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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Are Videogames Art?

 

We've been beating this around the bush in a couple of threads lately and I'm curious to see what the consensus is.

 Are videogames an art form, or are they simply an entertainment product? What defines art in the first place? What games should be considered art and which shouldn't be?

 



"Pier was a chef, a gifted and respected chef who made millions selling his dishes to the residents of New York City and Boston, he even had a famous jingle playing in those cities that everyone knew by heart. He also had a restaurant in Los Angeles, but not expecting LA to have such a massive population he only used his name on that restaurant and left it to his least capable and cheapest chefs. While his New York restaurant sold kobe beef for $100 and his Boston restaurant sold lobster for $50, his LA restaurant sold cheap hotdogs for $30. Initially these hot dogs sold fairly well because residents of los angeles were starving for good food and hoped that the famous name would denote a high quality, but most were disappointed with what they ate. Seeing the success of his cheap hot dogs in LA, Pier thought "why bother giving Los Angeles quality meats when I can oversell them on cheap hotdogs forever, and since I don't care about the product anyways, why bother advertising them? So Pier continued to only sell cheap hotdogs in LA and was surprised to see that they no longer sold. Pier's conclusion? Residents of Los Angeles don't like food."

"The so-called "hardcore" gamer is a marketing brainwashed, innovation shunting, self-righteous idiot who pays videogame makers far too much money than what is delivered."

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The definition of art, according to Wiktionary, is:

  1. (uncountable) Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature.
  2. (uncountable) The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colours, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
  3. (uncountable) Activity intended to make something special.
  4. (uncountable) A recreation of reality according to the artist's metaphysical value-judgements.
  5. (uncountable) The study and the product of these processes.
  6. (uncountable) Aesthetic value.
  7. (uncountable, printing) Artwork.
  8. (countable) A field or category of art, such as painting, sculpture, music, ballet, or literature.
  9. (countable) A nonscientific branch of learning; one of the liberal arts.
  10. (countable) Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation.

A think videogames easily fit the definition.



I am sure the folks who work on them would be proud of the end product.

So yes imo they are a form of art.



 

 

 

 

well by that definition, what isn't art?



"Pier was a chef, a gifted and respected chef who made millions selling his dishes to the residents of New York City and Boston, he even had a famous jingle playing in those cities that everyone knew by heart. He also had a restaurant in Los Angeles, but not expecting LA to have such a massive population he only used his name on that restaurant and left it to his least capable and cheapest chefs. While his New York restaurant sold kobe beef for $100 and his Boston restaurant sold lobster for $50, his LA restaurant sold cheap hotdogs for $30. Initially these hot dogs sold fairly well because residents of los angeles were starving for good food and hoped that the famous name would denote a high quality, but most were disappointed with what they ate. Seeing the success of his cheap hot dogs in LA, Pier thought "why bother giving Los Angeles quality meats when I can oversell them on cheap hotdogs forever, and since I don't care about the product anyways, why bother advertising them? So Pier continued to only sell cheap hotdogs in LA and was surprised to see that they no longer sold. Pier's conclusion? Residents of Los Angeles don't like food."

"The so-called "hardcore" gamer is a marketing brainwashed, innovation shunting, self-righteous idiot who pays videogame makers far too much money than what is delivered."

No, they are not art.



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Anything really I mean I look at a canvas full of squiggles that sells for ten trillion and go holy shit what was he on when he bought that.

So a bit like beauty really in the eye of the beholder.



 

 

 

 

Hawkeye said:
No, they are not art.

 

 

So what is it? Purely entertainment? I highly doubt it ;) Yes IMO, we could consider many games to be a piece of art :D



Vote the Mayor for Mayor!

Anything can be Art. Very few videogames are simply because they're not trying to be. But could the be? Sure.



Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...

If a giant inflatable dog poo(news article from a few months ago) can be called art and be put on display in a museum I don't see why you can't consider video games a form of art.

I think we need to get Sister Wendys take on this.



Techniquely everything is art.



"Like you know"