video games and art

Video game art speaks of video games produced as art; art as in literature, as in film. They are a source of inspiration and a source of material for artists, who use videogame art to create even more games. Love them or hate them, videogames are now entrenched in our culture, and, more importantly are a multi-billion dollar industry. But can video games legitimately be called art? Mitchell and Clarke think so. While videogames boast richer and more realistic graphics, but I doubt that I can equate them with, say, film and literature, which are wholly dependent of the control of the producer author, respectively, rather than the gamer.

Is getting lost in a fantasy world all that there is to the gaming experience? Is there an art, or even a language of videogames significantly different from fine art, literature, and cinema/film, respectively?

What's up with creating videogames based on, say, blockbusters? So you watch Alvin and the Chipmunks in the theater and then before you know it you are playing it in a videogame, do you get a sense of newness or do you feel that it is a remix or revisioning or worse, recycling all so that a gamer can gain or feel a sense of control.

For the most part, games pander to gamers fantasies: physical looks, agility, prowess, --in a word-mindless! All these aspects are not typical of life or even of movie-like art, which embraces comedy, tragedy, life, loss, gain--the essence of life. In that sense, videogames are not quite art.

Perhaps it's all about what the definition of art and its understanding is across the board. Whatever the case may be, Art seeks to lead you to an inevitable conclusion, not a range of choices.

I don't know; is this art?



Still, the claim to art by videogames is centered around intervention and interaction.