requires stealth-like movements. Much of the game play is spent waiting and hiding in suspense. The game features a complex plot, extremely detailed character movements and elaborate lighting effects, which include stunning shadow play and chiaroscuro. Splinter Cell is a highly unified effort to provoke the feeling of tension one has when sneaking around and hiding from danger.

These three games represent recent trends in video game design made possible by increasingly sophisticated technology. All feature integrated narratives, graphics nearing photo-realism and elaborate three-dimensional worlds with rich and detailed textures. I do not claim that any of these games are great art, but they are all adept at achieving the goals they set for themselves, goals of provoking specific emotions that are typical of similar genres in other art forms.

3. Where's the Art?

In order to determine whether video games are an art form, we first need some idea of where the art might lie. Video games combine elements from narrative fiction film, music and sports. They are arguably an art or sister art of the moving image, specifically, a form of digital animation. The code is like musical notation that is performed by the computer, and the games are played like sports. As we shall see, the debates concerning the artistic status of chess and sports offer some insights into the status of video games.

In the philosophy of sport, David Best makes a distinction between sports that are evaluated aesthetically (aesthetic sports) and those that are not (purposive sports). [8] Although we may say that a baseball pitcher has a beautiful arm or that a boxer is graceful, when judging sports like baseball, hockey, soccer, football, basketball and boxing, the competitors are not formally evaluated on aesthetic grounds. However, sports such as gymnastics, diving and ice skating are evaluated in large part by aesthetic criteria. One may manage to perform all the moves in a complicated gymnastics routine, but if it is accomplished in a feeble manner one will not get a perfect score. Best argues that "an aesthetic sport is one in which the purpose cannot be specified independently of the manner of achieving it." [9] One might argue that such sports are so close to dance that they are plausible candidates to be called art forms.

One objection to calling sports such as diving art forms is that they are competitive. If this objection holds, then perhaps video games are not art works either, since they are essentially competitive. Competition is considered inimical to artistic creation because it locates the purpose behind the production in non-aesthetic goals. However, it is fairly obvious that competition does not deny something of art status. Greek tragedies were explicitly entered into competitions, but no one seriously denies that they are art because of their competitive provenance. One can compose a poem with the intention of submitting it to a contest without its ceasing to be an art work. The same can be said of any kind of art, and there is thus no reason to think that competition is incompatible with other aesthetic goals.

One might argue that the situation is somewhat different with video games, since they are experienced competitively and there are no uncontested art forms where the audience's experience is itself competitive. This line of objection fails to account for the competitive aspect of the plethora of fictions that are centered around competitions. National Velvet , Sea Biscuit , The Karate Kid , and numerous other fiction films that we might consider art encourage the audience to root for one side of a competition, making the experience of the fiction competitive. If one takes issue with my examples, any suspense-generating fictional example will do. Does Hamlet cease to be art because the audience is encouraged to side with Hamlet against his father's killer?

One might respond that although we may find ourselves rooting for a fictional character in a novel, play or film, this experience is far different from that of rooting for our own success in a game. The objection may conclude that being involved in a competition precludes aesthetic experience; however, this objection is beside the point. We should not confine the audience of video games to players, since often games are played with an audience. There is no radical difference here between video games and dance contests or poetry slams. Although playing video games usually involves a smaller audience-to-competitor ratio, there is no reason why the audience watching someone play a game must be smaller than the audience of non-competitors at a poetry slam.

Nevertheless, we should not ignore the aesthetic experience of the performers of art works. The video game player can plausibly be considered a performer in a larger video game performance. Since the primary goal of most game design is to enhance such aesthetic experiences, it would seem that we have good reason to evaluate games as art works. Unfortunately, the philosophy of art and aestheticians appear oblivious to the aesthetic experience of performers of art works. However, we must ask, does not even the amateur musician have aesthetic or artistic experiences?

Though video games share a competitive aspect with sports, the comparison between sports that may be art and video games does not bring to light any other important similarities. Indeed, video games and art-candidate sports are different in an important way. Unlike sports that are evaluated on aesthetic grounds, the playing of video games has not been considered an art form. It is true that recordings of game play have been taken and pieced together to make digital video art. In addition, some games allow the player to save and distribute instant replays. However, the performance of a video game is not normally evaluated aesthetically. Perhaps someone will make an argument that playing a particular video game is an art, but I do not wish to make such a claim here. A player can be evaluated for a form of athletic quickness, but not usually for grace or other aesthetically relevant features of play. Surprisingly, this is not the case in a chess performance.

