How much longer until videogames are accepted as an art form or beneficial to society?

[Piction Froject]

How are films or music particularly beneficial to society (other the stimulating the economy)? Why are you people so focused on entertainment products being labelled art? To justify yourselves being entertained?

Think about how art can effect a person. OK not art how about painting, or writing how does that or would that benefit you?

 

[eyedonutkair]

Video games will never be considered art. This would mean that 360 fanyboys would have to admit positive things about the wii and previous nintendo games. Hopefully this give you some insight on who the real 'cockblockers' and 'haters' are. Anyway, Mario is art. Sack Boy is art. Master Chief is art. Hell, I never played portal, but i heard it was good. The people who determine art are like the people in the modeling business who decide what is chic or not.
If you've evern been forced to watch shows like 'next top model' you already know >.>
All I'm saying is a man dressed like an elite general in lady gaga's army (literally)shouldn't decide what women are attractive the same way biased people shouldn't be allowed to say which games are great and which are not. Don't worry though. Gamers are growing up, and new gamers are coming every year. One day we'll get to the point where people will see that games really aren't the devil people say they are. Hey, at least everyone on this board realizes the value that games have.
Besides, look at the type of people who consider art movies art. Seriously? It's funny how people want things to be taken seriously just because they put a little thought into something.
You can hardly blame them though with the crap that comes out that is considered a movie.
Hmm...maybe it's true. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I may not agree with something being called art, just the way someone wouldn't agree about my opinions. Good thing there's the internet, where people can come together about the things they DO like and agree on.

 

[Sporky111]

I think the controversy surrounding gaming these days is evidence that it is an art form. Games are making a statement, they're pushing boundaries, they're changing the way people entertain themselves and offering them new ways to see the world. This is what art does, and this is what it will do in the future. But before it becomes accepted, it has to be fought.

It's not going to be smooth sailing. Look at the Renaissance, for example. Painting a scene that was not meant to be perfect, and not of someone important, was a huge change for the people of the time. It seems trivial now, but that's because society has grown to accept it as something beneficial and progressive.

Getting through these court cases will be a big step towards acceptance. Getting a console in most homes, and getting older generations involved is also big. People are finding it harder and harder to hate games based on their own ignorance. Imagine some older woman trying to gossip and rant about how video games made her grandson stupid, but she can't get any ground because her friends played Wii Sports with their grandkids. It's happening, right now.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

if Portal wasn't "The Game", there never will be one.

and to answer your question: not until there are no more religious (or otherwise closed-minded) zealots out to cockblock the whole world.

How then do you explain movies?

There are still people who would laugh in your face if you called movies art.

yes, those people exist, but they are a small minority. there are very few people who will seriously argue that Citizen Kane (whether you like it or not) or most Kubrick movies (again, love them or hate them) are art. and it took a long, long time for those people to move from a majority to a minority.

however, i do have to admit that this point somewhat undermines my "probably never" assertion. it will take a long time (probably more than our lifetimes), but the day will come.

 

[adamwestslapdog]

"The Game" has already been made, it was called psychonauts... unfortunately it was largely ignored

same applies to okami

 

[UnwishedGunz]

most likely not, parents will have a problem with anything that might influence a child into doing something harmless. in my opinion the reason it WONT be accepted is because of parents looking for something to blame when they don't realize that most of a child's problems comes from the parents

 

[rsvp42]

Because videogames are not just toys. There is a GREAT deal of art and hard work put in to making them and we, as the people who make them, are sick of our work being treated as rogue cildren's toys.

No they're not just toys, but we do play with them. Games aren't art in the traditional sense (in fact most art isn't art in the traditional sense anymore, but whatever). Games fill a different role in our lives than movies or paintings or music. There's this troubling zeitgeist in the gaming world these days, where everyone is so desperate to be taken seriously that no one's realized how ingrained in our culture gaming has become. It's like everyone is waiting for gaming to transcend itself someday, like everything so far is just throwaway stepping stones. We may be sick of others treating games as child's toys, but we do the same thing when we perpetuate this idea that all the "real" games have yet to come.

 

[Grimlock Fett]

When they bring out a game thats about paying taxes, obeying the law and doing what "the man" tell us to do! It will be very shit! But the multiplayer shall ROCK!

 

[AMMO Kid]

At this rate, it never will be. Right now people in the world view gamers as the lowest on the chain of society, because of how aggressive we are as people to other people and their beliefs etc. I hope it happens though.

 

[Chefodeath]

Hey op, guess what. The Mona Lisa wasn't created in a time when painting was considered "gimmicky drawings" but in the fucking renaissance, arguably the greatest artistic period in the history of mankind. Beethoven's 9th symphony was released at the end of the classical period, the pinnacle in the development of tonal harmony, following which the only place composers had left to go was down into increasing levels of chromatism and dissonance.

