In the past two decades, video games have gone through a massive transformation
In the past two decades, video games have gone through a massive transformation in both their use and purpose. Before the 90s, video games were just expensive pastimes; admittedly, they had music, graphics, some narrative, and so forth; nevertheless, their purpose was purely for entertainment. As such, many people have tended to consider them as nothing more than just games in a digital form. They argue that just the way football, basketball, chess, and so on are not art; video games should not be art either. The most well-known of these critics is Roger Ebert; he argues that there are no video games as yet that can be compared with great films, poems, literature, and so on (Ebert 1).
Video games as evolving art
While it is true that there is no video game at present that can compare to great works of art like the Monalisa; nevertheless, the video game industry is evolving very fast and will continue to do so for a long time to come. Besides, if the last two decades are anything to go by, then the industry has unfathomable potential. Video games are a blend of nearly all art forms, namely; music, narrative, and so on; additionally, like all art forms like music, video games have the capacity to elicit emotion in people who play them; they are also extremely interactive. Perhaps more interactive than all art forms; similarly, like all art forms, video games enable their creators to show their imagination; video games are aesthetic; video games are perhaps at a stage where cinema was in 1975; in short, video games are just like all the other art forms, if not better. For these reasons, video games should be considered art.
Art forms starting as entertainment
All art forms started off as entertainment; paintings, for instance, were originally just room decorations; literature too started as nothing more than just a means to entertain readers; films and movies too were originally only intended to enable people to experience their wildest imaginations and fantasies; and so forth. All these art forms have acquired their statuses as art over time. Video games should, therefore, be considered art because just like movies, films, paintings, literature, just to name a few, they too originally began as entertainment; however, video games have now come of age. Additionally, video games like any other forms of art have the capacity to creatively put across an idea; perhaps even better than many art forms.
The storytelling element in video games
Storytelling or narration is a common element in nearly all art forms. Similarly, nearly all video games attempt to tell some story; almost all developers of video games use some form of storytelling to convey a message, a moral lesson, and so on; it goes without saying that, not all games accomplish this very well; nevertheless, there are a lot of games that are very thought-provoking; that trigger a lot of emotions, and so forth. If a game does this - and many do - it should be considered an art rather than just entertainment.
The aesthetic qualities of video games
For anything to be considered art, it must be aesthetic; in other words, there must be a way of telling if it is beautiful or ugly. It is worth pointing out, however, that the idea that something was only art if it was beautiful was largely discarded in the 20th century. Nonetheless, something is only art if it appeals to people in some way (Barrett 9). That being said, there are ways, although much contested, of evaluating the appeal, significance, richness, meaning, and so forth of works of art; applying these mechanisms on video games shows that they too have unique aesthetic qualities, for example, replayability and so forth (Adams 68). Video games have developed a lot over the past six decades, for example, from 'Tennis for Two' in 1958 to 'The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2017'. Video games are now capable of having aesthetic, narrative, and artistic peculiarities of other art forms like film, novels, music, and so on.
Video games as a blend of art forms
Additionally, video games should count as art because they are essentially a combination of most of all the other art forms. Any good video game has a good combination of great graphics, beautiful music, captivating story, and so forth. Artists design two-dimensional images and three-dimensional models; musical composers make effects, theme songs, and soundtracks; scriptwriters compose the dialogues, stories, and so on; and the programmers combine it all together into a seamless composition. Video games are, therefore, a blend or a mishmash of arts. For that reason, they should be considered art.
Interactivity of video games
Although many modern-day video games rival or even surpass movies in visual effects; this is by no means the only element of video games that makes them art forms. A majority of video games also have soundtracks and music that can on their own be considered musical art. Nevertheless, the one thing that sets video games apart from, for example, movies, films, literature, painting, and so on is its completely immersive and interactive nature. No other art form is as interactive as video games. That said, according to Folkerts, a piece of literature, poem, film, or any other art for that matter stops being art when people experiencing it see exactly what they get; in other words, an art ceases being one once it stops offering more than that which is visible (Folkerts 103). By enabling the player to directly participate in the story, even to the level where the player can shape the narrative into her own distinct experience; video games take a player beyond what is visible. This capacity of video games to enable people to continually interpret events in the game and to give meaning is what makes video games art.
