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Are Video Games an Art Form? - Page 3

Forum Index > General Forum
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nttea
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
Sweden4353 Posts
April 24 2010 20:13 GMT
#41
its simple, anything created by man with the intention of being art is art.
lOvOlUNiMEDiA
Profile Blog Joined October 2007
United States643 Posts
April 24 2010 20:23 GMT
#42
On April 25 2010 05:13 nttea wrote:
its simple, anything created by man with the intention of being art is art.


Then the question becomes: Is anything created by man with the intention of being good art, good art?
To say that I'm missing the point, you would first have to show that such work can have a point.
benjammin
Profile Blog Joined August 2008
United States2728 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-24 21:06:43
April 24 2010 21:06 GMT
#43
value judgments of art are never objective--anyone can call something good or bad, that's fine. if ebert doesn't think games are good art, no problem, but they seem almost certainly to be art to me.
wash uffitizi, drive me to firenze
XsebT
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Denmark2980 Posts
April 24 2010 21:14 GMT
#44
Art is just a word; video games are so much more.
화이팅
Catch]22
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
Sweden2683 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-24 21:18:51
April 24 2010 21:18 GMT
#45
Oh look, its this discussion again. Do you really need to justify playing games by calling it an art-form? Get some REAL self-esteem instead.
Comeh
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
United States18919 Posts
April 24 2010 21:26 GMT
#46
I have to disagree with Ebert. I respect the man extremely well, and he is very intelligent, but I simply have to disagree.
Take a game like Silent Hill 2 or 3 for example - this game has more symbolism ( http://www.translatedmemories.com/ ) then most movies (which of course alone doesn't make it art) and is very well put together and contains a strong atmosphere with an intelligent pacing, and is able to strike emotions extremely well. Since you can interpret this game in several ways, I consider it a form of art, though in a different sense that other art forms are interpreted (such as how movies are viewed differently from a painting, for example).
I imagine movies at some point weren't considered art by the mainstream (though, i could be wrong).
ヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノDELETE ICEFROGヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(
banban678
Profile Joined April 2010
China7 Posts
April 24 2010 21:26 GMT
#47
ummmmm............. yea that guy is an idiot

warcraft and starcraft have numerous of concept art during their development, and then the units were modeled based on those arts. a game cannot happen without good artists

even those games based on animes are a form of art, because anime is based on manga, and manga is drawn by japanese artists

and there are games that are neverending and you will be playing forever if you dont quit, like WOW, WOW is a game that you beat up other players, but you cant win the game, eventually, the game will "win" you (you dont feel like playing it anymore)
soo zetta slow, you zetta son of a digit!!!
zenaardvark
Profile Joined September 2009
United States18 Posts
April 24 2010 21:28 GMT
#48
His reason for dismissing video games as an art form is that you can win?

I would counter that by saying that the point of a video game is not to win. I can play tic-tac-toe against third graders and win all I want, but I play video games to give me an experience. An experience can consist of a philosophy, feeling, or an emotion consistent with what the game is designed to portray rather than just the objective of winning.

People also mention that video games are just a combination of art forms and that video games are defined by their inert objective rather than the material that makes them up. I argue that movies are just a game with the simple objective of reaching the end. You can't loose, but no one plays a video game to lose, you play it to get through to the end and experience the game itself. Just because I twiddle my thumbs while I experience something doesn't make it any less fantastic and amazing. Surely you don't watch a movie to experience different individual media aspects, why can't video games be considered art if movies are.

The definition of art is loose, but that doesn't change the fact that out of touch people like to degrade and defame a growing phenomena that they don't quite understand.
_ is currently a nub...Pending upgrade...
NukeTheStars
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
United States277 Posts
April 24 2010 21:28 GMT
#49
Scott Sharkey at 1up.com did a great whiteboard about this - http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/29092
Nairul
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States262 Posts
April 24 2010 21:38 GMT
#50
Checkout Redvsblue.com

It uses games: Halo CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3 to make the best Sci Fi show I've ever watched.

If thats not art, I don't know what is...
Comeh
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
United States18919 Posts
April 24 2010 22:01 GMT
#51
On April 24 2010 23:52 blahman3344 wrote:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/04/video_games_can_never_be_art.html



I allow Sangtiago the last word. Toward the end of her presentation, she shows a visual with six circles, which represent, I gather, the components now forming for her brave new world of video games as art. The circles are labeled: Development, Finance, Publishing, Marketing, Education, and Executive Management. I rest my case.


