Every form of art has gone through several stages of development that usually depended on the level of technology advance. Some of such art forms first faced incredible criticism and even denial from the contemporaries, who, often failing to come to terms with the cultural and technologic changes and new artistic phenomena, simply rejected the novelties that they could not understand, embrace and appreciate. Video games are currently a central point of heated debates about whether they should or should not be recognized a new art form. The advocates of video games, who are usually gamers or game developers, defend games as a new art because they fall under the definition of art from the philosophy of art standpoint; moreover, video games are similar to the existing art forms; and finally their elements are already protected by the laws protecting copyright, trademarks and patents. On the other hand, the opponents, who are usually non-gamers or game developers, who are not satisfied with the current state of video game industry, argue that games do not fall under the definition of art, as well as lack artistic value and cannot compete with the recognized art pieces; at the same time, they are competitive and are, thus, rather a sport similar to chess and football; and finally, video games lack a single author and his or her unique artistic vision.
While there is no single definition of art, it is hard for both sides to debate objectively given personal biases. However, the strengths of some advocates’ arguments is the appeal to logic, evidence and modern art theories, while certain opponents successfully appeal to the major differences between the existing art forms and video games, as well as to similarities between games and sports. However, although video games are a very new phenomenon in comparison to other forms of art, they are becoming increasingly creative and complex, containing the elements of other arts forms, while also containing a novelty that is the active engagement of the players in the unveiling of the story of each game, and, thus, they should be appreciated, developed and promoted as a possible form of artistic expression for their authors, who deserve recognition as artists, and a means of artistic experience for all people without limitations based on biases surrounding the world of video games.
Video games are a completely new artistic phenomenon that has evolved with the creation and development of computer technology. For this reason, video games are often not easy to comprehend especially by people of older generations and those, who prefer other existing forms of art. Thus, they are being rejected on the basis of personal biases and lack of recognition of their artistic value, as Keith Stuart mentioned in his 2014 article for The Guardian (Stuart). Indeed, critics including Jonathan Jones and Roger Ebert condescendingly and somewhat arrogantly reject video games as art on the basis of own minimal experience playing video games. For example, Jones wondered in his article about the reasons why professors spent time “playing all these games” and claimed that art needs to be a manifestation of personal imagination, which video games lack, as they are not created by a single artist (Jones). However, what Jones fails to recognize is that modern video games are created by a huge number of skilled artists, from level designers, to graphic designers, to the authors of the stories, to composers, as Aaron Smuts accurately noted in his article “Are Video Games Art?” (Smuts). On the other hand, Michael Samyn, a game developer himself, claims that modern videogames are not art based on the fact that they are very similar to each other, and the artists that work on them, do not have a possibility to create and follow the original idea of the author because of the production planning restriction (Samyn). However, while his argument reflects the reality of the production of major blockbuster video games, it does not mean that video games are not art because of the idea concessions made in the process of production. As Keith Stuart accurately argued, although video games often do not have a single author, they are a collaboration of a multitude of artists, just as novels and songs can be a collaboration where artists compromise to create a work of art based on original ideas (Stuart).
While the first video games lacked certain complex structure and narrative, and indeed could hardly be considered a work of art, modern games, including Skyrim, Dragon Age, Bloodborne and many others, feature incredible original landscapes, animated dialogues, fascinating original stories and unique and complex music scores created by talented composers. Many modern video games provide experience similar to reading a book or watching a movie, but with personal participation in developing the events of the story. In modern games, people can make choices that reflect their personalities and moral views, and these choices can alter the end result of the game. Although Roger Ebert and Jonathan Jones attempt to compare video games with cinema, literature and fine art masterpieces and claim that games have no artistic expression and value, and Goldstein claims that video games have no narrative, in fact, modern video games do contain original ideas and narratives, and comparing one form of art to another cannot invalidate the value of either of them (Ebert; Jones; Goldstein). Of course, not all video games are works of art, but if researched deeper, many of them, especially the most recent ones, are. Good video games resemble good movies, literature works and music not only in the originality of the idea, but also in the emotional feedback of the viewers and players. According to Tavinor, modern good video meet the criteria of the philosopher Berys Gaut’s definition of art, and while this definition is not recognized by everyone, major works of art of various forms fall under the definition (Tavinor). For this reason, one may argue, using induction, that there is a strong possibility that if other forms of art and video games meet these criteria, video games can belong to art as well as other forms.
Finally, video games belong to the era of new technology, but as other forms of art, they went through different periods of development. For example, fine are is resembled by both cave paintings and the masterpieces by Michelangelo, while cinema developed from silent films to modern sound films that feature a lot of animation and graphic design, as well as actors’ performance. Likewise, according to Catherine Jewell, video games have also improved with the development of computer technologies, and the legal protection their elements currently have signals about their recognition as works of art by the government (Jewell). However, there is also the importance to recognize video games as art on a personal level by the members of public, as this will allow to destroy the biases that prevent many from experiencing this beautiful means of artistic expression, as well as unfairly limit video games as a niche means of entertainment that are mostly enjoyed by the so-called nerds. Back in year 2000, Henry Jenkins argued that video games should be recognized and appreciated as art because they would receive a boost in development and improvement and would be able to show their full potential (Jenkins). His article was somewhat predictive of what has happened in the video game industry, as hundreds of millions of copies of blockbuster games are currently sold all over the world, similarly to other forms of art, such as films and books, and among the reasons why they enjoy such success is their artistic value.
Video games should not be denied their place in the realm of art, because they already enjoy success similar to other forms of art. They combine multiple elements including other forms of art that are united together in a single art piece that has a unique quality inherent to the new technology age, which is the ability to engage the user into active participation. Video games can involve the work of hundreds of skillful artists, composers and designers, and people behind the development of video games deserve the recognition of their product as a work of art. But moreover, people need to embrace and accept it as a new form of art, similarly to the acceptance of cinema and modern music at the beginning of the 20th century, as such recognition can boost further improvement of video games industry and lead to the emergence of unique talents, whose interests in video game development may currently be dismissed on the basis of their invalidity and unimportance.
Works Cited
Ebert, Roger. "Video Games Can Never Be Art." Roger Ebert's Journal. 16 Aug. 2010. Web. 15 July 2015.
Goldstein, Hilary. "5 Good Reasons Games Are Not art." VentureBeat. 29 Apr. 2012. Web. 15 July 2015.
Jenkins, Henry. "Art Form for the Digital Age." Technology Review. 1 Sept. 2000. Web. 15 July 2015.
Jewell, Catherine. "Video Games: 21st Century Art." World Intellectual Property Organization. 1 Aug. 2012. Web. 15 July 2015.
Jones, Jonathan. "Sorry MoMA, Video Games Are Not Art." The Guardian. 30 Nov. 2012. Web. 15 July 2015.
Samyn, Michael. "Almost Art." The Escapist Magazine. 1 Feb. 2011. Web. 15 July 2015.
Smuts, Aaron. "Are Video Games Art?" Contemporary Aesthetics 3 (2005). Contemporary Aesthetics. University of Wisconsin, Madison. Web. 15 July 2015. <http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/ca/7523862.0003.006?view=text;rgn=main>.
Stuart, Keith. "Video Games and Art: Why Does the Media Get It so Wrong?" The Guardian. 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 15 July 2015.
Tavinor, Grant. "Video Games and the Philosophy of Art." Kotaku. 29 Apr. 2010. Web. 15 July 2015.
