Poll: Games - Art or not?

[Yopaz]

Art is boring, games are not. Any book or movie considered art is boring. The good books and movies (such as The Wheel of Time series and Fightclub) are not considered art as far as I know, but The Wheel of Time is a great epic story of the modern time. I would say that it's in same league as Tolkien. Fightclub is a well crafted movie that I think everyone should watch. Still this isn't art.
Don't get me wrong when I say that video games in a whole is not art. It's not because I hate video game or consider it a dull, bland or generic experience. It's because I consider art a bland and boring experience. Spending two hours in an art museum wont give you the same satisfaction as half an hour with a good game. Games are entertainment, and may they never become art.

 

[zerobudgetgamer]

Amidst the choices given, I had to put "A technological achievement" as it's only in the past decade or so, when gaming has reached a level of graphical prowess to truly pass off claiming to be "realistic," that the topic of "Are games art" came about.

Now, I'm not saying that games like the original Final Fantasies, Donkey Kongs, Sonics, or Marios couldn't be considered "art" by some. However, at that time, these games were only conceived to be fun and entertaining, not to tell some grand story or tug at our heart strings. Nowadays, now that graphics and, to a certain extent, disc space no longer limit what can be created or what stories can be told, we can finally start trying to create games that are not only fun and entertaining, but thought-provoking and deep as well.

Of course, just like every other media, this does not mean that ALL games should be art, nor does it mean that every company that creates games is going to suddenly bend over backwards to make sure games have some unnecessarily contrived plot. What it means is we have the opportunity to create art, an opportunity that we are very likely squandering at present, but an opportunity that we may find can be used to much greater effect than any medium preceding it.

 

[owen4evr]

Games are art,not the kind of art that you hang in your living room though. Games are the special kind of art,more of a movie,though keeping the high-brow low-morals of artists and more interesting.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

If authors like Danielle Steel and Nora Roberts can fling out turd after turd and call it literary art, then I can consider whatever Ice Pick Podge made to be interactive masterpieces (despite being a headache to modify).

Then again, art is subjective. I'd sooner cockslap the Mona Lisa than insult something I would call art.

 

[Dark Harbinger]

Alright, I will pose this:

Would you consider a game as a work of art because of it's very conception or design, or does it have to be the qualities of the game?

 

[googleback]

Games can be anything you'd like, entertainment alone, art with a message, as mentioned; a toy.

I consider gaming an art FORM. but I don't look for artistic merit in every game I play, in fact I don't look for it at all, I pay for a game to take me to whatever category it want to. angry birds is a toy for example, like a stress ball or one of those desktop toys.

Shadow of the Colossus and Call of Cthulhu are art. Call of duty and Bulletstorm are entertainment, they can blur into one another of course, but 9 times out of 10 a game will fall under one of those three categories.

 

[squeekenator]

Most games are far too interesting and fun to fall under the category of 'art', and the few that do aren't worth playing for that reason.

 

[KuwaSanjuro]

In my opinion (and I've said this before) I don't think any medium as a whole can be art, a finger painting is not art because it is a painting but the Mona Lisa is art but not just because it is a painting, because it is actually art. There are films that are art whilst Con Air is not art and is a film. Ico is art in my opinion, Modern Warfare is not. Just because something's a painting doesn't make it art, just because it's a video game doesn't make it not art, it matters what it is.

 

[NathLines]

It depends on if you look at games as a whole. I understand people if they are torn on the issue if they do. I do believe that games are art, but there is of course both good and bad art even in the gaming scene.

But you can look at it another way. If you draw a picture, it's art. If you sculpt a sculpture, it's art. Now, is a game that consists of dozens of pictures and a hundred 3D models art?

 

[Tdc2182]

Depends.

A game like Call of Duty is not art (hold your torches and pitchforks, I liked the game), whereas a game like Shadow of The Colosseus would be.

 

[WorldFree55]

Games are absolutely art. The annoying thing to me is the "only a few games are art" idea. Guys, the medium of video games is a form of artistic expression. To say, "only the really good and artistic games are art" is essentially saying that there is no such thing as bad art. Video games require creativity and skill to complete, and thus they are all art, even if not all of them are good art.

But would you count games with no artistic merit as art? Is space invaders a piece of art? If so, why doesn't screwball scramble count as art?

Simple. You play as a tank, trying to destroy these aliens that are trying to takeover planet earth. While they slowly move closer to the ground in a horizontal direction from left to right and repeat, they also shoot lasers at you. Your job is to destroy as many aliens as you possibly can by using the defensive blockades to your advantage and your ammunition from your tank. Keep them away from landing and avoid their lasers or the world as we know it will be taken by the aliens that have decided to invade Earth.

