It could be said that any culture could be judged by the art it produces. Yet if emerging forms of art are not recognized, what is there to judge? In art history, the Dadaists were the ones that sought to take every convention of art and turn it upside-down, as they most literally did with the upside-down urinal dubbed Fountain. Video games now experience the same kind of resistance from the traditional art community that the Dadaists faced. Video games should be considered art in the sense that films, music, and paintings are considered art, as video games have a narrative, visual and audible forms, and a critical vocabulary.

Video games, as a relatively young art form, have been subject to much criticism in the past. Whether it is the topic of violence in video games, or the obsessive and addictive properties of games like World of Warcraft, video games typically get blamed for a number of society’s ills. Furthermore, it seems that several people who are well respected in their fields have condemned video games as artistically void wastes of time. These include noted film critic Roger Ebert and avant-garde film director Michel Gondry.

Roger Ebert has said, “video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic.” First of all, I have a problem with Ebert’s implicit definition of art as something that makes us “cultured, civilized and empathetic.” While this applies to many arts that follow a linear narrative, it does not apply to what doesn’t follow a linear narrative. For example, the works of film director David Lynch, such as Eraserhead do not follow linear narrative rules at all, yet they are critically acclaimed and seen as art. Similarly, in the art world, abstract paintings which do not have a clear resolution of what they represent are honored and respected. How could a Jackson Pollock splatter painting make you more cultured, civilized, and empathetic? Perhaps you could make a weak argument that it would make you more cultured for having seen his painting, but it certainly wouldn’t make you civilized. If anything, it would inspire you to be less civilized and splatter paint all over a canvas by yourself. As for empathy, how could you be empathetic for that which has no clearly defined form? Yet, both Pollock and Lynch are hailed as true masters of art and their works are studied by aspiring film directors and revered by fine art critics. Since games do not always have a traditional narrative in the sense of a deep and engaging plot, this criticism does not apply.

Director Michel Gondry, well known for his experimental music videos and films, reveals in an interview why he doesn’t let his son play video games:

“I have a half-brother, he is 20 now. He's wasted his life playing videogames - you know what I was saying earlier about enjoying the rewards of producing something. It's physical, because you make something that you can hold and you can show it to people” (Hebron).

By Gondry’s logic one could argue that any moment spent taking in art and not making it is a waste of time. Of course this is not true, as any artist needs inspiration. Does Gondry believe that people who watch his artsy music videos are wasting their time? I would imagine that he does not. Gondry’s definition of art is also old fashioned. Just because something cannot be held in the hand doesn’t mean that it is not art. Consider the countless hours a player will spend developing the perfect house in a day-to-day life simulation game like The Sims. This house is designed and is a work itself which could conceivably be uploaded to the Internet where it can be examined and judged by peers – is this not art? It’s conceivable that The Sims have inspired people to take up architecture, which is indeed recognized as a valid form of art.

What is art? In his short essay “Art for Art’s Sake”, Forster states that “a work of art […] is a self-contained entity, with a life of its own imposed on it by its creator. It has an internal order. It may have external form. That is how we recognize it” (Shrodes, Shugrue, et. al 389). Games most certainly have self-contained structures and internal order. A game has a structure in the form of rules that the player must learn in order to progress through the game. An example of internal order are all the mathematics, physics, and programming code that make up a game that we do not see, but we only see the manifestations of.

When discussing art, it is important to make a distinction between popular art and fine art. Fine art is art that is usually displayed in galleries, such as paintings and sculptures, and occasionally this definition is extended to include live theater and musical compositions. Popular art is art that reaches a wide audience but still has a critical aspect, such as film and popular music. It is the latter classification in which I believe that video games should be a part of.

Narrative, as it is commonly defined, is storyline or plot. But it would be foolish to apply this definition of narrative to video games outright. Since games are not only a storytelling medium, a narrative in the traditional sense is not its defining characteristic. It is necessary to define a looser definition of narrative, one that applies to abstract art and non-linear films as well as traditional stories. Narrative is simply a flow, a way to get from one point to the other. In literary terms, games have a beginning, middle and an end. Sometimes a visual narrative is all you have to go on. In Rules of Play, game designer Katie Salen talks about the concept of “narrative descriptors”, which are the components that make up the narrative. These include opening cinemas, sounds, and especially representation of objects or characters (399). These could be blocks in Tetris or King Bowser from Super Mario Bros., two games from which examples could easily be drawn.

A good example of a game with a visual narrative is Tetris. Tetris starts off slow, being able to lay down building blocks with relative calmness. As you advance, the blocks fall gradually faster. You may be halfway up the board but you can still handle it. Eventually the pace becomes so frantic that your hand-eye coordination gives out and your blocks reach the top of the screen, ending the game. Another example of a visual narrative is where you fight King Bowser in Super Mario Bros. Bowser is a large turtle-like creature who has kidnapped the Princess. When you approach him, he is standing on a bridge above a lava pit. He responds to your presence by throwing a salvo of hammers towards you. As you dodge the hammers and after he tries to crush you with his body, he pauses, readying up another salvo of hammers. Eventually you have to make a choice to defeat him. If you have the fireball power-up you can simply shoot fireballs at him until he dies. If you don’t, you must evade him and reach the axe at the end of the bridge, which will cut the bridge, and make him sink into the lava below.

While many games have stories and tell these stories with cut scenes, it is not necessary to have cut scenes to tell a story. In Super Metroid, the character Samus chases a dangerous alien lifeform to the planet Zebes. As Samus’ ship descends through the clouds and lands on the planet’s surface, you are greeted with pouring rain, thunderclaps, and a brooding musical score. Although no word is spoken, although no gesture is made by the character, this scene tells you much about the game and the dangers that lie ahead. As Samus emerges from her ship and stands directly facing the player, the mission is made clear – Samus must explore this world and root out the evil within.

