German government officially recognizes games as art.

Apart from the upcoming Games Convention in Leipzig, German gamers - the most numerous community of gamers in Europe - have another major reason to celebrate. The Deutscher Kulturrat (lit. "German Arts Council") has officially recognized Video- and Computergames as "objects of cultural value", i.e. art.
While the specific implications of this step are yet to be seen, it is a big accomplishment, considering the countrys reputations as one of the more radical ones concerning censorship and banning of games,*  as well as frequent media outbursts of uninformed ignorant scapegoating of video games whenever there are spectacular cases of youth criminalism.

The cooperation of games manufacturers and spokespersons with the German Arts Council will probably have a huge impact on how games are viewn, presented in the media (as described above) and protected by the law, not to mention a potentially huge positive impact on the (very strict) rating system.

Malte Behrmann (CEO of the National Association of Video game devlopers, GAME):
 "This is a milestone for German media policy - historic, you might even say. For the very first time, the video game industry has been institutionally anchored into nationwide cultural politics. It's really a great day for the games industry."

/me likes this a lot. It's yet to be seen what (if anything) will really change, but it excites me to see that there's actually progress to get us out of the "Teh Doom will turn our children into serial killers!" times.


* A sidenote: For those who don't know, no German gamer really cares about the whole censorship/ban issue, since you can legally and uncomplicatedly buy the uncut austrian versions of the games in every retail store.

There is no game that I would consider to be a work of art. Anything that will get outdated and viewed as ugly or outdated as time passes is not art.

Finally! A government with some sense!

Colonel_Cool said:

"There is no game that I would consider to be a work of art. Anything that will get outdated and viewed as ugly or outdated as time passes is not art."

Who cares whether some individuals might argue that games aren't art! It's the political implications and major positive PR boost are what makes this great. Especially coming from a country with a long record of releasing censored game material or not releasing at all. If this had come sooner, who knows whether Microsoft had decided to show Gears2 at the Games Convention after all?

An example, though not a very good one: The use of swastikas is forbidden by german law, except in the arts, when put into a proper context. Littering a stage play with swastikas is allowed, but every WWII-shooter had to be altered to have them completely removed. This whole process can be skipped now. (Not that anyone needed them. Or WWII shooters in general. Just sayin.)
Getting money to advertise your games will become easier now.
Fighting biased, ignorant media coverage of "killer"-games will become a lot easier now.

You may consider games art or not. Doesn't matter. What matters is that a government accepted and embraced video games not as some kids toys, but as a respectable industry employing thousands of creative minds and ideas.

Does this mean no more censorship?

Finally! Go Germany go!

No. There will be censorship alright. There's censorship in movies and they've been declared cultural a while ago. It may lessen the strictness in ratings. At the moment, many games get a 18+ rating even with all blood and gore edited out. It's not a bad rating system per se - Games, just like movies, undergo a very careful testing progress by a committee of quite a lot of people (including students/gamers) and each rating is given a detailed explanation. It's just very, very strict when it comes to violence, especially violence against humans that is rewarded in some form or another, meaningless violence without any purpose. Konami fought hard to get a 16+ rating for Metal Gear Solid, and they got it, but just barely, because the killing is optional and the characters reflect upon the violence.

What's really harmful for the industry is the indexing of titles. If a title is indexed (Gears of War, Resident Evil 2, for example), it isn't  "banned", if you're 18 you can purchase it legally, but any form of advertising is forbidden. Thus, no media coverage, no appearance in charts, magazines, and the game must not be accessible to minors, meaning that retailers can only story them "out of view". Of course, no publisher wants their title indexed in Germany. So they release edited, heavily cut titles or they don't release the game at all (Gears2 will not get an official german release and microsoft will not showcase it at Leipzig).
Halo3 is an 18+ title, but not indexed.

As I said, it doesn't make a difference to the average gamer. If I want Gears2, I may buy it online (absolutely no probs there) or just walk into the next gamestop in November and ask them to sell me an Austrian copy, which they will have. But if the new classification of games has an influence on the rating (which isnt all that unlikely), things might get a little more normal.

I don't find this at all surprising. Anybody who says that games could never be art simply doesn't understand art as much as they think they do. Videogames are, and have for a long time been a very expressive media.