A similar question has arisen regarding the artistic status of chess. [10] Some consider chess to be an art form, much like the aesthetically evaluated sports. One might think it is difficult to call chess art and exclude things, such as crossword puzzles, that we do not normally consider art works; however, insofar as crossword puzzles only possess one solution, there is no such thing as an elegant or otherwise aesthetically qualified property of their solution.

There are two primary reasons why someone might argue that chess is an art form. In major competitions, there are often two prizes: one for the winner and one for the best game. The best game is determined in part by the elegance of moves, the originality of solution and the difficulty of play. Whether this earns chess the status of art has centered around the question of whether elegance is a goal of the players. Even if it is not a primary goal, one can argue that elegance and simplicity play a role in the choice of moves. Perhaps the aesthetics of a move serve as heuristics that optimize selection. If this is the case, then aesthetic concerns can become part of mastery of the game itself, adding support to the idea that playing chess is an art form. In addition to judgments of the most beautiful game, end-game solutions are often evaluated for their formal simplicity and elegance. This is a more controversial basis for calling chess an art, since if end games should be considered art, then logical and mathematical proofs would become candidates.

As stated previously, unlike chess and gymnastics, the playing of video games has not been proposed as a candidate for art status. One reason that video game play is not considered an artistic performance is that video games are numerous and the technology has changed rapidly over the last few decades. As such, there is no one video game around which players have focused on for extended periods of time. Though video games appear to be performative, what might count as the performance-- the playing --is not considered art. Perhaps this is because the games themselves draw more attention than the players. Unlike video games, non-electronic games such as poker and football are just rules of play: they describe penalties and goals. Electronic games are different in that they are much more than rules: [11] They include narratives, graphic design, characterization, dialogue and more.

Having looked at the relevance of the aesthetics of chess and sport, we are in a better position to understand where the art of video games might lie. Unlike chess and sport, the art is not only in the playing; as in film, the type of art that should concern us in video games involves not the playingbut the making.

4. Video Game Art: A Historical Narrative

Today, the question "Is it art?" arises most commonly in response to single art works whose art status is in dispute. Noel Carroll has offered a compelling account of how such disputes can be, should be and are resolved. He advocates a narrative approach to resolving such disputes, whereby a candidate artwork is assessed by whether a story can be told linking the problems and goals of recognized artists at a previous period to those of the artists whose work is in question. Although we seldom have an opportunity, the narrative historical account can be also applied to art forms or representational systems as a whole. I will attempt to provide a brief sketch, that could be fleshed out into a more comprehensive story, of the relationship between video games and other mass art forms.

Advances in computer technology over the last 40 years provided the means whereby artists could attempt to solve a recurrent problem at the heart of modernism: How to involve the audience in the art work? Those working in theater and performance arts experimented with happenings and participatory theatre, trying to bring the audience into the performance. However, the problem was more difficult for artists working in film and literature, where we find novelistic experiments such as Cortazar's Hopscotch struggling with the limitations of the medium. Video games allowed artists to tackle a more difficult sub-problem facing non-performed arts, the problem of how to involve the audience in mechanically reproduced art.

In the last chapter of Principles of Art , Collingwood complains that mechanically reproduced art is essentially flawed because the medium of transmission prohibits art works from being "concreative." Collingwood argues that in mechanically reproduced art:

"The audience is not collaborating, it is only overhearing. The same thing happens in the cinema where collaboration as between author and producer is intense, but as between this unit and the audience nonexistent. Performances on the wireless have the same defect. The consequence is that the gramophone, the cinema, and the wireless are perfectly serviceable as vehicles of amusement or of propaganda, for here the audience's function is merely receptive and not concreative; but as vehicles of art they are subject to all the defects of the printingpress in an aggravated form." [12]

This is the first and only time Collingwood uses the term "concreative" in The Principles of Art , and just as Collingwood himself left the notion somewhat unexplained, concreativity has been almost completely ignored in the philosophy of art. [13]

