| Reasonable said: Super Mario Bros. is a great game - but I don't see what I see looking at a painting or looking at an amazing building (or ICO). I see a great game with zero meaning other than the fun you have playing it. For me Art has to convey something - and it might just be me (although I know its not) but Super Mario Bros. is a great game but nothing more. Now I've seen art featuring Mario character - but the game itself? No. Not by my definition of art. Also, don't mix up a cultural artifact with a piece of art. Batman is a cultural artifact, but you still have to create a piece of art featuring him to actually have something to regard. And no - I don't think good game design is art anymore than I think the rules of Tennis is art. A game of Tennis could be Art, as could a game of chess, etc. But it would be a combination of the players, the event and what they create, not the game itself. |
Of course a game conveys something. It conveys an experience, just as films, novels, and architecture do. Change the game designer, and you will get a different experience, because they will try to convey different ideas to the player according to their own beliefs.
Really, this kind of expression exists everywhere in the world. Architecture, marketing, industrial design... Yes, Torillian, even in how somebody decides to craft a sandwich. Some people take great care in their presentation of food. I've almost felt guilty for eating some meals which have been laid before me, but then I remember that consuming the meal is part of the experience that the chef has carefully crafted for me.
Whether you attach a great deal of meaning to a videogame experience or not is a subjective opinion, but when teams of people invest hundreds or thousands of man-hours to create an experience for you, they are trying to communicate with you, just as other artists are. And because this communication isn't in the form of a direct dialogue, we call it art.
"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event." — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.