Addressing criticisms against video games as art
Critics of the idea of considering video games as art argue that the fact that video games are created to be competitive or to be won rules out the possibility of them ever being considered art forms. Ebert, for instance, argues that because video games are meant to be won they cannot be considered art. As regards stories and narrative in video games, he argues that video games' narratives are hollow and shallow and, therefore, do not qualify as art either (Ebert). Despite Ebert's criticisms, video games are extremely interactive; they are story, music, and visuals all wrapped into one package; this makes them art. In addition to that, completion is not unique to video games; as a matter of fact, there are great poems, literature, paintings, and so on that came about because of competition. Besides, video games' potential as an art cannot be fully appreciated without playing; for that reason, Ebert's argument does not hold because he admits to not playing any video game. Video games unlike other forms of art cannot be merely observed like a sculpture, painting, or literature (Lanchester 20).
The complexity of video games
Another criticism is that video games are difficult to learn; this they have argued precludes them from being considered art. However, Lanchester argues that the difficulty of learning is not unique to video games. He points out that quite a number of art forms require people to learn first. He gives the example of Shakespeare's works. He argues that most of Shakespeare is intimidating and uninteresting to many students largely because of the complexity of language (Lanchester 19). It takes a lot of effort and practice to fully read and understand Shakespeare; that, however, does not rule it out from being art. Consequently, the complexity of video games does not preclude them from being considered art either.
The recognition of video games as art
Most importantly, video games should be considered art because many governments across the globe already consider them art. As a matter of fact, in 2006, the French government formally recognized video games as art. Similarly, in 2011, the United States government through the National Endowment for the Arts started giving grants to support video games. Canada too is known to financially help makers of video games through the Canada Media Fund; it, for instance, helped fund a video game called 'The Long Dark'. That being said, according to the US Supreme Court, video games are just like protected plays, films, books, and so forth because like other forms of art, video games communicate ideas, opinions, and messages using well-known literary devices like dialogue, plot, music, and characters (Ferguson 57).
Comparing video games to emerging art forms
In 1975, an author Called Gilbert Seldes wrote a book called 'The Seven Lively Arts', in it he argued that the United States' contribution to arts was largely in the form of new art forms like Hollywood film, Jazz, comic strips, and Broadway musicals. Although all these arts have since gained acceptance and respect, none of them was respectable or acceptable when Seldes made the assertion. People at the time were doubtful of Seldes' claims particularly with regards to cinema; for pretty much the same reasons that modern critics discount video games; people then were skeptical of cinema's financial motivations and the fact that it was largely technology-based. They were also bothered by the film's association with eroticism, violence, and so on. For these reasons, they argued that cinema had not produced works that were worth being considered art (Baumann 1). However, Seldes argued that film, cinema, and other emerging arts deserved to be celebrated because they were part and parcel of people's daily lives. Video games are the modern-day lively arts; these games are as worthy of being considered arts as, say, Cinema was in 1975. Like back then, they herald new aesthetic experiences (Jenkins 117).
The potential of video games as art
Seldes wrote his book when film and cinema were just starting to mature as a medium of expression and cinema creators were struggling to improve the emotional experience of watching cinema or film. It is still early to know whether video games as well will make the transition that cinema made. Video games can fill people with a lot of excitement; they can make people laugh; nevertheless, they are yet to make people be overcome by emotion. For that reason, many people have argued video games cannot attain the status of real art. People should, however, be careful not to mistake the present transitional period for the full potential of video games (Jenkins 120).
The balance between narrative and aesthetics in video games
Admittedly, a majority of video games make it hard for anyone to regard them as art. A majority of popular video games put too much emphasis on graphics; in other words, they sacrifice the narrative in order to enhance the visual aspects (Juul 20). Many games at present do not bother with finding the balance between the narrative and aesthetics. Nevertheless, there are quite a number of video games that deserve to be considered art, and as technology continues to improve game creators will create even more of these games.
The art in playing video games
Some video games should indeed be considered art; nevertheless, video games are not like traditional art in the sense that they cannot be truly appreciated by just observing them. Like all art forms, they must be enjoyed the right way, that is, through playing and allowing oneself to interact with them as much as possible. Just the way music requires one to completely immerse oneself in it; video games also require one to sit before a good quality screen, with high-quality speakers in order to appreciate it. The art in video games is in the playing.
Work Cited
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Folkerts, Jef. "Playing Games as an Art Experience: How Videogames Produce Meaning through Narrative and Play." At the Interface/Probing the Boundaries 69 (2010): 99-117.
Jenkins, Henry. "Art form for the digital age ." Technology Review-Manchester NH- 103.5 (2000): 117-120.
Juul, Jesper. Half-real: Video games between real rules and fictional worlds. MIT press, 2011.
Lanchester, John. "Is It Art?" London Review of Books 31.1 (2009): 18-20.
