Why do people hate on games that are not "art"?

[TheHardcase]

It's almost gotten to the point where Halo and CoD are guilty pleasures for me. Sure, there are other games I've loved. I loved the hell out of Portal. But when half of the people on this site (or many similar sites) consistently feel the need to point out that Halo is not innovative, isn't particularly well-written, blah blah blah, it does seem to make the enjoyment of these games something we should be ashamed of. I don't want games like Halo to go away, just as I don't want games like Portal to go away. I want other types of games to show up as well. I don't think insulting Halo fans is the correct path to encouraging developers to make more intellectual fair.

 

[Dorian6]

Sounds like how cinema snobs don't like movies that aren't arty and pretentious

 

[SageRuffin]

I've played Portal before; it's a good puzzle game that detaches from the norm quite well, but not something I'd want to play multiple times.

That said, the occasional "thinker's game" is nice and all, but sometimes you just wanna, say, shoot someone in the dick and laugh as they scream in pain. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Mr. 47]

Games should be fun. They do not have to digital masterpieces, they just have to not suck. I prefer puzzle games more then shooters, but I still love shooters. They just aren't as deep. It's like reading a fluff novel in between two larger ones. The two need to balance. Sometimes you want a deep story, other times you want you yell "PWND!" as you headshot a player across the map.

 

[AndrewF022]

Haha, I'm kinda the opposite, I hate on games that try to hard to be artistic.. give me competitive multiplayer, epic giant boss battles, complex puzzles and bone crushing difficulty over a game where theres nothing but story, where occasionally you get to mash some buttons... and games where you can't die or fail, I mean that the hell? thats not a game..

 

[Nautical Honors Society]

All games are art but some art is good and some is bad. So I think be just hate on bad art games or straight entertainment games.

 

[Vonnis]

Your friend sounds like a pretentious douchebag.
For the record: I don't consider any games to be art. I consider games to be just that: games. Some have intellectual merit, some don't, but I lump them all together and only make distinctions between fun and not-fun.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

For the same reason comedies don't win Oscars. They may entertain but in doing so they bring the whole medium down. That obviously affects us all.

 

[blackdwarf]

i do love games that i consider art, and i do love games that i consider fun. do i hate none art games? no, but i will always judge someone for beind a mediasheep or something else, depending on the game) when they say that they love a certain game. is this good, not really, but will i make a point when i hear someone say it? no.

when i hear some children saying that COD is the best gamer ever, i will think: whoa, what a bunch of sheeps. and when it follows with a interrest in the game socom cause the cover have gun, soldiers and things that are the same as cod, i will think: damn, the next generation does has a bad taste in games.

but do i 'hate'those people? no, but i will start a argument when they call ertain games art on which i disagree.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

You know that guy who only listens to obscure indie bands or bands that have been acclaimed by "discerning" critics, assumes that all popular music (EDIT: and by "popular" I mean "everything that gets radio play") sucks, calls all formally obscure bands that become popular "sellouts," and assumes that people who like music that's popular have no discerning musical taste?

It's just like that...except with games.

 

[crop52]

You know that guy who only listens to obscure indie bands or bands that have been acclaimed by "discerning" critics, assumes that all popular music sucks, calls all formally obscure bands that become popular "sellouts," and assumes that people who like music that's popular have no discerning musical taste?

It's just like that...except with games.

Hipster, for short.

 

[Snotnarok]

Because there's art snobs in the game world too. Fun isn't what's important to them, it's experiencing something more to them. Personally I love Mass Effect and Dragon Age and all that but there's just times where I gotta bust out a shotgun and go crazy in a game or 3.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

You know that guy who only listens to obscure indie bands or bands that have been acclaimed by "discerning" critics, assumes that all popular music sucks, calls all formally obscure bands that become popular "sellouts," and assumes that people who like music that's popular have no discerning musical taste?

It's just like that...except with games.

Hipster, for short.

Yeah man, there you go.

 

[Drakmeire]

General snobbery. But there is something deeper
I think most of it comes from the fact that in order for games to be respected by the populace at large, interesting, artsy games MUST become popular. Sadly the most popular games right know (Games known by even those who aren't gamers) are nothing but FPSs. This is a problem because now the outside populace thinks ALL games are brainless shooters.
It's generally ok to hate games that are not "ART" since it brings down the medium as a whole, once gaming becomes well respected as an artistic medium then I will be fine will brainless block-buster games hogging the spotlight because at least then people will know that there is more to gaming than, "kill guy from other country with machine gun rinse, repeat"
If we want gaming to be respected than we kinda have to bring attention to intelligent thought-provoking games, and distancing ourselves from unintelligent shooters may be a good way to go about it.
In closing. Portal is an okay starting point, It's witting and challenges you to think but what we need is another Shadow of the Colossus, a beautiful deconstruction of adventure games that can also be interpreted in multiple ways.

 

[Inkidu]

All games are art. Some are higher-level art, some are pop-art, and some are bad art.
Call of Duty is an art, especially Modern Warfare. It had this whole remote-war undercurrent thing.

Duke Nukem is... art... or it should be. It's art that missed its calling or it missed its mark. I think they should have upped the irony factor to like infinity, but some people still manage to take him seriously.

Super Mario Bros. Is art, and really good art if you stop and think on it.

What most people crave for is the new art. That creative stuff that could put gaming at the forefront with the big hitters instead of being murder sims and kiddie toys. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want this art some of the time.

Mass Effect
Fallout does it very well (all the games to one level or another... I know blasphemy.)
Arkham Asylum does it eerily well especially with the Scarecrow bits.
Portal's got that signature black humor.

However! The function of all art, all of it, every last painting, sculpture, book, movie, poem, game, scrimshaw, doodle, and graffiti has to entertain us. It has to stimulate the entertainment section as well as the intellectual segment of our minds.

So yeah, the only way something can not be art is if it's boring.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

Indie games are the closest games we have to "art".

 

[Madara XIII]

We can. I don't think either the games for art or games for fun have to be mutually exclusive.

DMC 3 for example. While I wouldn't call it art, but at least it has a great story. The game is just about mindless violence and kicking demon ass. So while it's not art that doesn't make it bad

 

[bluewolf]

Because most people that only play cock of duty are twice as more likely to be throwing the word Galo around every ten minutes as if I were to be ashamed of enjoying the best video game ever made.

 

[StriderShinryu]

They don't, at least not any-more than people complain about games that are art. I've heard "Games should just be about fun, stories are stupid in games!" just about as much as I've heard "That game isn't good, it has no artistic merit!". Both arguments are stupid in my opinion.

That's been my experience as well. There seems to be just as many who hold one view as the other, and both are, quite frankly, wrong. Games can be just for fun or they can be art, or they can be both within the confines of a single game, but to say they can or should only be one or the other is stupid.