This post was created in response to the following video, for a University module CIM402:
(Puschak, 2014)
I originally was going to respond to another video, but Christopher Stojkos thoughtful response helped me to reconsider this idea, for a few reasons. The first was because the answer seems inherently obvious from a critical perspective, but the second is because the larger question of whether we culturally express ourselves through any games as a medium seems culturally conflicted.
From a personal standpoint, asking me if video games are art seems like a no-brained answer of “yes” to me, but as Evan Puschak (2014) points out, that is really a recent development. It was only in 2011 that America acknowledged that they should potentially be covered under First Amendment laws (“Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association,” 2019).
But why is this deeply held belief that anything that is competitive isn’t art? Does art have to work only with individuals to be art? Is art necessarily cooperative? Must a game include a narrative to be distinctly recognizable as art?
France acknowledged video games as a “cultural activity” through funding in 2003, with and formalizing this with the wider European Commission in 2008, acknowledging that they are “a cultural expression where art and artists are attached to video games as they are to music and movies” (Boissière, 2008). Indeed, France even knighted the creator of Mario with an Order of Arts and Literature medal in 2006 (Boissière, 2008).
However, we still seem to citing United States legislation as the main legal standard by which we determine whether something is artistic (“Video games as an art form,” 2019), which is baffling, considering the huge number of production companies that exist outside the United State’s paradigm (“The 50 Top Video Game Design Companies in The World,” 2018).
Video games didn’t contain “expression”, according to the US in 2002, in their Interactive Digital Software Association v. St. Louis County ruling, however Missile Command was designed to emulate the fears of the Cold War, so we’re already experiencing something of what the creator intended when we feel the tension and frustration of that game (Melissinos, 2016).
So why can games be art now? Does complexity equal art? Does Narrative or economies inside the game?
Is it that some games simply have subtlety and beauty, and that streak of authenticity and earnestness.
I haven’t played Journey, so can’t speak to its emotional state, but I can talk about a different game. Horizon Zero Dawn, a gorgeous game with sweeping narrative, compelling message (of the potential for hope after the ruination and rebuilding of civilization) and characterization that has been voted some of the best of all time.
Let’s consider for a second whether something that is competitive can also be Art. Smuts (2005) actually draws upon the classification of certain sports as being artforms in his argument that the video games should be considered aesthetic art, because it’s relevent to distinguish something played meaninglessly from something meaningful.
Let’s consider one of the most popular, and arguably the worst, board game of all time.
Let’s consider Monopoly in all its derivations, fan mixes and works, the family feuds that its spawned, the flipped boards and frustration. The deep, dark, satirical lesson at its core — that there’s only one winner under capitalism (Pilon, 2015).
Everyone else loses.
Isn’t that, right there, an example of pop-art? Accessible, ubiquitous, teaching us something about our own world, but selling out along the way? An old-school version of Banksy, hiding in a box, infiltrating practically every household in the western world at some stage or another.
So why would even Ebert (one of the strongest critics of games as art), continue to oppose or dismiss games as art, or later on only consider them “low art” (Deardorff, 2015)? Is it the line between commercial entities of distribution and creation (a factor that every piece of cinema still contends with)?
Honestly, at this point, who knows? Maybe he’s just tired.
And maybe we need to stop listening to the United States about what constitutes “art”.
References
Boissière, F. B. de la. (2008). Video Games: Officially Art, In Europe. Retrieved October 13, 2019, from https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131929/video_games_officially_art_in_.php
Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association. (2019). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brown_v._Entertainment_Merchants_Association&oldid=915762187
Deardorff, N. (2015). An Argument That Video Games Are, Indeed, High Art. Retrieved October 14, 2019, from Forbes website: https://www.forbes.com/sites/berlinschoolofcreativeleadership/2015/10/13/an-argument-that-video-games-are-indeed-high-art/
IGN. (2017). Why Horizon’s Aloy Is The Best Game Protagonist In Years. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzGRmi1kXo8
Melissinos, C. (2016, October 21). Finally, video games for adults. Retrieved October 14, 2019, from CNN Style website: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/video-games-highest-form-of-art/index.html
Pilon, M. (2015). Monopoly Was Designed to Teach the 99% About Income Inequality. Retrieved October 14, 2019, from Smithsonian website: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/monopoly-was-designed-teach-99-about-income-inequality-180953630/
Puschak, E. (2014). The Unique Art of Video Games. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=333&v=ZHs2n0XTxlo
Smuts, A. (2005). Are Video Games Art? Contemporary Aesthetics, 3. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.7523862.0003.006
The 50 Top Video Game Design Companies in The World. (2018). Retrieved October 14, 2019, from The Ultimate Resource for Video Game Design website: https://www.gamedesigning.org/game-development-studios/
Video games as an art form. (2019). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Video_games_as_an_art_form&oldid=916600603