If you still don't see the meaning or any sort of artistic expression from a game like Space Invaders then i suggest you watch the clip below from Extra Credits that will explain it a lot better then i can.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2545-Narrative-Mechanics

 

[Gabanuka]

This kind of argument comes up alot in my friend group. I always say "if its uterlly pointless its art"

 

[Delicious Anathema]

They contain a narrative (sometimes), music and visuals which can be artistic, the core of the game, the gameplay, is not art in my opinion.

But who cares?

 

[Dark Harbinger]

It contains music and visuals which can be artistic, the core of the game, the gameplay, is not art in my opinion.

But who cares?

But is it not art in the sense of what has been created is something so complex and yet compelling? For gameplay is what enables us to become immersed.

 

[Robert Drapp]

I myself have to say that games have the potential to be art. Are they art now? Not really, but they are inching closer. I mean lets examine exactly what art can do: Art can speak on any subject from love and lust to war's tragity. Art can provoke though and discussion. It doesn't have to be pretty, but is never ugly (they call it abstract). Art can be controversial but it is protected by freedom of expression and defended by those who love it for the right that it exists. Personally, I think that had EA managed to handle Dante's Inferno with class, dignity and a serious, almost straight-from-the-page aproach, the "games as art" discussion wouldn't need to take place as EA would have given us the very first definition of what it ment to be an artistic game. Now some might say I'm wrong for that statement, that their are plenty of examples, but I haven't heard of any.

 

[TitanAtlas]

GAmes are art!? Not according to Fox News... they even sent a person that doesnt know anything about games, to trash talk them, giving no opportunity of defense to gamers (who dont give a dam to what the All Mighty Fox thinks...).

Oh Fox, you glorious set of fine journalism, you guys are the best news reporters ever... you gets to be the Judge, the Jury and the Executioner...

In other words, with the amount of games there are, some i consider great art games (Shadow of Colossus, We Love Katamari, Psychonauts, Beyond Good and Evil, Jade Empire), other i consider to be a giant pile of poopoo (superman64 between others), and Fox shouldnt be intitled to make News considering they suck at it... They do have some fine and dandy reporters, but they dont appreciate them enough, or just decide to give them crappy assigments in a controlled form of news, where the truth has to come from them... even if it is a lie... if the truth isnt favourable to Fox News it somehow gets... censored... or becomes rendered has a lie... by them... Arent they precious?

 

[Delicious Anathema]

It contains music and visuals which can be artistic, the core of the game, the gameplay, is not art in my opinion.

But who cares?

But is it not art in the sense of what has been created is something so complex and yet compelling? For gameplay is what enables us to become immersed.

I don't really care.

 

[Dark Harbinger]

It contains music and visuals which can be artistic, the core of the game, the gameplay, is not art in my opinion.

But who cares?

But is it not art in the sense of what has been created is something so complex and yet compelling? For gameplay is what enables us to become immersed.

I don't really care.

Ah, fair enough.

 

[Ben MacGougan]

I don't give a shit about art. Call me a philistine if you like. But just seems to be an unquantifiable, contextual quality. For me, games are a tool to tell stories

 

[Bobic]

Games are absolutely art. The annoying thing to me is the "only a few games are art" idea. Guys, the medium of video games is a form of artistic expression. To say, "only the really good and artistic games are art" is essentially saying that there is no such thing as bad art. Video games require creativity and skill to complete, and thus they are all art, even if not all of them are good art.

But would you count games with no artistic merit as art? Is space invaders a piece of art? If so, why doesn't screwball scramble count as art?

Simple. You play as a tank, trying to destroy these aliens that are trying to takeover planet earth. While they slowly move closer to the ground in a horizontal direction from left to right and repeat, they also shoot lasers at you. Your job is to destroy as many aliens as you possibly can by using the defensive blockades to your advantage and your ammunition from your tank. Keep them away from landing and avoid their lasers or the world as we know it will be taken by the aliens that have decided to invade Earth.

If you still don't see the meaning or any sort of artistic expression from a game like Space Invaders then i suggest you watch the clip below from Extra Credits that will explain it a lot better then i can.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2545-Narrative-Mechanics

I'm sorry but you didn't actually say anything to do with art or, in fact, anything of worth at all. You just described Space Invaders. I already know what space invaders is. That's why I used it as an example.

As for the video, that's just a case of reading way too much into something. If it weren't for the quote at the end I'd have dismissed the entire thing as rambling nonsense.

Also, it's better THAN not then. For some reason people on this site really struggle with then/than and it annoys me. Sorry.

Anyway, you avoided my second question, does Screwball Scramble count as art?