Should games be considered art?

I recently Finished a paper on this topic and I was just wondering what the giant bomb community think about the topic?

Yes video games can be art.  A person or team draws, models, paints, take photos for reference, etc. for scenery or characters on a game.  There are a lot of abstract games too such as Linger in Shadows for example.  These type of games can give the player their own interpretation of what's going on or the meaning of it.

Yes the way a game can play or run can be considered as art. The way they feel while your playing them. 
 
Nothing really comes close to it.

Is a video game development studio capable of producing aesthetic quality? Hell yeah, you ever play Uniracers? That's every bit as much a work of art as this painting is.

Three words: Panzer Dragoon Saga. No further words are necessary.

I think some games can be considered art.

Art is used to create games, there are artistic elements to games, but you can't say "games are art".

" Art is used to create games, there are artistic elements to games, but you can't say "games are art". "

" Art is used to create games, there are artistic elements to games, but games themselves cannot be considered art. "

" Art is used to create games, there are artistic elements to games, but you can't say "games are art". "

If we start calling it art, then all the douchebags will take everything we love from us and ruin it. Do you want a world full of nothing but Braid and Jonathan Blow?

Unlike most elitist coffeehouse-type gamers, I don't think Bioshock is our best emissary to the artistic realm. I wouldn't dare frame an FPS and hang it on the wall next to a Waterhouse original. 
Of all the games I've played, I think Shadow of the Colossus is the most artistic game. In my opinion, the world of SOTC is an interactive canvas. 
I don't know how people are supposed to define art, but I think a very functional definition is anything that makes you think or feel beyond what is literally in the game/music/picture/movie, and to that end, Shadow of the Colossus for me.

" If we start calling it art, then all the douchebags will take everything we love from us and ruin it. Do you want a world full of nothing but Braid and Jonathan Blow? "

" Unlike most elitist coffeehouse-type gamers, I don't think Bioshock is our best emissary to the artistic realm. I wouldn't dare frame an FPS and hang it on the wall next to a Waterhouse original. Of all the games I've played, I think Shadow of the Colossus is the most artistic game. In my opinion, the world of SOTC is an interactive canvas. I don't know how people are supposed to define art, but I think a very functional definition is anything that makes you think or feel beyond what is literally in the game/music/picture/movie, and to that end, Shadow of the Colossus for me. "

" If we start calling it art, then all the douchebags will take everything we love from us and ruin it. Do you want a world full of nothing but Braid and Jonathan Blow? "

Games can be a medium for artist to express their emotions, so yes, it's art.
 
Some game are really bad art, but also like there are really bad paintings.
 
A perfect example of a videogame being art is Megaman 9.

They can be, though I find it rare for the art to come from something exclusive to games, rather than the story, visuals or music that make up the the game.  The former doesn't occur as frequently as the latter, but I have experienced it on occasion.

" @Alexander said:

" Art is used to create games, there are artistic elements to games, but you can't say "games are art".   "

What the hell kind of definition of art is that? Why can't they be considered art? If they stimulate pleasure and lateral or critical thought, then they're art, it doesn't matter what form it takes. A drawing isn't art, the stimulation of your senses, and the thoughts it engenders in the beholder are. Music isn't art, the movement of body and emotions that the listener experiences  as he or she listens to it is. The same is true of a video game. What it makes you feel, what it makes you think, and how it makes you react is what determines whether or not its art, not the efforts that go into it. "

It depends what your definition of art is. Some people say film, music, books, and even comic books can be art, so I don't see why a video game wouldn't be. Roger Ebert will tell you that games will never be art though.

" It depends what your definition of art is. Some people say film, music, books, and even comic books can be art, so I don't see why a video game wouldn't be. Roger Ebert will tell you that games will never be art though. "

Yeah. Thank you Grand Theft Auto IV.

If Heavy Rain comes even close to what the hype surrounding it suggests, then the whole "Are games art?" debate should be over.  If it delivers a good movie quality script and acting, then I have great hope for the future of videogames if they follow the precedent hopefully set by this game.
 
"Are games art?"
"Heavy Rain."
"Oh, right."

I think games can be incredibly artistic, but nothing more. I feel like wanting to have people accept video games as art, is like just trying to get more people to take games seriously. I don't see any need to classify a game as art. If somebody asked me to define Shadow of the Colossus, I would say that it's an incredibly artistic game with a magnificent story, and it's an unforgettable experience. I wouldn't say it's art. If you want to know what the game is like, then you can play it. Why not just call it an amazing game...a beautiful new benchmark for creative video game innovation? Call it everything that it deserves. Even if a game can be called art, I feel like doing so would be to simplify it. And a game that is just art, isn't a game that I want to play. I guess it boils down to me, personally, not giving a shit about most kinds of art, such as the one Suicrat posted above.
 
Just my opinions, by the way.

" If we start calling it art, then all the douchebags will take everything we love from us and ruin it. Do you want a world full of nothing but Braid and Jonathan Blow? "

 Yes. And just like any other forum of art, there are good and bad pieces. 