"There is no game that I would consider to be a work of art. Anything that will get outdated and viewed as ugly or outdated as time passes is not art."

On a related note, Germany is not getting Gears of War 2.

So they say...

"There is no game that I would consider to be a work of art. Anything that will get outdated and viewed as ugly or outdated as time passes is not art."

nice. do you reckon that games will become like painting??? once tecnique is perfected (i.e graphics) we move on to more absrtact and varied forms like cubism. cool i can't wait

"nice. do you reckon that games will become like painting??? once tecnique is perfected (i.e graphics) we move on to more absrtact and varied forms like cubism. cool i can't wait"

"Finally! A government with some sense!

Colonel_Cool said:

"There is no game that I would consider to be a work of art. Anything that will get outdated and viewed as ugly or outdated as time passes is not art."

I know art is subjective and everyone has their own opinion on what art is, but are you serious? How about famous paintings like the Mona Lisa? Isn't that dated, hasn't it lost it's original beauty? Would you say the Mona Lisa isn't art then? I think that time and age makes no difference. Art is art, no matter how much time passes... At least in my opinion.
"

"The Mona Lisa is very old, but that doesn't mean it's outdated. People today still marvel at it. Art doesn't age the same way games do. Doom was a classic back in the 90's, but it doesn't have the same impact today as it did back then. Someone who played it back then would have thought that it was amazing, but someone who had never heard of it before and played it today wouldn't be impressed at all."

"art noun
1. The quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance."

I go back and play many of my old games, like Half-Life and Doom, but they don't hold up as well today. They are worse today than they were before, and a lot of the fondness we feel towards these games comes from the nostalgia factor. I'm certain that a game could be called art, but there isn't a game existing today that gives invokes any sort of emotional response from me. Games are for fun, and are designed to be fun and make money. But they don't have much of any artistic or emotional expression, and unfortunately aren't developed with any of this in mind. Games like Bioshock try to be art, and might include a lame "moral choice" theme, but it isn't nearly fleshed out enough.

This whole "Games as art" debate just seems lame. I think some games are artistic in merit like BioShock, Braid, Okami, and many other games that bring something different to the table and execute it well. If I were to argue which games were art, games that are original and memorable are artistic in some way.

"On a related note, Germany is not getting Gears of War 2."

Who cares?

Sorry, I lose interest in this. I play games because they're fun. Not because they're obscure and beautiful. Not sitting, analyzing everything and acting as if I'm staring at the Mona Lisa. Play games for fun.

"Who cares?

Sorry, I lose interest in this. I play games because they're fun. Not because they're obscure and beautiful. Not sitting, analyzing everything and acting as if I'm staring at the Mona Lisa. Play games for fun."

"

nice, about time too.
Personally I think all games are artistic in some sort of wat, but some games alot more than others.

"

"Cube said:

"Who cares?

Sorry, I lose interest in this. I play games because they're fun. Not because they're obscure and beautiful. Not sitting, analyzing everything and acting as if I'm staring at the Mona Lisa. Play games for fun."

And you watch movies because they are entertaining, right? Yet movies are considered a form of art, where games aren't?..."

games aren't art, they are a collection are art.

There's music, 3d art, drawings, unnatural expression, abstract art, and lots of artforms in games.

"Sentry said:

"Cube said:

"Who cares?

Sorry, I lose interest in this. I play games because they're fun. Not because they're obscure and beautiful. Not sitting, analyzing everything and acting as if I'm staring at the Mona Lisa. Play games for fun."

And you watch movies because they are entertaining, right? Yet movies are considered a form of art, where games aren't?..."

I certainly think a game could be considered art, but there aren't any so far. And not all movies should be considered art. There are amazing movies like The Godfather, 2001: A Space Odyssey, etc, but there are also movies like Meet the Spartans and Doom that don't have any artistic value at all."

Thats really good for Germany, but I'm so glad the United States doesn't have the power to censor or ban games.

"Sentry said:

"Cube said:

"Who cares?

Sorry, I lose interest in this. I play games because they're fun. Not because they're obscure and beautiful. Not sitting, analyzing everything and acting as if I'm staring at the Mona Lisa. Play games for fun."