In A Philosophy of Mass Art , Noel Carroll makes one of the few contemporary references to Collingwood's term. [14] Carroll sees Collingwood's criticisms of non-concreative art as one species of the passivity charge against mass art, the claim that mass art is inherently defective because it reduces the audience to mindless drones, thereby prohibiting the free play of the imagination that genuine art provokes. On this reading, Collingwood is complaining that the audience is made a mere receptacle by mass art and that mass art is defective by virtue of its pacifying effect. Although this may be part of Collingwood's criticism, I think his emphasis lies elsewhere. Rather than criticizing mass art for its pacifying effect on the audience, Collingwood is diagnosing what he sees as a source of limitation on the expressive potential of mechanically reproduced art. It is not the art work's supposed deleterious effects on the audience that is at issue but the inability of the audience to provide feedback to help the artist create the most effective work possible.

On my reading, Collingwood is pointing out a feature of mass art that Walter Benjamin noticed in "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," written in 1935, three years earlier than the publication of The Principles of Art . Benjamin argues that in mechanically reproduced art the potential opens up for the art work to fall out of step with the audience, losing its immersive grip and thereby providing conditions likely to spark a critical attitude. He says, "the film actor lacks the opportunity of the stage actor to adjust to the audience during his performance, since he does not present his performance to the audience in person. This permits the audience to take the position of a critic." [15] Rather than playing up the supposed politically liberating potential of this limitation of mechanically reproduced art, Collingwood laments the handicap. [16]

We often hear it said that films can "break the fourth wall" through techniques such as directly addressing the audience, but the wall remains. It is ontologically impossible for the audience of a film to break the wall. Video game technology has allowed artists to experiment with solutions to the problem of how to make an interactive movie: Video games are the first concreative mass art.

5. Video Games and Every Major Theory of Art

In this section, I argue that according to most major theories of art, many video games should be considered art. I do not offer detailed definitions of each theory of art, since every theory has various contentious formulations, the major variations are familiar to most readers, and to outline in detail the specifics of every theory would require much more space. Instead I operate with informal glosses of the theories that are adequate for my purpose.

As the classical film theorists focused on the relationship between cinema and photography and theatre, one may think that the best way to approach video game art is to find its differentiating features with a similar art form. In the case of video games, the sister art is cinema. However, in defending the art status of games, the opposite may be more useful: Examining just how close video games are to animation and digital cinema may be more productive.

Almost anything said about video games is controversial. Some game developers even scoff at the idea that video games are an art, as do certain filmmakers, even distinguished ones. Theorists who call themselves ludologists argue that video games should not be considered just another narrative art form, but a form of play. Other theorists, narratologists such as Janet Murray, argue that video games can and should become more narrative-driven in order to realize their artistic potential. This seems to be the path game developers have chosen. Current video games have highly integrated narratives that are often far more complex than the most sophisticated noir plots. Even if you can remember the details of "The Big Sleep" (Howard Hawks, 1946), you will never be able to recount the details of most modern games. As mentioned previously, many narrative games can take upwards of 20 hours to complete.

For the past decade, there has been a moderate amount of influence between film and video games. Although most of them are awful, several films have been made based on video games. More commonly, video games are made based on film subjects. Many readers of this article will think of PacMan or Pong when they hear of video games. If so, then the possibility of creating a narrative film on a video game story should sound surprising. As my examples indicate, recent games are far more complex than PacMan; they often involve complex stories and characterization. For those who have not played heavily narrative-integrated games, the possibility of basing a narrative of whatever sophistication on a game should indicate the level of narrative complexity already to be found in the medium.

Game designers often try to make their games look more like film by including cut scenes and imitating other cinematic features. Most narrative-driven games are heavily interspersed with full-motion video sequences called cut-scenes. The game called Splinter Cell is typical. In this game, cut scenes are encountered frequently on various missions. After major events and before new episodes, a cut-scene will be introduced to indicate the goals of the level and the objects for which one should be on the lookout. In addition to including these small digital movies, games often attempt to emulate the look of film. In the popular game Halo , for example, if you look up towards the sun, the glare produces nested circles, as if the player is controlling a movie camera. This is inconsistent with the perspective of the player who is not looking through a camera, but the reference to cinema is intended to enhance the realism, as if the game were a documentary. Such techniques are clear examples of game designers trying to situate their work in the tradition of cinema. For such reasons, any historical theory of art that admits film as an art form would most plausibly admit video games.

