Posted on September 27, 2007, Shawn Sines Will Video Games Ever Be Considered Mainstream Art?
The latest issue of The Art of the Game addresses a question that is often debated inside and outside the gaming community; “Can video games be art?”The heart of the debate of course is that art is so very subjective. We first have to answer the question “What is art?”. A shorthand definition is something that provokes or engages the viewer, something that a general consensus would agree is art, and something that takes skill and talent to produce and can’t easily be accomplished by the average person. Video games fit two of these definitions but don’t enjoy a consensus agreement as to whether games are art.
The article goes on to compare video games to other forms of entertainment that have gained acceptance as art forms. It explores literature, comics, rock music and film to see how these relate to video games. Read the full thought provoking piece on Ragnar Tornquist.