It takes a lot of talented people to make a video game, especially one worth playing. They don't just slap bland walls into an environment and say "have at it" they need the proper textures, lighting, sound, miscellaneous objects placed in the right places etc..  Then there is story/story development and a whole list of other parts that when combined make a great game and undoubtedly a piece of art.  To say that it is not art is kind of, degrading to the hard working men and women who put so much time to make a special emotional experience for the player. (Much like more traditional art does) 
 

It depends on what your definition of "art" is.  At this point, I think I prefer to say that games have the potential to be art. 

Augh this isn't even a debate. Why must people still delude themselves into thinking it is?
 
You may as well ask "Are video games fun?", "Is the world round?", "Is winter cold?"
 
You'll get people who give unexpected answers to all of those questions, too. "Not ALL video games are fun, the world is more of an ellipse, and winter's not cold EVERYWHERE! So there! Haha, I win!"  But those people are morons who like to debate technicalities rather than the main points and should be flogged with a metal rod. Flogged, I say!

no, I don't think games in general should be called art. There are some games I consider works of art however. Like dead rising.

Also we have to acknowledge of what is the game trying to discuss.

" @Suicrat   I'm not going to elaborate or rather start explaining what my definition of art is. It would require more effort on my part than I was prepared to give to the topic. It's getting on a bit, I'm drinking tea and occupied with some writing. I will give you a meaningless separation and won't dwell on the why: textbooks are not art. "

" Augh this isn't even a debate. Why must people still delude themselves into thinking it is?  You may as well ask "Are video games fun?", "Is the world round?", "Is winter cold?"  You'll get people who give unexpected answers to all of those questions, too. "Not ALL video games are fun, the world is more of an ellipse, and winter's not cold EVERYWHERE! So there! Haha, I win!"  But those people are morons who like to debate technicalities rather than the main points and should be flogged with a metal rod. Flogged, I say! "

Well, art = the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.
 
I'd say video games are beautiful, appealing, and significant. So yes, they are art.

This particular topic has been posted several times before.
 
To re-iterate arguments I have made before, not only are all games art, but potentially they are superior to all other art forms.

I'll try post my paper after it been handed up so ye can see the shit I had to write about art

Yes.

I think games can be art purely if its stimulates emotion, I know I felt something at the end of Half Life Episode 2 mostly frustration (in a good way, frustration because I suddenly was taken from being god like and movng forward to being shut down by something evil), or when I first started playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and I first saw the world and the people I was there in that moment and I couldent bare to take up arms against civilians or guards and I felt the need to change from armour to civilians clothes when I got into town and to rent a bed at an Inn rather than sleep on the street (while its not a simple a feeling as happiness or frustration but that beleif makes me think it can be art).

I dont neccaserily think that Episode 2 and Oblivion are "art" but they are proof that games have the potential to be art I think. Though part of me worries that if somehow whoever decides what art is takes in games as art that suddenly all we get is art games, I would hope that enough people keep the fun alive in games (which is mostly what they are aimed at currently). Because of this part of me hopes that games are never considered art except within gaming itself.

Games are games

I think whatever bullshit you're into can be moving to you, and that other people have every right to make character judgments of you based on the bullshit that moves you, your art. So yeah, you think Persona 4 is high art, I wont argue, but I will think silently to myself that you're a weirdo.

" @Symphony said:

" Augh this isn't even a debate. Why must people still delude themselves into thinking it is?  You may as well ask "Are video games fun?", "Is the world round?", "Is winter cold?"  You'll get people who give unexpected answers to all of those questions, too. "Not ALL video games are fun, the world is more of an ellipse, and winter's not cold EVERYWHERE! So there! Haha, I win!"  But those people are morons who like to debate technicalities rather than the main points and should be flogged with a metal rod. Flogged, I say! "

Seeing as though the title is "Should Games Be Considered Art," this is more of a question of the validity of games as an artistic medium, as opposed to one of those "Is game X art?" questions. To this end, I think that can indeed be art, and even if someone thinks they aren't art right now, I see no reason they can't be considered art in the future. No one should write something off as "permanently un-artistic" because such a thing doesn't exist. I'm sure people criticized movies when they were new, and I am sure we'll reach a general consensus that games are art someday.  Perhaps people continue to debate this because they have an incorrect definition of art? They should know it's not just pretty picture exclusive. "

" I think whatever bullshit you're into can be moving to you, and that other people have every right to make character judgments of you based on the bullshit that moves you, your art. So yeah, you think Persona 4 is high art, I wont argue, but I will think silently to myself that you're a weirdo. "

Yes.

" Games are games "

Art is different to different people... something one person considers art is not what another considers art. for instance the works of people like banksy, some people (myself included) would defiantly call this art were as others would call it not or works  like martin creeds paper ball which in my opinion is clearly not art. Art is an opinion not a fact and there for there will never be agreement in this matter.

" To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then, by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling - this is the activity of art." What is Art? by Leo Tolstoy 

"Art is an opinion not a fact and there for there will never be agreement in this matter. "