What is a game?

[Kimono dragon]

I think there is a lot of truth in that, Video-games are yet to evolve significantly due to their primary audience and how society sees them, suggesting perhaps that as the generations move on video-games will undergo more changes and become more valuable as an art form?

 

[Mysterious Stranger]

I think there is a lot of truth in that, Video-games are yet to evolve significantly due to their primary audience and how society sees them, suggesting perhaps that as the generations move on video-games will undergo more changes and become more valuable as an art form?

Perhaps. Until the likes of Casablanca, movies were also seen as a throwaway pleasure, and a poor substitute for the theatre. Maybe video games will get their Casablanca someday.

 

[Kimono dragon]

Do you agree with Yahtzee who says games are art?

Yahtzee didn´t say that

he said exactly the oposite, he said "a game is to entertain yourselve"

and it separates in several forms, artsy, story or gameplay driven

or at least thats what i understand and what i personaly believe

He does think games are Art:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_rCbrbzYLw

When he uses the term 'Arty' he usually means sureal or un-naturalistic.

 

[ultimasupersaiyan]

Games are different from person to person. To me games are a way of life,keeping me enthrawlled with an escape from the dissapointment that life bring every waking day of my life. I also think there more of a cash cow for developers and pig slop for the masses because no matter how many times crap games come around we always come back for more. Indie games are the only games that come close to art nowadays, but no gaming isn't an art form.

 

[DrDeath3191]

An interactive device which has an objective to complete for the amusement of the user.

 

[The Real Sandman]

The main problem with arguments like this is that people consistantly try to compare movies to games or vice versa, and that's the thing. You CAN'T compare them!
Why? Because video games are a form entertainment that completely rely on interactivity. Unlike movies where we just plop in a chair and listen to the characters and sounds, but what we mainly do is watch them (When was the last time you went to go see a movie and actually "interact" with it?).

In order for a movie to be a good movie, it has to have an interesting plot, equally interesting characters, smart writting, good music, genuinely funny moments (if the time ever comes), thrilling action set pieces (once again if the time ever comes), closure, and has to last a minimum of one and a half to two hours. A modern big budget video game not only needs most of those mentioned above to be good (maybe a little more on the action, but it also needs interativity, atmosphere, replayabilty, funtionallity, and has to last a minimum of eight to ten hours!

I'm not saying that one is a better form of art than the other. Infact, if someone does come out and say that, they're clearly talking out of their ass. I thought everyone knew art was subjective and open to opinion. Lots of people think that the glass pyramid in front of the Louvre in Paris is a brilliant work of art, but I think it's one of the tackiest things on the face of the planet. Lots of people think Six-String Samurai is a poorly written cheese fest of a movie, but I consider it one of the best films ever made.

However I will say that video games are and can be considered art. Anyone who has played Shadow of the Colossus, Beyond Good and Evil, Bioshock, and pretty much any game made by Suda 51 and Tim Schafer knows what I'm talking about. Just because video games are a bunch of jumbled up bytes, programs, and physics engines doesn't mean that they can't be art. If that's the case, then Casablanca, Citizen Kane, and Dr. Strangelove can't be art because they're just a bunch of moving pictures blown up on a wall. Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and The Beatles can't be artists because all they did was make amplified sounds played at different pitches. The Mona Lisa can't can't be a work of art because all that it is is different colored mastic compositions on a piece of parchment.

 

[badgersprite]

Games are an art - and I don't mean in the stories they tell but in the way they're designed and structured. The best example I can think of is Portal. The artistry of Portal was that it was designed so perfectly that, within an hour, players had been introduced to and mastered a new skill set - they'd learned something without being outright told what they should be learning at any given point, because the game design was subconsciously urging you towards making certain decisions and reaching certain conclusions. And then, storywise, taking that skill set and using it to beat the system that created it is just so cathartic.

Games are art in the sense of the environment and level design, as well as in how they psychologically position the player to feel about the world, the characters, and to experience certain emotions from the experience. In this sense, some of the most effectual moments I've had in gaming recently were in Fallout 3. Two points in particular - in Point Lookout and Vault 106 - gave me a real insight into the psychology of the Lone Wanderer, when she/he lost touch with reality and began having visions. Because I had chosen to play my character in a certain way, these brief glimpses of insight really explained a lot about the Lone Wanderer, and why they'd turned out the way they had.

 

[Yukinari]

Im gonna sit down, drink soda, eat chips, and play the SNES, and not care whether its art or this other nonsense.
Just like when i was a kid, playing games to enjoy them.