"The Game" wont be created until video games are already well recognized as an art form. It will be made by some genius who is able to pull the strands of high gaming around him into one monumentous whole. Until then, we will just have to fight for artistic and cultural status, game (little g) by game.

 

[Amund]

3years 12 days 18 seconds is when the games comes out it shale be called man kind has yet to realizes my genus

you're off by 3 seconds my good sir.

 

[Vykrel]

i think within the next 10-15 years, and only if publishers and developers continue taking risks but START standing up for themselves, then the gaming industry will be taken seriously enough for video games to be considered an art form.

 

[Deimateos]

Edit:^^^Argh, 1 min late. I need to type faster


Lot of Prose here, but Extra Credits pointed out the biggest problem:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2414-Facing-Controversy

In short, the game industry needs to have some balls when making games on hard subject matter. Six days in Fallujah could (key word: could) have been a major turning point in how games are perceived, but Konami caved to minimal pressure. Hell, the best Fox could muster was a soldier's mother was wasn't for the game, but wasn't against it either! That's not pressure!

You can't count on "old people dying" to solve the problem, because ignorance breeds ignorance. So long as "news" outlets can demonize games, they will. It gets ratings and they don't give two shits about fair representation. Every time the game industry backs down, they "prove" the news portrayal through their actions: "You're right, we are evil. We thought we could 'get away with it', but you caught us. We're sorry, we wont do it again (for a while)."

Until the industry firmly stands behind its products (same as the movie industry had to!), games will never be taken seriously as anything other than playthings.

 

[_Cake_]

If you see beauty and art in games who cares others think(as long as they don't butcher them with censorship or try to ban them outright).

 

[Iron Lightning]

How much longer until Video games are accepted as an art form or beneficial to society? I believe it's not really a time amount but when "The Game" comes out. The one that will revolutionize the Industry and finally show everyone that games should be respected and admired. I believe it's when the best developers, designers, producers, programmers, and everyone else who are the best of the best and come together to make their game, with no attachments to deadlines, monetary limits, or social restrictions, create "The Game" to finally propel this form of media to a level of respect compared to the Mona Lisa in the Louvre.

I did not mention where many necessities will come from like the money because I want the answers to just be pure observation and opinions, not tied to physical limitations.

"The Game" was made in September of last year, and it's called The Void. Seriously, The Void is the only game I consider to be high art and I've played quite a few games. Nowadays it's only available on Steam for budget price. The Void is by leaps and bounds the best game that I have ever had the privilege to play. I make no use of hyperbole in any of these statements.

 

[HigherTomorrow]

if Portal wasn't "The Game", there never will be one.

and to answer your question: not until there are no more religious (or otherwise closed-minded) zealots out to cockblock the whole world.

Because you need to be religious to be close-minded, eh? Also, Portal is not the greatest thing the video game industry has put out in the past 10 years, let alone in the 30+ years games have been rising in popularity. Portal is a cult hit that is regarded largely in gamer circles, but sees little relevance in the mainstream (besides that irritable 'The cake is a lie,' reference).

What is art, exactly? Wikipedia defines it as such:
"Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging symbolic elements in a way that influences and affects the senses, emotions, and/or intellect."

See, the thing is, playing a game isn't the same thing as watching a film or reading a book. Video games require input. Therefore, we essentially control the art. While I won't say that all the storylines, models, and graphics in the game wouldn't be considered art, playing them, is, and never will be, art.

Also, as previously said, citing the Mona Lisa and the 9th Symphony in your defense of video games as an art isn't the best way to go about things. We will not have "the game" until we have games as an art form itself.

 

[AndrewOfHell]

Simple answer? When we can stand up for our medium.

As a recent Extra Credits video pointed out, we are awful at dealing with controversies and accusations that are stamped against us. Take the recent EA controversy with the 'Taliban' faction, I won't debate over whether that was a smart thing to do or not, but in all seriousness, if you are going to do something you KNOW will cause controversy. At least have the decency to defend it for the sake of our medium.

After all, video games are a relatively new artform, it's going to take a lot of hard work before people will take us seriously and see we are not just old men creating toys for children. That we most certainly are an art-form, and we are here to stay. If we stand up for what we believe in, and truly wish to give gaming the respect it deserves...

Then we need to stand up for it, against any threat.

/rant

 

[ckam]

Until...

1) Every critic or moral guardian against video games are discredited.
2) Rename our media into something more fancy. (Personally going for Interactive Visual Novels.)
3) People realize games are not just for kids.
4) ???
5) People quit giving a shit about this form of media.