Can Video Games be
Art?
This is a question asked by gamers everywhere. It is a
question answered by none gamers as no way now go back to the basement. Let’s
face it however, these people are pretty ignorant so let’s take a look into the
argument with intelligence and logic.
I’ll start with that all so common argument, video games
cannot be art because art has no purpose. A painting is simply there to be
looked at while a video game is there to be played. True, however this
definition of art seems rather restrictive and surely the purpose of art is to
have no restrictions and to allow an artist to create their own vision without
shackles. The definition of art in fact is as follows: The expression or application of human creative
skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture,
producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional
power.
The first part talks of an application of human creative skill and
imagination. I’ve never created a video game but it’s obvious that it takes
skill and imagination to create. Video games are often compared the films,
however I find this comparison to be unfair. I’m not going to try to argue one
is harder to create than another, that’s not fair but both have unique challenges
to overcome. A video game can look great, sound great and have an enthralling
story but if the gameplay is poor then it isn’t a good video game. The
interactive element is the key element in a video game and if a game plays
badly then its good story and visuals are wasted and may as well have been a
film. The opposite side to this argument is a film has to keep your attention
without any interactivity, games can fall back on good gameplay to keep you
interested. Name the most well-known video game franchise. I’d say Mario which
has little to no story for the most part, it’s about the gameplay. A movie
meanwhile has to be interesting on its own without player interaction.
Producing works for Beauty or emotional power. If you play games then it
seems highly likely a game has impacted you emotionally at some point. When
people mention art and games the one that springs to my mind is Shadow of the
Colossus. That game made me think, it was artistic to me and it was an
emotional experience. It made you question yourself every time you killed a
Colossus and yet when you fight them you’re taken over by a wash of
determination as the music builds up and you begin that feeling of an epic
struggle. Seems pretty artistic to me.
I could keep mentioning the definition but earlier I mentioned art being
un-restricted. What is artistic varies from person to person. Personally I
found Shadow of the Colossus an emotional and impactful experience and many
other games delivered on a similar scale. My favorite game ever made, Professor
Layton and the Lost future not only had a beautiful visual style, it had
extremely likeable and relatable characters with interesting arcs, it had a
gameplay style of puzzles that challenged you on an intellectual level and a
story that kept me hooked from beginning to end and almost bought a tear to my
eye at the end. That to me cannot be described as anything other than art.
Art is in the eye in the eye of the beholder, if someone tried to convince
me that Professor Layton and the Lost Future isn’t art by some dumb
technicality I’d tell them they’re pretentious and idiotic. I went to a modern
art gallery in London a couple of years ago, I nearly gnawed my arms off out of
sheer boredom. At one point there was a grey canvas. A GREY CANVAS, and if I’d
talked to a lot of the people in that place they’d say my video game isn’t art
at all. Art is a different thing to each person so to answer the question that
started all this, can video games be art? Yes they can, to claim they’re not is
to claim you’re idea of art is the only one that is correct.
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