Video Games Are Officially Art!

[Innegativeion]

Because what is considered art is subjective.

art is subjective.

subjective.

Exactly, which is why both Ebert and yourself are wrong.

"Video games can never be art" is very non-subjective.


"Games were never art and aren't now" is very non-subjective.

Opinions will be opinions, but both these statements are wrong.

 

[Innegativeion]

The first amendment doesn?t protect everything and there are ways around it.

Please stop saying that. I never said it did. And I really don't care how you plan to subvert the United States constitution.

 

[Keepitclean]

Awesome, now we need to lobby for trolling to be there. Everyone knows trolling is a art.

 

[mjc0961]

Okay. I fail to see why I should care, though. I'm not going to enjoy games any more or any less than I did before this.

The whole point is that by being officially considered an art form video games would fall under the protection of the first amendment in the US constitution. Meaning that all these BS laws states keep trying to pass that would treat games the same way as alcohol and porn will no longer be able to happen because they would violate the constitution.

Oh, okay. I guess that makes sense. Hopefully it works in our favor that way.

 

[Innegativeion]

I'm not planing anything. I?m just pointing that games being considered art isn?t going to stop them from being censored.

And I'm pointing out that you're arguing with some imaginary person who doesn't exist that claimed being art stops censorship.

 

[Innegativeion]

Okay. I fail to see why I should care, though. I'm not going to enjoy games any more or any less than I did before this.

Well, besides silly laws like the one in California having a very weak argument now, some of us (myself) are interested in a career in the game design industry.

Sure, it won't affect every gamer, but I think it's important enough news to be considered "big news"

 

[Konaerix]

ABOUT.BLOODY.TIME

 

[Singularly Datarific]

A certain gaming celebrity, on gaming as an art form and a science, directed at the haters:

Somewhere, Roger Ebert is eating his words.

Already has:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/07/okay_kids_play_on_my_lawn.html
He concedes a lot, actually, kinda heartwarming.

 

[Death God]

Took them long enough to admit it.

 

[mjc0961]

some of us (myself) are interested in a career in the game design industry.

And games being art or not has absolutely nothing to do with getting a career in game design industry.

 

[natster43]

Hooray. That is pretty awesome.

 

[Nightvalien]

Pizza party at my house you are all invited, bring your own pizza.

 

[Odbarc]

I knew Duke Nukem could change video games for us!
Long live ART.

 

[Micalas]

I expected this post to be about the Smithsonian's new video-game exhibit.

Either way, now when they're challenged on their merits and everything like every other art-form, games can no longer hide behind the "its just a game!" excuse. They're not just games anymore, they're art. Be prepared to stand by them through the bad times, as well as the good.

Any time a game is faced with controversy, everyone pulls out the "its just a game" card. And when people treat them "just like games" and say they can't really be art, we call them pieces of art.

Well they're art now. Whether we, or anyone else, likes it or not. Be prepared to defend it as such. Or not, if you don't care.

Now we can defend it easily through the Miller Obscenity test.

The Miller test was developed in the 1973 case Miller v. California. It has three parts:

Whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards", would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,
Whether the work depicts/describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law,
Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

Also, I think we can still say it's "just a game." Just because something is art doesn't mean it's not "just a *blank.* Those who were angry about the Piss Christ exhibit? It's just an art show. It won't hurt you. Those mad about the movie Cannibal Holocaust? It's just a movie. The it's "just a *blank* phrase isn't to diminish it's significance as an artform. It's just saying that it is not harmful and anything done illegally by a viewer is of their own doing, not the product.

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

Legally speaking, though they lack necessary mainstream acceptance.

Anyway, it hardly matters, games could be art before this.

 

[Venereus]

Take that Roger Ebert.

Just posted it on his Facebook page. Respectfully of course.

He won?t care. He was right then and he?s right now. Games aren?t art.

Yeah, I know he's right (for now). But he's still interested in the debate, earlier today he linked this article in wich Miyamoto says games aren't art:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/20/101220fa_fact_paumgarten?currentPage=all

 

[Vrex360]

I expected this post to be about the Smithsonian's new video-game exhibit.

Either way, now when they're challenged on their merits and everything like every other art-form, games can no longer hide behind the "its just a game!" excuse. They're not just games anymore, they're art. Be prepared to stand by them through the bad times, as well as the good.

Any time a game is faced with controversy, everyone pulls out the "its just a game" card. And when people treat them "just like games" and say they can't really be art, we call them pieces of art.

Well they're art now. Whether we, or anyone else, likes it or not. Be prepared to defend it as such. Or not, if you don't care.

I agree completely, the time of pretending that games can't be taken seriously as a weak defence can't be used anymore. Now we are an art form and held to the same standards as one. On the positive side though, this does mean that we actually have earned general respect from the rest of the artistic community and it makes games as a whole more defendable when they tackle edgy subject matter.

I'm pretty pleased, all things considered.

Also a side note, there's a game exhibit at the Smithsonian?