Videogames - A form of art?

[FlipMode]

Just a quick question / debate.
In your opinion is it fair to say that a videogame can be considered a work of art just like anything else that can be man made?

[KingKivuli]

id say yes it is, characters, narrative, scenery, plot line, music, sounds, themes, settings. all this things alone are a classed as a form of art. games are, if you think about it, an interactive movie where you are the hero and you make the story which is yet another form. People harper on about how video games are bad when they are so not. It's not the games fault you child/bf/husband decides to stay awake 40 hours playing. If a game is well made in even half the areas that go into it then it taps into the greatest art block of them all, human imagination, which is endless

Ill use assassins creed 2 as an example. Its set in renaissance Italy, it uses many historical references, buildings and people to influence the story. So already its linking to reality, its got our attention. Then it starts explaining about the assassins and their secretive ways, and it weaves the story so perfectly into the timeline of real history it makes you think 'what if they were real?, What if they still are around and we just dont know it?' It opens your imagination and lets it run free

[Regulus]

The graphics? Yes.
The story? Yes.
The gameplay? Absolutely not.

Games are meant to be fun, not to be... art. Whatever art actually is.

[WildSimba]

Considering Art is pretty much just anything used to express yourself, and Games are most certainly a way to express yourself, I say most definitely.

[DGFone]

[quote="Regulus"]The graphics? Yes.
The story? Yes.
The gameplay? Absolutely not.

Games are meant to be fun, not to be... art. Whatever art actually is.[/quote]

Gameplay can be a from of art - Portal is a good example. Just because gameplay is more often than not not used as an art form and more as a follow-the-leader-cash-grab-in doesn't mean that some games that choose to be different from the heard can't have their gameplay be called art.

[SnowyCheetah]

I consider video games an art form. Like any other art form, it can be done well or done very badly. The amount of work that goes into them, the process involved and the commercial interests do not take away from games' credibility as art.

[KopsTheTerminator]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dear_Esther

'nuff said.

[KentuckyWildcat]

I think video games are absolutely a form of art given that they are forms of creative expression. They're probably most similar to movies if you were comparing to other forms of art. Sure, there's some lowbrow games out there, but that doesn't invalidate the entire medium. I've played some games like Fable II and Batman:Arkham Asylum that were stunning artistic achievements in my opinion.