Video games as art :: SmiteFire

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As most of us are gamers, I'm sure many of us can agree that video games can be considered art for various different reasons, but what are some of the strongest arguments for considering them art? What would you tell a person who doesn't consider video games art to try and convince them? When it comes down to it, you can't argue there are artistic aspects of video games, but I'm talking about art on the level that people hold books or movies to.

Me personally, two of the main points I would actually talk about are what makes most art good, be it in books, movies, etc, and that would be the stories and characters. Both are very important for a video game to be a very well made one (at least in the single player modes).

The great thing about video games when it comes down to story is that you are in control of the story. You decide what happens, when it happens, and how. Even looking at a simple, linear game like the very first Super Mario Bros. It has a simple story and a pretty linear design, but you have the choice whether you want to completely skip over a few worlds or even have the choice if you want to kill a goomba or not in the level. Fast forward decades later, and take a look at The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Let's put aside the beautiful visuals the game has to offer. In that game, you get to decide the background of your character, who they are, what they look like. Then, you get to go explore anywhere, do side missions along with the main story line, and even chose how your character will interact with people in the world. There are countless things to do in the game, which gives you the choice to make your own story for the game. The developers do give you the very basic outline of what you have to do to complete their video games, but you get to decide how you complete it. In most games, your experience will be completely different from anyone else playing the same exact game. There are countless games and game series that definitely stand out due to just their core story lines, such as the Metal Gear Solid series, the Final Fantasy series, BioShock Infinite, etc.

Speaking of BioShock Infinite, that helps bring up my next point: the characters. Without spoiling it, BioShock Infinite is one of my favorite video games that has come out in a while due to the story and the characters. I highly enjoyed the characters Booker DeWitt and especially Elizabeth. Elizabeth was a great character and a great example of a supporting character. She was actually useful and had a rich background that made you feel attached to this character. She was the kind of character that I didn't want to lose at any point of the game. I actually cared about whatever might happen to her in the story as it progressed. I hate to constantly bring up the same games, but another amazing character, and one of my favorites in any video game, was The Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Again, without spoiling anything, her role in Snake Eater was amazing. She served as a very formidable antagonist, and the more you find out about her and the more they build her up, the more of a great character she truly becomes.

When it comes down to it, video games have as much potential, if not more, to create as great of stories and characters as movies or books do. Maybe it's just me, but unless it's an absolutely amazing movie or book or something, I find it hard to invest myself into caring about characters much as much as I can in certain games. In some games, it's a lot easier because I'm actually playing the character or interacting with the character. That's not to say I weep whenever something happens to such a character, but I do actually care about what happens to them.

Anyway, this turned into a huge wall of text from me. I'd actually like to see what others have to say about such a topic because I see it popping up a lot, especially since the video game industry has grown so large. What other ways do you think video games can be good art? What specific examples can you give?

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Generally, art in video games (at least, for me), comes in many forms.

1. Storyline.

Whether it be a compelling, linear storyline, or a dynamic, choose-your-own background one, a video game storyline that engrosses it's players into it is considered good. Video games has ways of ingratiating players in a story compared to books or movies.

2. Concept

A concept is considered art because it is also a facet of creativity, be it how you play the game or the design of characters or surroundings. See the world of Fallout where there's a lot of the good or bad people and factions with differing goals, and how they all mesh with each other. Or take the concept of Just Cause where you get to create chaos in various and fun ways.

3. Music

Video game music also makes the game a form of art. Amazing video game music adds flavor and character to a game and turns it into a piece of art. A good example is Touhou Project

4. Voice Acting

How characters in a video games are voiced is also a form of art. How characters are voiced creates their personality, and how to perceive them.

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Video Games are art. I'm actually taking an Action Script coding class these 2 weeks.

Most flash games are created with actual "art," designed/drawn and then have separate code to make the game work. Much more fun than I expected and all.

But really, any video game has to have art, regardless of what you define what art is. It could be the art used for the backgrounds and animations or the many concepts Ferrum described above, or even the code which can be considered an art.

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if movies are considered art video games are too. they are pretty much the same only thing is in video games you have control and it mostly is longer then a movie. but the other points are mostly the same stuff as movies (music, etc) except designing of stuff (the looks)

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Play Okami and tell me that video games can't be art!

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What is art afterall? A product of a human being's creativity, imagination. If it's beautiful, enjoyable and has an impact on the human emotions, then it's art.

Games have music, voice acting as well as a story written by a human being, there are already 3 forms of art in video games.