"Are Games Art?" and the Intellectual Value of Design (timconkling.com)

itwbennett writes: Tim Conkling is an independent game developer whose current project, Antihero, is a strategy game about running a thieves' guild in a Dickens-inspired Victorian city. Recently he had the opportunity to talk to (i.e., was held captive by) an elderly and 'accomplished playwright, set designer, and painter' who quickly dismissed game design as 'not art.' The question of games being art or not isn't a new one. Roger Ebert was on the 'games are not art' bandwagon in 2010. More important to Conkling, who wrote about this interaction in a recent blog post, is the notion that any 'intentionally designed' piece is worthy of intellectual respect. "Nobody would ever seriously write off, for example, an Eames chair or a Gehry building; whether these objects fit some random definition of 'art' is inconsequential to their perceived cultural value." writes Conkling.

Comments

Re:Art

[PopeRatzo]

I think games utilize art. Textures are art, the music is art, the plot line may be art. But a game itself is a computer program that brings all these different types of art together into a form of entertainment.

Here's the thing: the word "art" is used to mean different things. It can be "state of the art" or "term of art" or the notion that the pictures my daughter drew with crayons when she was four were art.

When Roger Ebert complained about games not being art last decade, he was lamenting how little had been done with this amazing medium, and he was absolutely right. Within the first 20 years of the medium of film, there were several works of fine art that are still studied and appreciated today. Video games are more than 20 years old, and there's precious little from the medium to point to as something that will endure. And this is not the fault of the artists and developers working in games. It's the fault of a corporatism that has not served the medium well. And to some extent, it's the fault of the gamers themselves, many of whom are provincial in their outlook, and have undemanding tastes. Part of this is because it's a medium that has catered to kids. And when those kids grow up, they seek to recreate their childhood experiences with games. So you get childish games and childish gamers.

Video games are certainly capable of being seen as fine art. Unfortunately, their own success and corporate provenance are the biggest hurdles they face on the way to getting there.