{"id":1693,"date":"2013-10-25T22:14:55","date_gmt":"2013-10-26T03:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hilbertthm90.wordpress.com\/?p=1693"},"modified":"2022-06-21T12:35:26","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T17:35:26","slug":"in-defense-of-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amindformadness.com\/2013\/10\/in-defense-of-gaming\/","title":{"rendered":"In Defense of Gaming as Art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Are video games art? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What a bizarre question. It has been debated through the years, but I’m not sure there is anyone out there that has seriously thought about the question and is willing to defend that they are not. The debate seems over and the conclusion is that video games are art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The one notable opposition is Roger Ebert, but his position boils down to a “no true Scotsman fallacy.” It is such a classic example that it should probably just start being used to illustrate what the fallacy is. He says games cannot be art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then when shown a game that he admits is<\/em> art he says, “But that isn’t a real<\/em> game.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n That would be like arguing novels cannot be art by declaring any novel that could be considered art not a real<\/em> novel. It is a silly argument that doesn’t need to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, we should notice that there is a “type error” (as a programmer would say) in the question. No one would think “Are books art?” is a properly phrased question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer isn’t well-defined because “book” encompasses a whole class of objects: some of which are art and some of which are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For our purposes, we’ll say a medium (like video games) “is art” if an artist can consistently use the medium to produce something that can be broadly recognized as art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This brings us to the difficult question of how to determine if something can be broadly recognized as art. Some things that come to mind are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Any given work of art could be missing any or all of these qualities, but if something exhibits enough<\/em> of these qualities, then we would probably have no problem calling it art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to argue that games can be works of art, I’ll take two examples that are relatively recent from the “indie game” community. These are both games<\/em><\/strong> in a sense that even Ebert could not deny. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ll stay away from controversial examples like Dear Esther<\/a> or Proteus<\/a> (which are undeniably works of art but more questionable about being games).<\/p>\n\n\n\nAre Video Games Art?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Examples of Games as Art<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bastion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n