I don't think video games have been around long enough to really establish whether they are or can be or even need to be art. They're so new that methods of critically analysing them involve awarding a score. We also tend to compare them to works in other mediums to evaluate quality. We don't use the Mona Lisa as the measuring stick for music and we don't often use it as the measuring stick for paintings.
I don't think video games have been around long enough to really establish whether they are or can be or even need to be art. They're so new that methods of critically analysing them involve awarding a score. We also tend to compare them to works in other mediums to evaluate quality. We don't use the Mona Lisa as the measuring stick for music and we don't often use it as the measuring stick for paintings.
@Coriander The methods of their critical analysis is an interesting point. I wonder if you would also consider films to be too young to be considered art? Obviously, there are plenty of non-score analyses of films, but the undoubtedly most popular forms of film analysis are meta-critic sites such as rottentomatoes (along with many, many score-based individual reviews that people follow). These sites, while providing a score, aren't simply rating the most popular films as the best, they are rating best the films which critics agree to be the best.
Also, while literature may often be analyzed on a non-score basis, the most popular form of "analysis" in the eyes of the general public is: "How many other people have bought this book?" or "Did Oprah recommend it?" While these don't necessarily involve a score, I think we would agree that they are not great means of determining a piece of literature's artistic worth.
Also, with the recent creation of "Amazon Art" (an explanation of which I received via email a few days ago), a large number of people will be receiving their analyses of visual art from a collection of 1-5 star customer reviews.
So, surely it isn't the primary or most popular form of analysis that strips something of its ability to be art in your mind? I would say that as long as something can be analyzed in a non-score fashion, then the tendency of critics or the public at large to attach a score to it doesn't affect its status as art one way or the other. In my view, there is no doubt that a video game can be analyzed without the use of a score on some scale.
I think that the reason we so often compare them to works in other mediums is because we are defending their potential to be art against people who refuse to look at them on their own merit; if someone refuses to play a game yet continues to insist that it is not art, it is a natural response to compare games to pieces of art which they have experienced in an attempt to get one's point across.
Thanks for linking that article, it was a thoroughly amusing read.
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I don't think video games have been around long enough to really establish whether they are or can be or even need to be art. They're so new that methods of critically analysing them involve awarding a score. We also tend to compare them to works in other mediums to evaluate quality. We don't use the Mona Lisa as the measuring stick for music and we don't often use it as the measuring stick for paintings.
Also, while literature may often be analyzed on a non-score basis, the most popular form of "analysis" in the eyes of the general public is: "How many other people have bought this book?" or "Did Oprah recommend it?" While these don't necessarily involve a score, I think we would agree that they are not great means of determining a piece of literature's artistic worth.
Also, with the recent creation of "Amazon Art" (an explanation of which I received via email a few days ago), a large number of people will be receiving their analyses of visual art from a collection of 1-5 star customer reviews.
So, surely it isn't the primary or most popular form of analysis that strips something of its ability to be art in your mind? I would say that as long as something can be analyzed in a non-score fashion, then the tendency of critics or the public at large to attach a score to it doesn't affect its status as art one way or the other. In my view, there is no doubt that a video game can be analyzed without the use of a score on some scale.
I think that the reason we so often compare them to works in other mediums is because we are defending their potential to be art against people who refuse to look at them on their own merit; if someone refuses to play a game yet continues to insist that it is not art, it is a natural response to compare games to pieces of art which they have experienced in an attempt to get one's point across.
Thanks for linking that article, it was a thoroughly amusing read.