By CODY AVDEK
Contributing Writer
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There has been much debate among people over what can be considered art and whether or not video games can be considered such. The question should not be if they are art, but why do people not consider them art?
The issue with this debate comes not only from detractors, but also from the community itself and how they’re seen and portray themselves. The gaming community has long stuck to the line that video games are about fun and that the experience of play is what true gaming is. Many gamers proclaim great disdain for art games and indie games that try and explore different themes. This kind of mentality only serves to hold games back from their true potential, and yet it seems that most of the gaming community wants to keep it that way.
Think of any other medium of art, such as books or movies. There are a myriad of genres and a multitude of ways that those genres are expressed within their mediums. Ones that experiment and challenge the form and seen as innovative and revolutionary. Why should games be excluded? Just because it happens to be a form or art that we take personal fun and pleasure from doesn’t take away and legitimacy as an art form.
Film in particular is a good parallel, as games oftentimes are compared to and try and imitate film. If we stuck to the style and form of the serials and silent movies from the birth of the medium, it would be so much worse off for it. We never would have had Citizen Kane, we never would have had Lord of the Rings, and we never would have had any groundbreaking movie that tried something new. Video games are not poorer for having art games in the medium. In fact, those kinds of games can add so much to the games we currently enjoy.
Without games like Final Fantasy, the console RPG genre would never have become as popular as it did. Talky adventure games from the 90s have influenced a number of different games in recent history. Think of how much worse Tim Schaffer’s games would be if there was never such a thing as King’s Quest.
An art form should not be limited by what the audience thinks it deserves, and gaming seems to be afraid of what it could become because of fear that their favorite medium may drastically change. The inclusion of art games and experimental games does not take away from classic genres from being made. There are still tons of popcorn action movies that get made and there will be too for gaming. Games like Braid and Journey don’t take away from the enjoyment you can find in a game like Call of Duty.
Games are unique among art in that they are a medium that you can experience for yourself. A movie shows you what happens and a book tells you what happens. In a game, you know what happened because you experienced it yourself. You talked to the innkeeper, you beat the final boss, and you climbed that mountain. A game can be first person and allow for role playing. A game can have you assume the role of another person and live their story. A game can be about action, a game can be about horror, a game can be abstract, silly, sad, or funny. A game can combine emotions and craft experiences that other forms of art could never dream of doing, and all of that comes from experimentation.
People against art games truly do take away from the potential that a game can have. They are the single most important artistic advancement in the last 40 years and there seems to be such resentment for it to reach its full potential. Platforms such as the Oculus Rift have shown us that games can truly reach the next level of interactive entertainment, and we should push for them to unlock that potential, not fight against it to defend an ideal of gaming we cling to out of nostalgia and familiarity.
Perhaps it will take a rebranding, maybe it will take someone outside of the video game community to raise to opinion of games. Steven Spielberg once said that video games have officially become art when someone says they cried at the end of level 17. Video games have been doing that for years and it’s time for us to mature as a community and a culture and recognize what good games can do.