Its also worth of making a counter point to this statement that Ebert states as "resting his case". Apparently his claim is that videogames are just simply a form of corporations making money, and that videogames are a business - Which to a lot of cases (of course indie games are different) is true. However, the same damn thing can be said about movies - they are in many ways made to make money. But in many ways, they are a compromise between the artistic direction and message being sent to the viewer, be it an argument or a spectacle or just a way to entertain the viewer, and a way to bring in large profits (coughavatarcoughcough).
Unless Ebert doesn't believe movies aren't an art form (which i know he does), he's a hypocrite.
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Halfpastnoob
Profile Joined June 2009
United States191 Posts
April 25 2010 07:16 GMT
#52
The Diablo series had amazing art.I loved it,in the diablo 1 booklet it showed some amazing art!Tyrael was also just crazy art himself(x
tl;dr
jacen
Profile Blog Joined April 2004
Austria3644 Posts
April 25 2010 10:28 GMT
#53
every medium can be used to convey art.
videogames are a composition of multiple mediums.


so ...
(micronesia) lol we aren't going to just permban you (micronesia) "we" excludes Jinro
machinehead..
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
412 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-25 11:02:48
April 25 2010 11:01 GMT
#54
O, this is bad news. Since I wanted to be an artist but I suck at drawing, I picked up video games as a way to creatively express myself and make beautiful virtual art. It feels wrong to even talk about the weird parameters the guy uses to categorize what can be an "art form," when I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would care in the first place if games were considered an "art form." Basketball isn't a sport because it involves throwing something through a hoop, what other sports involve that!? I don't see how the ability to "win" can stop something from being an "art form" just because others don't have have that characteristic.
spinesheath
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Germany8679 Posts
April 25 2010 11:14 GMT
#55
On April 25 2010 05:23 lOvOlUNiMEDiA wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 25 2010 05:13 nttea wrote:
its simple, anything created by man with the intention of being art is art.


Then the question becomes: Is anything created by man with the intention of being good art, good art?

Are there such things as "good art" and "bad art"? Subjectively: yes. Objectively: Unlikely, unless you include it in the definition of art.
If you have a good reason to disagree with the above, please tell me. Thank you.
welkin_gunther
Profile Joined April 2010
5 Posts
April 25 2010 17:28 GMT
#56
This guy is a dumbass
wtf
Hypnosis
Profile Blog Joined October 2007
United States2061 Posts
April 25 2010 20:31 GMT
#57
He clearly has never played protoss on Neo Medusa
Science without religion is lame, Religion without science is blind
HeartOfTofu
Profile Joined December 2009
United States308 Posts
April 25 2010 22:48 GMT
#58
The answer to whether or not video games are art depends completely on what exactly it is that you would define as "art"... Personally, I feel that they can be simply because they are products that evoke emotional responses through visual, audio, and story elements (no different from a movie) according to what the developers want to express.
I like to asphixiate myself while covered in liquid latex... Do you?
StorkHwaiting
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States3465 Posts
April 25 2010 22:59 GMT
#59
On April 25 2010 03:33 lOvOlUNiMEDiA wrote:
Pat on the back to the first person to provide an objective definition of art! W/O that definition, art is whatever you say it is -- that is, art is whatever anyone says it is.


Art is a work created for the sake of expressing/communicating ideas and emotions to an audience, thereby opening a two-way dialogue between artist and observer.

In short, Ebert is a moron for saying video games are not art. Maybe a run-of-the-mill senseless shooter game would not qualify as one, but any great game is a work of art. Metal Gear Solid Series, Final Fantasy series, Planescape Torment, etc. Every one of these games sought to convey a message, feeling, experience, etc to their gamers and evoked a great deal of two-way communication. To say people who play games do not react and respond to the stories is ridiculous.

Just because you can "win" a game, doesn't disqualify it as art. Winning a Final Fantasy game doesn't mean you "got" everything the game was about. Just as winning Xenogears doesn't mean you suddenly understand all the symbolism/metaphors involved in the story/characters.

Athos
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
United States2484 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-25 23:33:52
April 25 2010 23:28 GMT
#60
Her next example is a game named "Braid" (above). This is a game "that explores our own relationship with our past...you encounter enemies and collect puzzle pieces, but there's one key difference...you can't die." You can go back in time and correct your mistakes. In chess, this is known as taking back a move, and negates the whole discipline of the game. Nor am I persuaded that I can learn about my own past by taking back my mistakes in a video game. She also admires a story told between the games levels, which exhibits prose on the level of a wordy fortune cookie.


Wow, this is such skewed and biased interpretation of braid. Mr. Epert should at least fucking trying playing Braid before he cites it as a failure at art. The man should just stick to film.
The three games she chooses as examples do not raise my hopes for a video game that will deserve my attention long enough to play it. They are, I regret to say, pathetic.


What kind of fucking moron reviews a game without playing it? Somebody needs to sit him down and force him to play this shit or shut up.
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