Are Video Games Art?

Here I discuss whether or not video games can be considered art. I could have elaborated much more on the subject, as there are a lot of things I should have said, but I don't expect this to reach a mass audience anyway. I may write an article on the subject sometime, since I'm much better at expressing myself through writing. I had the urge to make this video when I saw this article by Roger Ebert: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/04/video_games_can_never_be_art.html

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• video
• games
• can
• never
• be
• art
• roger
• ebert
• critic
• opinion
• editorial
• rant
• discussion

[Bregowald]

Dumb teenagers tend to think video games are "art". And mental midgets like this guy.

[grenworthshero]

@Bregowald Oh, please. Get out of here with your pompous, holier-than-thou attitude and elitist views on what actually qualifies something as art. Either that, or troll harder.

[mrjedidja]

What about the fact that both films and video games are closer to kitsch then art, in that they are largely formualic?

[grenworthshero]

@mrjedidja That's like saying music isn't art because it has form.

[rrrrw999]

It was just a stupid thing for Ebert to say. Not only are video games art, but they are comprised of art and music, thus a video game is a collection of art. Ebert's stuck in the past thinking that all video games are like frogger and pac man. It was just a very closed minded opinionated thing for him to say. People make a mistake when they trust a mechanic for medical advice, or a stripper for advice on how to deactivate a ticking bomb. Ebert is no expert on games.

[grenworthshero]

@rrrrw999 I can understand what he's saying if he's referring to games like Frogger, which aren't supposed to be any kind of expression of the creator, but almost all of today's games are undeniably artistic in nature.

[conradojavier]

Ebert = the new Jack Thompson

[HopeTsukikage]

I agree with you. As an artist, we are taught that anything can be art as long as the person viewing it considers it so. Take Andy Warhol for instance, who made a soup can art. I don't feel Roger Ebert can sit down and consider movies an art form and not video games that now do the very same thing, express the creators view or take on a certain subject, feeling, or action. Now I do realize that some games do not exist for this purpose...but neither do some movies, or for that matter..."artwork"

[jjwhatcher]

@bregowald which video games do

[jjwhatcher]

@bregowald art is meant as an expression of one's self in order to make people feel something

[mrjedidja]

@grenworthshero Form isn't formula though.

[qwertlolo]

with paintings you can win art shows

you can win awards with movies

you can win awards for music

the argument of yoou cant win is idiotic

[BJCHESTER]

Great points. Ebert was being pretentious.