How to argue "Games aren't art."

[Michel Henzel]

Does it even matter if people don't consider games art? Would it be so earth shattering that it would stop you from enjoying games anymore?

 

[DoPo]

Does it even matter if people don't consider games art? Would it be so earth shattering that it would stop you from enjoying games anymore?

It quite literally could stop people from enjoying games. Certain games, at least. See, being or not being art is an actual legal matter. As I believe it has been pointed out in this, and many other threads and times the question has been brought up. If video games are legally not considered art, you can, as I said, quite literally not be able to enjoy some of them. Or at least it's going to be a friggin' miracle if you could, considering you won't be able to get them. Art gives an amount of protection of the expression which not-art doesn't get.

 

[krebons12]

The standard arguments are all easy enough to level, "How can it not be art when it's comprised of assets everyone agrees is art?", "Define art and explain how Video Games don't fit." Things like that.

I've realized that the only real argument I have against people who say games aren't art is the Metal Gear series (Sons of Liberty specifically but the others are applicable, Ground Zeroes being the easiest to understand and 4 being too convoluted to understand) and Journey. TLoU need not apply, waiting for the remastering.

So what are some games I HAVE to play in order to argue against "Games aren't art"?

I suppose maybe you should focus on games centered on story (9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors, The Walking Dead, etc.) or games that used a fancy artsy style(Thomas Was Alone, The Journey, etc.)

Or, even better maybe, at least to me, games like The Sims, where you are essentially given a canvas, brushes, and paints, and told "Make whatever you like. It can be anything from a beautiful mansion to your interpretation of Hell. Just go nuts." To me, games are an incomplete story that is given to the player to finish, and Sim games show that off quite nicely

 

[krebons12]

What I'm wondering is whether or not people consider me a bad person for only buying games because they look fun or are fun. Some people seem to say so, but I don't know. I tried art games, and they were just boring to me. I could see all the messages they were trying to tell and it was still as entertaining and engaging as watching paint dry.

Personally, not really. That just seems like getting angry at watching something like the Transformers movies because it's fun to watch the robots beat each other up.