And you watch movies because they are entertaining, right? Yet movies are considered a form of art, where games aren't?..."

I certainly think a game could be considered art, but there aren't any so far. And not all movies should be considered art. There are amazing movies like The Godfather, 2001: A Space Odyssey, etc, but there are also movies like Meet the Spartans and Doom that don't have any artistic value at all."

"Thats really good for Germany, but I'm so glad the United States doesn't have the power to censor or ban games."

I'm surprised and very pleased to hear this, I did not expect this in the least, but I think its great that the council have the wits about them to see that video games can be perceived as a valid art form.

"I certainly think a game could be considered art, but there aren't any so far. And not all movies should be considered art. There are amazing movies like The Godfather, 2001: A Space Odyssey, etc, but there are also movies like Meet the Spartans and Doom that don't have any artistic value at all."

"same goes with paintings. for example:.."

"brukaoru said:

"Finally! A government with some sense!

Lol. I would not go that far missy..."

I doubt that very much, in every store, if that was the case it would make the German censorship on games seem even more stupid that they already are. A friend had to import RE4 Wii Edition from Holland due to the censorship, that's hardly uncomplicated.

"Cube said:

"Who cares?

Sorry, I lose interest in this. I play games because they're fun. Not because they're obscure and beautiful. Not sitting, analyzing everything and acting as if I'm staring at the Mona Lisa. Play games for fun."

And you watch movies because they are entertaining, right? Yet movies are considered a form of art, where games aren't?..."

"Colonel_Cool said:

"Sentry said:

"Cube said:

"Who cares?

Sorry, I lose interest in this. I play games because they're fun. Not because they're obscure and beautiful. Not sitting, analyzing everything and acting as if I'm staring at the Mona Lisa. Play games for fun."

And you watch movies because they are entertaining, right? Yet movies are considered a form of art, where games aren't?..."

I certainly think a game could be considered art, but there aren't any so far. And not all movies should be considered art. There are amazing movies like The Godfather, 2001: A Space Odyssey, etc, but there are also movies like Meet the Spartans and Doom that don't have any artistic value at all."

All forms of entertainment should be considered art, movies, music, games, etc. They don't have to be GOOD art, just like not all paintings are good, and not all movies are good, but the general medium is an art form."

"Sentry said:

"Colonel_Cool said:

"Sentry said:

"Cube said:

"Who cares?

Sorry, I lose interest in this. I play games because they're fun. Not because they're obscure and beautiful. Not sitting, analyzing everything and acting as if I'm staring at the Mona Lisa. Play games for fun."

And you watch movies because they are entertaining, right? Yet movies are considered a form of art, where games aren't?..."

I certainly think a game could be considered art, but there aren't any so far. And not all movies should be considered art. There are amazing movies like The Godfather, 2001: A Space Odyssey, etc, but there are also movies like Meet the Spartans and Doom that don't have any artistic value at all."

All forms of entertainment should be considered art, movies, music, games, etc. They don't have to be GOOD art, just like not all paintings are good, and not all movies are good, but the general medium is an art form."

The way I think of it, there can be art in any form of entertainment, but not every piece of entertainment should be considered art. Some things just aren't made to be art, and instead are just made to entertain, like an action movie, or a game."

"Sentry said:

"Cube said:

"Who cares?

Sorry, I lose interest in this. I play games because they're fun. Not because they're obscure and beautiful. Not sitting, analyzing everything and acting as if I'm staring at the Mona Lisa. Play games for fun."

And you watch movies because they are entertaining, right? Yet movies are considered a form of art, where games aren't?..."

I watch movies and play games for the same reason. They're fun to watch and play. I don't care if either are considered art, I just care if they're fun or entertaining. That's my point :|"

Yeah but Germany still bans so many violent games.

*ugh*  Not this again.

"*ugh*  Not this again.

Games

are

not

art.

Besides, you're talking about a government that thought gas chambers were art.

"

mrracoon: Not at all.
jakob187: You made a funny connection to World War II when someone mentions Germany. I see what you did there! Very clever! Very clever!
JudgeDread: Please don't start the argument. You just make it look like jakobs post was worth noticing or arguing against.