Do you beleive videogames are an art form?

[DK]

Video games can be novels, movies, artwork as in pictures and music all in one package. Metal Gear Solid, for instance, could stand up as a film anywhere on all counts, as could many other games. I'm with Hux, video games will be far and away the best representation of art.

Whether or not people will be willing to be openminded enough to find that out for themselves? Doubtful, but that's their loss.

[Madame Adequate]

I wrote a much longer defense of my stance today, just put it up on EoFF. If you like, take a look at it here.

[Dignified Pauper]

if video games are a form of art

then...

Cheerleading and Showchoir are sports.



I believe you all know my stance.

(by the way, I was a showchoir fag, and no, it's not a sport)

Showchoir isn't a sport, but cheerleading is. Competitive cheerleading requires hecka atheletism.

are you kidding me, i'd like to see you sing (good at that) while working your buns off dancing on stage. K THX BAI.

neither are sports.

[black orb]

>>> Well, If filmaking its called art I dont know why videogames cannot be considered art too..

[Madame Adequate]

are you kidding me, i'd like to see you sing (good at that) while working your buns off dancing on stage. K THX BAI.

neither are sports.

So, now that we're bored of your ludicrous and irrelevant really valid point and i'm impressed by your thinking., do you have any actual reasons to not consider videogames art?

[Ashley Schovitz]

Of course games are art the only reason Rogert Ebert said that is because he has never played one and this site is about an art series.

[Dignified Pauper]

are you kidding me, i'd like to see you sing (good at that) while working your buns off dancing on stage. K THX BAI.

neither are sports.

So, now that we're bored of your ludicrous and irrelevant really valid point and i'm impressed by your thinking., do you have any actual reasons to not consider videogames art?

do i ever?

further, that wasn't really valid point and i'm impressed by your thinking..

[bipper]

If games are not art then Marik D. Pauper is straight.

Convincing enough?

[KoShiatar]

Yes, I think that video games are an art form. A successful video game is an amazing fusion of visual art (character design, storyboards), film (cutscenes, sound design), architecture (level design), music, animation, and storytelling, along with several new things that other mediums don't have to deal with (such as the actual gameplay mechanics). Furthermore, I don't know about anybody else, but I find video games to be more engaging on a personal level than any other art form. (Obviously I can't speak for everybody though.)

Yes I think that video games should be studied in the same way that other "art" is, I've thought several times sitting through many of my film classes that the exact same critiquing and studying of film that we do in class could be very easily and even seamlessly applied to video games.

I do feel that, as a fairly young art form, you probably won't be able to see many "high art" video games just yet... but I presume we're getting there. =P And for me, it's not a matter of "if" video games are going to be studied in class, it's "when".

Not much to add on top of this. I firmly believe videogames ARE a form of art. Unfortunately, today it takes loads of money, time, people and effort to make a videogame, and this means that those who want to invest on that won't make a videogame for art's sake, but will want to get their money back in some way, with all the limitations that we know because of this. But if videogames were to be completely free of commercial logics, we could have masterworks comparable to indipendent movies, especially in the future when graphics will be able to show virtually anything.

[Gnostic Yevon]

I think video games are art. A game can actually change the way you view an act in ways that are more immediate than TV or movies or novels.

In a game, I can set an objective that seems all good, but turns out for bad (one off example, in starcraft one particular victory in the Terran Campaign puts a fascist regeme in charge of the planets). This is more immediate than TV or movies, both of which give you the emotional distance of "sure [movie character] fell for it, but I wouldn't have", mostly because you *did* fall for it. I could use a Karma setting to change events -- if you're an a-hole to the peasent villagers (i.e via Dragon Quest style house-looting), don't expect much help from them, instead, you may find yourself fighting guards. Maybe I could give a choice between a seeming evil act that would work, and a seeming good act that wouldn't -- and have the player decide.

I think that's where games have the greatest potential, the point where a player decides which path to take, and how he wants to play the game. As long as each action has a real consequence, it can be more powerful than anything on TV. It wasn't some hack scriptwriter that made a bad choice, it was you. It wasn't the game designer that screwed over the villagers and put you in jail -- you put you in jail. That's the potential. And hopefully, someday it will be more common.

[fantasyjunkie]

YES, they have! I'll never forget the cutscene at the beginning of Xenogears when that girl walked out nude from the wreckage of that spaceship. Beuatiful scene, well done. And how about Squall in FF8 rescuing Rinoa and seeing them embrace? You could see the love on Squall's face.That's art!

[boys from the dwarf]

most games arent but great games with deep storylines and characters like some of the FF's are amazing and better than a lot of books and films. ive found some of the FFs pretty life changing and the legacy of kain series has a great storyline and is a group of games that could be considered as art.

of course games like racing games and pretty simple games like tony hawks aren't really an art form, a lot of games are truly amazing.

[Teiju]

This is a biased forum to ask that type of question. I doubt many people would agree with Ebert's statements. To tell the truth, I'm amazed he's said a sentence other than just 'two thumbs up!'

Games are an art form encompassing many others - visual art, in the graphics that are used to create the game, literature, in the storylines behind the games, and sometimes even performing arts - in the acting portrayed by some of the characters [this is from the actors playing the roles of video game characters, with those black suits and all that stuff].

And finally, the main aspect of art in a game is its gameplay.

[Maxico]

Any future discussions on whether games are art will consist of 15 minutes of playing Shadow of the Colossus and then everyone will go out for cake.