Through repeated allusions and attempts at emulating the moving image, game designers intend that we appreciate their games as we do digital animation and video art. Modern video game designers are deeply concerned with traditional aesthetic considerations familiar to animators, novelists, set designers for theater productions and art directors for films. The development of game environments is an intensive process involving the creation of level maps, lighting sources, setting detail and visual texture complexity. As the author of a realist novel or the set designer of a film might place props in a room, level designers aim for the consistent incorporation of details to flesh out the world of the game. Character movement is another area of design in which video game designers share goals with animators. For example, the designers of Splinter Cell carefully created hand-animated movement studies for the player-character to add richness and a life-like feel to the textures. From set design to lighting techniques, games largely draw upon the aesthetic toolkit available to filmmakers. Any aesthetic theory of art that acknowledges the art status of animation would also recognize many contemporary video games, since the intentions of the creators and the variety of aesthetic experience the two art forms admit overlap considerably.

A strong case can also be made for video games on institutional grounds, since there is a developing art world for video games. Over the past decade, there has been a variety of museum exhibits of video games, ranging from technological development lessons to explorations of the influence of video games on digital art, as well as stand-alone exhibits of the emerging art form. Although not exactly an art museum, from June 6, 1989 to May 20, 1990, the American Museum of the Moving Image featured a show called "Hot Circuits: A Video Arcade" that brought a collection of arcade games for visitors to play first hand. The show traveled to 10 other locations throughout the country from June 1990 to September 2003. Since this show, the museum has had several other major video game exhibits and has almost always had a video game exhibition on display.

In July 2001, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art hosted a symposium entitled "ArtCade: Exploring the Relationship Between Video Games and Art," where recent video game-inspired artworks were presented alongside a selection of video games from the 1970s to the present. [17] In the same year, over a dozen art exhibits featured video game-related art work. Video games are appreciated as both art forms in their own right and astools for the creation of art works such as "Machinema" or the video loops of digital artists who use clips from games to construct avant-garde video art. In the spring of 2001, the Whitney Museum of American Art housed a video game-art exhibit called "BitStreams," which featured video game-influenced works. Recent biennials have also incorporated interactive digital artworks, and video games and digital art are a growing presence in museums.

Not only are video games gaining recognition from museums of art, fine arts programs are springing up focused on the graphic aspects of video game design. MIT, NYU, Carnegie Mellon and CalArts all have programs concentrating on entertainment technology, and the University of California at Irvine is creating a MFA program devoted to interactive media. Georgia Tech recently created a PhD in interactive media that merges communication studies and computer science.

Outside of art world and academic contexts, video games, like other mass art forms, are the subject of popular aesthetic evaluation. In December of 2002, the National Network, a unit of MTV networks, announced that it would be creating an awards show dedicated to video games. The show will offer awards for categories such as best villain and best movie adaptation. A digital cable channel devoted to video games called G4 was launched in 2003. [18] Several newspapers, including the Village Voice and the New York Times have started publishing game reviews. The web site www.metacritic.com posts summaries of reviews for three popular art forms: movies, video games and popular music.

The institutional credibility for attributing art to video games is improving. There is clearly a burgeoning art world for videogames, and one need not wait for every modern art museum in the country to feature a dedicated exhibit before feeling comfortable in calling video games an art form. As indicated by the ties between animation and video game design, a persuasive story can be told that links the goals and features historically attributed to art works to those of video games. Much like film production, game design is an expensive, collaborative project. Several groups within the production process pursue aesthetic goals common to other arts.

There are also video game auteurs who imprint a creative stamp on a series of games that show artistic distinction. Shigeru Miyamoto, the designer of "Mario Brothers," "The legend of Zelda" and other popular games for Nintendo, is considered the Eisenstein of video games. He is the subject of several popular articles and is often a hero in books devoted to the history of video games. Miyamoto is praised for his ability to create original stories, characters and the look behind captivating and complex games. Today there are hundreds of game designers working with programmers, producers, level designers, dialogue and script writers, balancers who adjust difficulty to skill and a variety of other specialists who contribute to a finished game.

