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Art Games - Thanks But No Thanks

Submitted by Margalis.

Every so often some corner of the video game world works itself into a tizzy trying to answer important-sounding questions like "are games art?" or "can games be art?" Most recently, spurred on by games such as Space Giraffe, Everyday Shooter and Braid, this discussion has introduced a new entry into our vernacular: the "art game."

My purpose here is to argue that there is no such thing as an "art game" and that the use of the term is a poor idea for a variety of reasons.

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Very good article I must say. Though I think you know you're basicly talking to marketing types who understand all this and don't care, or gamers who know all this and are just as annoyed.

Minor points:

I think you could use better examples than torture and sexual harassment; how you've used them there strikes me awkwardly. I don't think the intention is to belittle feminist criticisms of the seriousness of sexual harassment, but it does come off a little like that.

Typo with Don DeLillo I assume.


You forgot the and/or "in a foreign language, has no marketing budget, or whatevers". There are great films lumped under "art" just as there are great films lumped under "hollwood shit".

EDIT: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200107/myers is a good read. Never read it before, thanks.

Interesting. It's good to read a well-thought rebuttal.

Something I've noticed generally is as games progress, their sequels tend to play better, and look and sound better, than their predecessors. Not always, but mostly. They're also rarely innovative, whereas back in The Day, sequels were all about innovation. It wasn't just making things look, sound, and play better. It was about adding new stuff, experimenting, and sometimes failing. But gamers were much more forgiving back in The Day, because the market wasn't so glutted.

I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but Braid looks like a side-scroller. 'Kay. It looks nice, sounds nice, and it probably plays nice. But if you're gonna call something "art," you gotta do a little more than that. Even that grainy little B-movie "Star Wars" invented a few new techniques of cinematography.

This is one of those times where it would probably help to play it first.

I threw in the second bit so people wouldn't accuse me of making it overtly political. Probably could have had better examples.



It was turned into a very good book which is well worth reading. Called "A Reader's Manifesto". Or maybe "The Reader's Manifesto."

Good article, Marg.  Damn hippies need to get off our lawn.

To be honest the whole 'its not art just cos some art fags say it is' is a cliche in itself.

I've been saying this forever.

Good piece. I liked it.

Yep.

Necroposting here, sorry.

I like the article though. I think the real dark cloud over the 'are-games-art' debate is that most art games suck. For every talented game Auteur, you get about as many weird brother-in-laws going on about how the world needs a game about the plight of Esperanto speakers or something just as nebulously poignant.

I just saw this topic at the top and read it (including the article) without looking at the date. I was going to post a response and then as I scrolled down I saw that I already had over a year ago. Godfuckingdamnit.

Were you going to post exactly the same thing you posted a year ago?