.info is your reliable source to dive into the heart of the cultural phenomenon we like to call gaming. Each video provides information for those that want to know more about the many aspect of this thriving culture. Today’s lesson focuses on the great debate on whether or not games are an art form.
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Posted by: Cold Morning Productions
Posted on: July 7, 2011
.info is your best source to unearth a wealth of knowledge about the cultural phenomenon we like to call "gaming." Each episode provides information for those that want to know more about the many aspect of this thriving culture.
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Wow. When I first looked at this, I though to myself “Hm, this is probably going to be a full argument on the topic, but a biased one (seeing as this is DDL), but after watching this video I was pleasantly surprised. Very much so. I feel that this was a very well put, and well abridged statement of the philosophical debate on VG’s as an art form. I myself believe video games are art, with my argument being that art is “the controlled sharing of an experience.” encompassing performance and production alike. Many videogames can be cheep hacks made to turn a dollar, but like you said, there are those games that give a full feeling of immersion, the indicator (in my book) of a good story, performance, piece or any other form of art. Roger Ebert is entitled to his own opinion, and I respect him for that, but I feel that putting a genre with so much artistic potential down in such a way is a shame. Look at cinematography. At first it too struggled to be recognized as art and now look at it! It’s grossing insane amounts every year! But at the same time, there are still films that are horrific, obscene, or in some other way perverts the genre. These are what brings down any artform, or any large group in general, but in order to apropriately judge and critique a genre we must look past these negatives and look at the full picture, and not focus on a few productions, brand them as “violence machines” and bring a representative onto your networks and make the entire genre look bad you big piles of shi.. oh my, pardon me. I seemed to have let myself think of FOX for a minute there. God, what a mistake (NO I WILL NOT STOP LIKING WHAT YOU DON’T LIKE). This is good stuff! kudos bro.
Art is something very impulsive that was caught in a glimps of a moment and something that is purely creative. I don’t think that games and films are art. I think that both are developed from art and are more of a craftsmenship job. But i do think that both can be and sometimes are very influanced and inspired by art. Ico, SotC, okami are best exsample of that. But you can have artists on the team and thats a bonus when you want to have nicely done terrains or textures. However within development teams there is a couple of strictly artistic jobs: concept artist and composer who have opportuniety to do something artistic if they want to. The whole visualisation is developed from what concept artist artwork ( it’s not called an artwork without a reason ;) ).
Art is a matter of what appeals to who in what way. Something may impact someone greatly while someone else sees it as something inferior. But hey, we got something in the Smithsonian so gaming is getting there. It’s not like films, comics/graphics novels, and TV didn’t have such problems too.