In addition to the similarity between film directors and game designers, the history of video games can be tied to other arts. Much as film grew out of photography and drama, video games grew out of digital animation. Beyond the goals of verisimilitude, games share narrative themes and expressive goals with the history of Western literature and theater. In the Seventh Circuit Court decision for American Amusement Machine v. Kendrick, Richard Posner argues that the video game should be considered an art form, since it shows thematic and expressive continuity with herald literature and is at least as effective as much in the popular arts that is considered protected speech. Posner defends what is considered by most standards a mediocre game:

"Take once again "The House of the Dead." The player is armed with a gun--most fortunately, because he is being assailed by a seemingly unending succession of hideous axe-wielding zombies, the living dead conjured back to life by voodoo. The zombies have already knocked down and wounded several people, who are pleading pitiably for help; and one of the player's duties is to protect those unfortunates from renewed assaults by the zombies. His main task, however, is self-defense. Zombies are supernatural beings, therefore difficult to kill. Repeated shots are necessary to stop them as they rush headlong toward the player. He must not only be alert to the appearance of zombies from any quarter; he must be assiduous about reloading his gun periodically, lest he be overwhelmed by the rush of the zombies when his gun is empty.

"Self-defense, protection of others, dread of the "undead," fighting against overwhelming odds-- these are all age-old themes of literature, and ones particularly appealing to the young."

Posner clearly sees the thematic and expressive continuity between literature and a mid-level genre video game. Though this may not be an example of great art by any acceptable standards, nothing inherent to the video game rules out its artistic potential, here the arousal of emotions through an interactive narrative. It should be clear that a strong case can be made that most expressive theories of art would have to include video games if they include film and literature.

As Judge Posner notes, video games excel when they are about struggle. Although many games are more clearly about triumphant victory in battle, there is nothing stopping game designers from creating a game about the horrors of warfare. As should be apparent, current narrative-based video games can easily meet neo-representation theories of art such as Danto's "aboutness" criterion, where an art work is roughly something formally appropriate to what it is about. By putting players in the position to make decisions affecting the lives of simulated civilians and troops, games could potentially be the most formally appropriate way to comment on war via a fictional representation.

The art status of video games has much stronger support from representational theories of art than do other disputed art forms. In The Philosophy of Human Movement , David Best argues that there is a crucial difference between sports and art: Sports fail to meet basic representational criteria. Putting the contrast nicely, Best says that "whereas sport can be the subject of art, art could not be the subject of sport. Indeed, the very notion of a subject of sport makes no sense." [19] In this way, the distinction between sports and video games is profound. As such, video games are much more plausible candidates for art than are aesthetic sports or chess.

5. Conclusion

In this paper, I provide several reasons for thinking that some video games may be art. Clear thematic continuities tie video games to the history of western literature, and games share expressive goals with other recognized art forms. Museums and art programs have begun to incorporate video games into their exhibits and curriculum as games begin to achieve recognition in the art world. Like the great figures we expect to find occupying key places in an artistic canon, there are game designers who have reached auteur status. Similar to other bourgeoning art forms, there is a quickly growing body of recognized major works in video games. In addition, game designers have used the medium to tackle previously unsolvable artistic problems facing film and literature, linking the art of video games to the problems facing modernist film and literature.

Although all video games should not be considered art, recent developments in the medium have been widely recognized as clear indications that some video games should be regarded as art works. [20] Of course, the status of an art form is never decided apart from its products. Without masterpieces, arguing that video games can be art seems premature. "Max Payne" and "Halo" are two of the best games ever produced, but they are not great art. I expect that in the course of time current video games may seem as artistically insignificant as Lumière actualités, with little more than historical significance. Perhaps it is a trivial feat, but several recent games have reached levels of excellence that exceed the majority of popular cinema. The potential of the medium seems clear: good if not great video game art is in the near future. [21]

Louis Arnaud Reid, "Sport, The Aesthetic and Art," British Journal of Educational Studies , vol. 18, Oct. 1970, pp. 245-258.

Maureen Kovich, "Sport as an Artform," JOHPER, vol. 24, Oct. 1974, p. 42.

Paul G. Kuntz, "Aesthetics Applies to Sports as Well as to the Arts," Philosophic Exchange , sum. 1974, no. 1, pp. 25-39.

David Best, "Art and Sport," Journal of Aesthetic Education , 1988, vol. 14, pp. 69-80.

