Videogames: A Form of Art

The definition of art: the products of human creativity, the creation of beautiful or significant things. Artwork: photographs or other visual representations. These are a few definitions of what art could be while everyone is entitled to their own personal opinions. I might see a stick lying in the middle of street and be moved by its position and could call it art. Another person may see the same stick and with one glance kick it into a ditch. There was no art in that stick lying in the middle of the street to them. But as Clive Barker would say, "we can debate what art is, we can debate it forever. If the experience moves you in some way or another ... even if it moves your bowels ... I think it is worthy of some serious study". With this in mind, why not consider videogames as a form of art?

I understand that not everyone is into the gaming world. It is sort of an acquired taste, like sushi. A person who never picked up a controller in their life my find it awkward and hard to hold. Not only that, but playing a game that requires hours of your time almost seems silly. It is just a game, right? Well maybe so but should we be so quick to dismiss the idea that this 'game' is some form of art? I would like to ask that everyone who has never played a videogame in their life to try it. Not spending hours upon hours engaged in the storyline, but just enough to see what it is all about. At that point, the judgment call could be made if videogames are a form of art. What would you say? I say yes.

I say yes because no matter what game I am playing, there are visuals all around that help bring the game closer to me as a player. When playing Bioshock, it revolves around art in the background. No matter where you are in the game there is something, from dead corpses hanging on the wall to shattered pictures of Andrew Ryan, that are a form of art within the videogame. Without this art, the game would lose most of it's meaning. I find myself moved by the visuals as well as the sounds of Rapture. As a whole the game itself is a form of art. It is a beautifully written story that unfolds before you as you move throughout the game. If I'm not mistaken, written stories are a form of art.

I was always told, if something inflicts an emotional response, that the artist has done their job correctly. How many times has a player found themselves emotionally moved in a videogame? Now when I say emotionally moved, I do not mean tears, but any sort of emotions such as anger or joy. I know I have felt all of these at some point when playing a videogame and the end result, the artist has created art because this art has inflicted an emotional response.

But what games should be considered art? All games. It does not matter how old the game is or how absolutely horrible it was, it was created for a purpose and that purpose is art. Pong, even though lacking color, graphics, and a storyline is art. Duck Hunt, even though the player finds themselves killing innocent birds is art. Sonic, even though annoying to beat, is a form of art. Each game was created by an artist for the consumer to enjoy in a form of art. There are indie films out there that people consider art that I would rather choke down a handful of glass than watch but even those awful movies, that were created for the purpose of art, are considered art by certain people. If we can understand that, why can't we see the same thing with videogames?

My only reasoning why it seems outrageous to consider videogames as a form of art is the stigmatization they hold. Videogames are bad, they make kids kill each other, they rot their brains, they cause them to drop out of school, and so forth. One, this is entirely not true and two, how many great artists were a little whacked in the head? Look at Van Goethe, he cut his own ear off and we have our children look up to him. He was an amazing artist although some would say his art, well is not art. Again, everyone is entitled to their own personal opinions. So should we be so quick to stigmatize videogames some more and not give them a chance to be art because of the so-called violence they hold? No.

Maybe like all great artists, when the games have been long dead and no one remembers what a Nintendo was, will videogames be considered a work of art. Someone will find a lost gaming system one hundred years from now and put it on display in an art museum. Or maybe they will make slide shows of difference action sequences and show them at an indie film show. Maybe people will come to their senses and realize that this medium is a form of art, hopefully in our life time.