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Are Video Games Art?

Outselling theater, music, and movies, but still not taken seriously

By Victoria Floethe,  Newser User

Posted Dec 28, 2008 8:14 AM CST
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(Newser) – Video games are going gangbusters financially, but they're still generally relegated to "lowbrow" entertainment by the culturati. Some critics, however, are finally giving video games their due and deeming them art. "The best games are already beautiful, and I can see no reason why the look of video games won’t match or surpass that of cinema," notes John Lanchester in the London Review of Books.

What's more, he writes, "The interiority of the novel isn’t there, but the sense of having passed into an imagined world is." But can profit-hungry video game creators evolve beyond the violence and an excess of sequels that keep sales high? "From the aesthetic point of view, a lot turns on whether games offer their users actual creativity, or whether it is just some horrible corporate simulacrum," Lanchester concludes.



Game designer Will Wright accepts the Gamer God award at the sixth annual Video Game Awards at Sony Picture Studios in Culver City, Calif., earlier this month.
Game designer Will Wright accepts the Gamer God award at the sixth annual Video Game Awards at Sony Picture Studios in Culver City, Calif., earlier this month.   (AP Photo)
Nintendo announced that the Super Mario Galaxy game for its Wii system has become the best-reviewed video game of all time, according to multiple review-tracking sites.
Nintendo announced that the Super Mario Galaxy game for its Wii system has become the best-reviewed video game of all time, according to multiple review-tracking sites.   (PRNewsFoto/Nintendo)
Guitar Hero and Rock Band 2 video game bundles are on display at a GameStop store in Redwood City, Calif.
Guitar Hero and Rock Band 2 video game bundles are on display at a GameStop store in Redwood City, Calif.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
The video game Animal Crossing: Wild World. The shot depicts an inventory screen where players can mix and match outfits, check their virtual bank account and perform other tasks.
The video game "Animal Crossing: Wild World." The shot depicts an inventory screen where players can mix and match outfits, check their virtual bank account and perform other tasks.   (AP Photo/Nintendo)
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The same thing the audience for any new medium always wants: they want pornography, broadly defined. They want to see things they aren't supposed to see.
- John Lanchester, London Review of Books

Games have to be better than films because they cost more. - gamer

The other way in which games might converge on art is through the beauty and detail of their imagined worlds, combined with the freedom they give the player to wander around in them.
- John Lanchester, London Review of Books

The next decade or so is going to see the world of video games convulsed by battles between the moneymen and the artists; if the good guys win, or win enough of the time, we' re going to have a whole new art form.
- John Lanchester, London Review of Books

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art • Nintendo • Nintendo Wii • gaming • Ayn Rand • Shigeru Miyamoto • video games

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