S. K. Wertz, "Are Sports Art Forms?" Journal of Aesthetic Education , vol. 13, no. 1, 1979.

In one of the earlier articles on the subject, Harold Osborne argues that chess can be considered an art form since it affords the possibility for the creation of objects of intellectual beauty. Harold Osborne, "Notes on the Aesthetics of Chess and the Concept of Intellectual Beauty," British Journal of Aesthetics , vol. 4, no. 2.

Rachels argues that not only do we appreciate chess games as aesthetic objects, they are played / created with aesthetic goals in mind. James Rachels, "Chess as Art: Reflections on Richard Reti," Philosophic Exchange , 1984-5, vols. 15&16, pp. 105-115.

Lord argues that though chess games may be objects of aesthetic contemplation, they are not art works. Museums include aesthetic objects that are not art, to follow the institutional theory of art and call such things art would be to gerrymander the concept. Lord endorses something like an expressive theory of art. Catherine Lord, "Is Chess Art?" Philosophic Exchange , 1984-5, vols. 15&16, pp. 117-122.

Humble argues that chess playing should be considered an art form. He argues that the competitive aspects can contribute directly and indirectly to the aesthetic value of the game. Though chess may be an art form, he concludes that its masterpieces are only minor art works in the grand scheme of things. P. N. Humble, "Chess as an Art Form," British Journal of Aesthetics , vol. 33, no. 1, 1993.

For a consideration of the composed chess problem as art, see C. P. Ravilious, "The Aesthetics of Chess and the Chess Problem," British Journal of Aesthetics , vol. 34, no. 2, July 1994. Humble offers a defense against Ravilious's objections that he should have talked about composed chess problems rather than competition chess and that he over emphasizes the role of competition. P. N. Humble, "The Aesthetics of Chess: A Reply to Ravilious," British Journal of Aesthetics , vol. 35, no. 4, 1995.

Department of Philosophy,

University of Wisconsin, Madison

[email protected]

Published November 2, 2005

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Video Games as Art

A communication-oriented perspective on the relationship between gaming and the art.

• Frank G. Bosman and Archibald L.H.M. van Wieringen
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• Language: English
• Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
• Copyright year: 2022
• Audience: Scholars of history, popular uses of history, and art; Game scholars, Game designers, students
• Front matter: 8
• Main content: 115
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• Keywords: art ; digital games ; communication-oriented analysis ; video games
• Published: November 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9783110731019
• ISBN: 9783110735130
• Published: June 17, 2024
• ISBN: 9783111523187

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Classifying Videogames as Art and Why It Matters Now

This dissertation analyses the idea that videogames can be considered art in order to argue that wide-ranging benefits could be seen if the institution recognised them as such. I have explored the idea that the institution is the key to progress the notion of videogames as art and both art museums and universities alike must be behind the progression of what is considered the artistic canon in order to create new opportunities in the field of making art. I have reviewed popular arguments for and against the inclusion of videogames in the institutional artistic canon and then considered videogames in the light of several theorist's ideas of what art is. Primarily I have looked at the ideas behind cluster theory and the theory of mass art as a way of justifying videogames as art. I have followed this with case studies of This War of Mine (2014) and the developer Sam Barlow who has produced many videogames including Aisle (1999), Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (2009), and Her Story (2015). Lastly, I have considered what might be the long-term benefits of classifying videogames as art within the institution, primarily the enfranchisement of young women artists. I do this by reviewing the new National Curriculum in computer programming and considering how, in the light of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, this new education area will empower young women to be able to create art despite pressures that still persist with regards to the "proper" role of a woman in our society. It is my suggestion that all you need to create a work of videogame art is a basic computer, a standard UK education, and a room of your own - but only if the art institution recognises videogames as a legitimate form of art.

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This dissertation studies video games as a medium of artistic expression by engaging three key elements of Marcel Duchamp's 1957 essay The Creative Act: Institution, Intention and Artefact. By first studying how Academia and the Artworld in general have engaged historically with video games. Afterwards, the formal and structural qualities of video games are engaged with, bridging the gap between this new medium and art history through aesthetic theories. Finally, medium specific qualities that complicate their study have been addressed by comparing video games with film and Marcel Duchamp’s ideas on the creative process. It is then concluded that while the field of video games-as-art is still in its infancy and that a majority of video games are not art, it is possible for specific video games to be accepted as artworks.

