Yes Video Games are Art: Can We Get Over This Now?December 18, 2012 by

I’m not going to start this with some lame cliche like, “Are games art.” This is not a “ten reasons why games are art” list. This is not a critique on modern computer entertainment and how it has shaped a generation. This isn’t an argument for games being art, but more an explanation as to why many things you might not have considered to be art, just might be; a baseline look at art itself, and frankly, why video games are not that different than anything else out there. The fact of the matter is, (SPOILERS) yes, games are art. They always have been, and they always will be. The problem is that the discussion of “Are games art,” has been inherently pointless from the start.

To give a solid, objective definition of art is impossible, because art itself is ever changing, and more importantly, subjective. What might be art to one person, could just be a pile of rocks or a bunch of noise to someone else. There has never been some list of qualifications that something needs to meet before it can be considered art. If you looked up from your computer screen right now, took the first thing you saw, and asked everyone in the world it that thing was art, someone undoubtedly would say, “yes.”

In grade school, we all took art classes, in which we were taught to draw, paint, and work with clay. From as young as we can remember, this is how we saw art, taking physical materials and mending and molding them into new form. Why wasn’t music or poetry included in this class. Surely they too are forms of art? This is the issue, we were taught that art is some physical creation with colors and fancy shapes. But it has to be more, right?

In Scott McCloud’s book, Understanding Comics, he describes art as something that does not “grow out of either of our species’ two basic instincts: survival and reproduction.” So essentially, everything other than eating, breathing, and sex is art. But then, couldn’t you argue that sex can be artful. Those in the pornography industry would be offended if you said their work was less of an art form then the rest of the film industry. The crafting of a tool necessary for survival, depending on the result, could also be considered art. Even this most basic definition of art, which encompasses nearly all human actions, can be questioned. And reading McCloud’s book is what really got me thinking about what art is, and video games might fit that category. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.

Personally, I see art as any action, process, or style, in which an individual has used his or her own style or approach to reach a final result. The art is not the painting, but the way in which it was painted. Van Gogh clearly has a different style of painting compared to Da Vinci. Coldplay clearly has a different musical style than Bob Dylan. Art is the realization and the interpretation of the differences in these styles.

The issue in accepting this definition may be in the fact that as individuals in this modern society, we are ignorant to most forms of art around us. From architecture, to cooking, to sports, everything can be made to be art, so long as people take individual approaches and develop styles. Many may not see the artistry of a quarterback in football, but every quarterback undoubtedly has his own style in playing the sport. If you were to take the most devoted football fans and show them silhouettes of Tom Brady and Bret Favre passing a football, they could quickly determine who was who, because they’ve studied the art form and know the styles of different artist in this medium. Just like architects have studied the medium and can tell the difference between Frank Lloyd Wright and Albert Kahn, I can tell the difference between Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones,  and Rush, and Greg Miller can tell the difference between a Portillo’s hotdog and a Ball Park Frank.

Video games are no different. To an outsider, Call of Duty looks the same as Skyrim. Those of us who have studied, and spent countless hours enjoying the medium of video games, however, can absolutely tell the differences. We know why Mario and Sonic are different, and we can explain why, as an individual, we might enjoy Grand Them Auto: Vice City over Grand Theft Auto: IV. We can tell the difference between a Nintendo game and a Naughty Dog game. It’s all in the style of the game.

Even the way games are played is art. Whether choosing to be good or evil in Infamous, or whether we choose to be more Aggressive or Calm in The Walking Dead: The Game, or whether to rush through a level of Mario or get every power up and stomp on every Goomba. Fighting games display some of the most impressive artist in game play. What’s the difference between someone who has practiced countless hours with Ryu in Street Fighter and someone who spends days on end behind an easel with paint. Both artists develop a unique style in their practicing and, when the time comes to display their skills, they display pure art.

When we take the time to realize that, no matter what the medium we view there are different approaches to reach vastly different results, we can realize that art is more then paint on paper, but instead, is the way paint is put on paper, or the way a football is thrown, or the way a game is made.

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