Video Games as Art - article
 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/67/9

Excellent article about how we can view computer games as art, drawing on Psychonauts and Shadow of the Colossus.

Read. Learn. Appreciate.

Ofcourse video games are pieces of art. Hundreds of people are working on it for a year or so. These days all major games give you a little booklet with concept art in it and stuff. The enviorments, models and especialy the story in any game is by itself a piece of art.

Hundreds of people every year work on Madden, but I don't think that counts as art.

Hundreds of people every year work on Adam Sandler films but I don't think they count as art either.

Merely effort is not a good metric for artworthiness.

Well true dat, but a lot of times, especialy in the gaming industry, there are multiple factors that makes a game a work of art. I think the entire C&C series is a huge work of art, because not only did it revolutionize gaming, it also has an extremely deep and sometimes complicated storyline. And just the story is a work of art in that particular game. Same goes for Half Life and F.E.A.R. Both have great story but also great characters. Designs of the characters in games are often also works of art. Many creatures I see in Half Life for instance, are complete works of fiction. Meaning someone had to come up with it all.
I know for one that a lot of people see World of Warcraft as a piece of art. I for one only see the introduction movie as a piece of art and the rest of the game as crap, but still.

For a game to be art, it needs to have several artistic touches combined. Textual (being the story), Graphical (models, enviorments, textures), Audio (The music, which in many cases is also a work of art on it's own). A lot of games lately comply with this, so I'd say a lot of games lately deserve to be called art.

It takes alot for a video game to become "art"
Not every videogame deserves that title.

Good article.

Case in point: Our very own Oddworld.

Whoever says that is not art will be set upon by angry forumers. Even the ones who've left.

Yup, I think we can all agree that Oddworld is a piece of art.

read it at the doublefine site. Very good.