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Unpublished Masters Thesis under maiden name - Phillipa Stalker. This essay will explore the existing definitions of art games that are currently being used in the art game/art mod genre. It will identify the leading theorists within the field, and take into account their definitions whilst at the same time establishing a set of categories within which can be defined the dominant trends in the development of the field. It will also situate art games within an historical context, both within the commercial computer game field as well as the digital art field and attempt to establish some sort of timeline within which we can see the development and emergence of art games in relation to these two disciplines. Two examples of art games, both from different categories will be examined and critiqued in the context of Artistic Computer Game Modification – A 3D game called Escape From Woomera and an art mod or patch called SOD. The art game as an entity will be examined in relation to ideas of the ‘interactive’ and ‘play’, and the implications and potential for fine art practice will be investigated.

Leonardo Electronic Almanac

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This paper argues that the lack of consensus on a definition of "art" is a fundamental problem in the video-games-as-art discussion. A brief review of some influential twentieth-century definitions of "art" reveals that the concept cannot be defined in terms of essential properties, but that it should rather be understood as a Wittgensteinian family resemblance term. The paper, then, proposes Dennis Dutton's cluster theory of art as a way of establishing consensus. Besides treating "art" as a family resemblance term, Dutton's definition reintroduces the notion of "human nature" that twentieth century aesthetics has largely dismissed. The resurfacing of this notion-already posited by philosophers like Aristotle, Kant, and Hume-is owed to evolutionary psychology, a novel approach to the study of human psychology from a Darwinian perspective. Following Dutton, the paper maintains that an evolutionary approach to the study of art enables us to see beyond cultural specificities and delve into the universal phenomena that lie behind them, providing a much-needed common ground for discussion. The paper finally returns to the issue of video games and argues that, in the light of Dutton's account, video games are to be considered an art form. This manuscript was accepted in 2018 for publication in the issue "The Video Games Conundrum" of the Leonardo Electronic Almanac, currently in press. Preprint shared with permission.

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New Art Examiner

“Are video games art?” The frequency with which that question has been posed over the past decade belies the wholly unsatisfactory nature of the responses. Although the classification of what we mean by video games has not remained categorically uncomplicated, the crux of the debate has largely lain, instead, with fairly banal epistemologies of art. At the extremes, art critics have derided video games as lacking the sophistication, depth, or even “soul” of works by such strawmen as Picasso and Van Gogh. Game designers and industry professionals, in turn, have accused such critics of being uninformed outsiders and Luddites unable to appreciate the ways technology has revolutionized art’s expressive potential on a popular level. (…) even though the institutional answer to this is question is patently unsatisfying, the conditions and rhetorics of the display of video games in exhibitions and museums have something important to tell us about ingrained understandings of art, science, culture, and industry, as well as those categories’ shifting hierarchies. In short, though exhibitions can only tell us that games are art in the least-interesting ways possible, they can tell us rather a lot about how they are art when encountered in “display mode.”

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Are Video Games Works of Art?

When one thinks of art, what images are conjured up?

Paintings on the wall of a gallery, maybe? Perhaps something more offbeat such as Tracy Emin’s bed? Or, perhaps a contemporary statement rather than a single piece, such as Banksy’s Spraycation ? With art being such a subjective field, it is possible to appreciate something different from other critics and experts. However, few currently argue that the latest video game releases should be classed as art.

Some feel that video games are a form of contemporary art, and it is a debate that will likely grow over time. Perhaps back in the eighties, when games really were basic, such as Pac Man, there was little argument for them being an art form. In 2021, as a sprawling imagined metropolis rolls out on your television and stories become so engaging and involved you’re moved to tears, there’s certainly a new argument to be had.

Graphically, video games are improving all the time, and if drawing and illustration are classed as an art form, then surely games are, too. Even the most basic games on mobile devices are, to some extent, a work of art because they have to create an illusion of you being somewhere, experiencing something that is beyond your reach. That may be through popular branding or simply by creating a world for you to become engrossed. Take Hideo Kojima’s superbly crafted Death Stranding, a game so unique in its concept that Kotaku described it as “grim and difficult to explore”, so much so that “the arrival of the covid-19 pandemic and government-enforced quarantines made the whole thing end up feeling eerily prescient”. That was a positive review, by the way, a reflection on the designer’s ability to create a world that eventually, we could all relate to. It was beautiful to look at, and a post-apocalyptic America imagined in the game took thousands of hours to draw, shade, and create. Is that not art?

