To Art or not to Art: Video Games as an Artistic Medium

To Art or not to Art: Video Games as an Artistic Medium

The Cult News| March 2015
By B.A. Umaña

With the 2012 ruling by the United States Supreme Court that categorized video games as an art form, scholars, professionals, and even common Joes alike have put the video games as entertainment or art question to debate. People of all types look to this medium and take sides in the argument; some rejecting the possibility of seeing that video games are art, while others propagate video games as art by analyzing these as one would critique a painting or a movie.

While some may believe that video games are treading into untouched territory by sitting between the line being, and not being an art form, we should know that this has been the case for many other “modern” art forms. In fact, the question of whether a form of human expression is art or not is in no way exclusive to video games. Almost every new medium is put under the heat of philosophical questioning, and while it may take time, eventually, these forms of expressions are generally accepted as art by the majority.

Such was the case for both Photography and Film. Jesse Prinz, speaker at the 2007 Pacific APA convention in Pasadena, mentioned that in the early days of cinema, the act of filming was not considered an art form. Analyst Brett Martin shares a similar point about photography in his article "Should Video Games be Viewed as Art?" by stating that the form of expression was discredited in the mid-nineteenth because "photography required no talent."

The early history and the etymology of the term “video games” itself give antagonists to the video games as art position a place stand on. Etymologically speaking, the word "Games" in the term refers to the competition and strategy which come hand in hand with the medium, and this, to many, might be enough to compare video games to other competition based games -such as board games and sports, and not art. In the case of the first video games ever produced such as Cathode Ray Amusement and Pong, competition was their main objective, and therefore, the term fit perfectly. However, Far Flung News correspondent Michael Mirasol points out that this no longer applies because, starting from the second generation of video games (such as games in the first Atari and Sega consoles) and on, the medium conveys more information and emotions than a board game or sport can. One can invest more deep emotions on Mario, Sonic, and Master Chief than one can on a brook or knight in a game of chess.

Aside their value as an artistic medium, video games require artistic thinking to be developed. Video games, like we now know of Photography and Film, need talented, artistic individuals to be developed, and can certainly not be made by “just about anyone.” Most modern games have complicated and even multi-branched storylines with well-developed characters. Acclaimed video games such as Skyrim, Mass Effect, and Bioshock Infinite hold true to this, being supported by a storyline as good as any you might find in a blockbuster film, or an all-time reading classic.

And even if we're not talking about the games’ storylines, artistic knowhow is needed to design the many levels and challenges the protagonists of these stories face. To add to this, both story developers and gameplay designers have to consider one unique aspect of video games that make them different to other mediums: While book readers and movie seers take a passive role in the events of the story, gamers are active agents of the world they're immersed in. That means two things: One, the story should be relatable to most of those playing, and two,  as mentioned by Michael Mirasol, the character or characters we embody must be designed in such a way that players can imagine being them. When considering whether this medium is an art or not, its uniqueness must be taken into account in the same fashion we consider the differences between books, movies, and paintings. The criteria for the evaluation of this medium must be different.

Video games face yet another challenge in to road to being considered an art when we consider the basic requirements that one must fulfil before the medium can be appreciated. To be able to see the art in a video game, one must play it, which means that one not only needs the technology to play the game, but also the skills. If one lacks one of the other  the designer’s creation cannot be enjoyed.  Mirasol says, “One cannot make a judgment about […] games […] simply by watching recorded gameplay, any more than you could judge a book by its cover, or a movie by its trailer.” That means a part of the general population is excluded from having the right to enjoy and critique the work, which causes its antagonism. While one cannot refute the experience case, the argument concerning the technological limitation is one that was also held for film, as at one point in history, the vast majority did not have a projector sitting handy to view movies. Time may change this, though.

Now, I am not one to believe that video games are the next step in art, and that these are a clear sign that our race has evolved artistically. That idea is completely preposterous. Video games are, in my opinion, an artistic medium that should be respected as such. By this, I do not mean that we should cease to challenge the worth of a video game because all games are a perfect representation of art, but rather that we should be as critical towards them as we are towards books and movies, scraping out the gunk and uplifting the worthy. Video games should be seen as an art, to have the dignity of an art. With the medium getting more and more popular, the more we push for video games being art, the more art we deliver to everyone.