Even at a more basic level, games on mobile devices with high-quality graphics are surely an artistic statement. If you’re playing something like Candy Crush on your mobile device, with bright colours and well-drawn imagery, why is that not art? Also, take the range of online games on Gala Bingo as an example – titles such as Atlantis Cash Collect and Lobstermania Slingo might not intend to be art, but they are graphically impressive. Why would something like that, creating a world for you to become immersed in, not be art, whilst the cover of a Terry Pratchett book is? Both have been illustrated, crafted and created, albeit on different mediums. Why is one art and the other not? If anything, the art form that makes the world, such as Atlantis or the Candy Crush experience, are more artistic than the drawing on a book cover, where the real art lies in words.

Many see film as art too, and if that’s so, then surely some video games fall within the same remit. The Last of Us Part II told the story of a girl named Ellie attempting to survive in an imagined future, but it did so with real emotion. The game acted as a vehicle for the story, with actors playing the parts of the characters. Why would that not be considered art, but something like a Tim Burton epic be so highly rated by the art world? Why indeed.

In 2015, Chris Mellissinos, curator of The Art of Video Games exhibit at the Smithsonian wrote in Time Magazine: “Video games are also the only form of media that allows for personalizing the artistic experience while still retaining the authority of the artist. In video games, we find three distinct voices: the creator, the game, and the player. Those who play a game are following the story of the author and are bound by the constructs of the rules—but based on the choices they make, the experience can be completely personal. If you can observe the work of another and find in it personal connection, then art has been achieved.”

In that respect, art is certainly achieved in games like the Last of Us and as far back as Ico on the PlayStation 2, but can it be found within online slots, mobile puzzle games and titles with rather less depth? The lines between game and art are becoming blurrier as technology allows for better graphics, stories, and interaction. Maybe some in the art world are beginning to rethink their attitudes towards the video game industry.

David Guido Pietroni, an Italian publisher, film, and music producer, has made significant contributions to the art and culture sectors with his innovative approach and visionary projects. He is celebrated for producing the groundbreaking "Rigoletto Story" in 2002, which transformed opera into a global spectacle, thanks to collaborations with fashion icon Vivienne Westwood, marking a pivotal moment in artistic production. His work extends beyond opera; Pietroni played a key role in the Westwood retrospectives and the innovative #missionemonnalisa campaign, demonstrating his skill in fusing art with modern communication channels. Further broadening his impact, Pietroni co-founded Music for Change with Grammy Award-winning artist Ruben Dario Salas. This initiative aims to harness the power of music and the arts to drive innovation within the film industry, illustrating Pietroni's dedication to cultural advancement. As the visionary behind "The Art Insider," Pietroni continues to influence the cultural dialogue, earning international recognition for his creative and pioneering efforts across various artistic mediums.

Reach him at [email protected].

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Home > Libraries > PUPOAJ > CLCWeb > Vol. 19 (2017) > Iss. 4

Perspectives on Video Games as Art

Jeroen Bourgonjon , Ghent University Geert Vandermeersche , Ghent University Kris Rutten , Ghent University Niels Quinten , Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

In their article "Perspectives on Video Games as Art" Jeroen Bourgonjon, Geert Vndermeer­sche, Kris Rutten and Niels Quinten engage in discussing whether or not video games can be considered a form of art. Although this question has already been discussed elaborately, the debate is guided by many differ­ent and often conflicting positions. The aim of this article is to revisit this debate by mapping out a range of perspectives on video games as art. The authors explore the relation between games and differ­ent definitions and functions of art, different motives of artists, and the potential impact of the arts. The authors postulate that the discussion about the art status of video games is neither singular nor straightforward, and that the artistic possibilities of video games should instead be assessed by confronting a number of interrelated perspectives.

Recommended Citation

Bourgonjon, Jeroen; Vandermeersche, Geert; Rutten, Kris; and Quinten, Niels. "Perspectives on Video Games as Art." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 19.4 (2017): < https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.3024 > This text has been double-blind peer reviewed by 2+1 experts in the field.

The above text, published by Purdue University Press ©Purdue University, has been downloaded 12210 times as of 05/24/24.

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