Roger Ebert has argued, “Video games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control.” While games are indeed interactive, this does not mean that they do not have authorial control. The game designer’s tools are how it delegates interactivity to the player. While interactivity adds a bit of unpredictability to the user’s actions, a good game director has control over the player’s experience. Even in games where the point of view is adjustable by the player, the point of view automatically tracks the character in an ideal and cinematic way. It is up to the player to deviate from the suggested camera angle. In a less subtle example, in games where players are given freedom to explore the game world as much as they want – called “open-world” games – there are parts where the player is trapped and reduced to few, or no options. The game Metroid: Zero Mission has a sequence where the character is stripped of her powerful suit of armor and all weapons but her basic stun pistol. She then must sneak around avoiding guards to complete the game.

Actions themselves can be limited to one choice, a few choices, or hundreds of choices. An example of one choice is in many role playing games that involve saving a princess. The scenario typically is that the king asks you if you will save the princess. Some games give you a yes/no response to this. If you pick no, the king will say “but you have to!”, and then ask you the question again. This is an action with one choice. A few choices would be if the game truly allowed you to not save the princess and do something else, perhaps you can send someone else to save her and go fight the dragon terrorizing a village. Indeed, the games with hundreds of choices are usually open-world games such as the role-playing game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. In this game you wander around, interact with whomever you want, and accept as many quests and missions as you are interested in. As you can travel anywhere and accept quests from just about anyone, you indeed have hundreds of choices. All of these choices affect the narrative.

Games have a visual component. Described in gaming terminology as “graphics”, this is usually the most obvious component of a game. Indeed, it seems that the technology powering games is driven by desire for more realistic graphics, which is why new game consoles come out every 4-5 years. More importantly, from an artistic standpoint, the visuals are composed of how the characters and environment are rendered and how lighting, texture, lines, forms, and colors come into play, which influence the other aspects of the game.

This can be best shown in the game Shadow of the Colossus, by game designer Fumito Ueda. In this game, the character, Wander, visits a forbidden land seeking to resurrect a dead girl. Shadow of the Colossus’ environment is massive and spectacular, consisting of rolling hills, forests, rivers and waterfalls. However, this land is completely barren. There are only plants and small birds and lizards. Furthermore, the lighting is artificially exaggerated so it washes out the colors of the game. This stark contrast of being the only human being in a massive and desolate world plays off the game’s main concept: to slay the giant colossi that inhabit this cursed land. Also playing into this contrast is that Wander is about the size of a mouse compared to the massive colossi. As each colossus is slain, shadowy lines emerge from the wounds that penetrate Wander and make him collapse. When he awakens, these slain colossi are seen as shadowy spirit forms that surround him. Over the course of the game, Wander’s appearance changes, and he becomes visibly closer and closer to death. It is as if every colossus slain leads Wander closer and closer to his eventual demise, a paradoxical resolution of the narrative.

Another component of games is the sound. This includes both music and sound effects. In Rez, the shoot-em-up genre is given a twist: the music and sound becomes integral to the overall experience. Unlike most music games like Guitar Hero, the player does not simply perform music – the player is part of it and the player’s actions influence it. Every shot, hit, and explosion plays into the overall music composition being created as the game is played. As a digital character flies through a digitized computer-like landscape, the player pays as much attention to the sound as the graphics. This is a contrast to many games, where it is possible to mute the sound and still be able to enjoy the game. Playing Rez muted is like watching Star Wars blindfolded. The lines that make up forms of the background wiggle in tune with the beat, and the enemies appear in formations that will yield a pleasing combination of sounds and music.

Games have a critical vocabulary, essential for determining the value of any piece of art. Any form of expression that doesn’t have an established means to critique it falls out of the realm of art and into the realm of entertainment. The visual aesthetic is a crucial component, as is the sound. Most important is gameplay (also called game mechanics), which describe the ways the player interacts with the game. Games must have meaningful play, which are actions that lead to outcomes that create meaning (Salen 33). One of the reasons why open-world games are often given high praise is because it is difficult to allow meaningful play in a world that allows too many possibilities. At what point does it stop being a game and start becoming a simulation of actual life? One could argue that it would be no fun playing a game which simulated the day-to-day life of a store clerk, unless some fantastic scenarios were thrown in to make the game more compelling.

Meaningful play is not the same as “having fun”. Many games have sections that are not as fun as other parts, yet they provide an overall sense of accomplishment. In many role-playing games, your character must do a particular task over and over again to make him stronger – this is called “leveling”. For instance, in the aforementioned Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, your skill in casting magic is increased each time you use that type of magic. Casting a spell repeatedly to gain levels is not usually fun in itself, but it generally leads to a better gameplay experience as higher magic levels have access to more interesting spells, which in turn makes the overall experience compelling.

Games are scrutinized just as other forms of art are scrutinized. A film can be scrutinized for having a thin plot, bad characters, or nonsensical elements and be critiqued and given a negative review. Similarly, games with unsatisfying game mechanics, overly difficult enemies, or lousy controls will get negative reviews in game publications. The reason why the vocabulary for describing the critical properties of a game is so important is because this vocabulary is generally a consensus among game reviewers. A game is not good because it has 30 levels, it is good because of the overall quality of the game. It is qualitative, not quantitative. Some critical terms that are used to describe a game’s merits are challenge, characters, quality of gameplay, length, value, story and originality.

It has been said that any true art evokes an emotional response. Again, video games meet this criteria. Some have said that no game has ever made anyone cry; this is not true. It should be noted that crying over a movie is a rare emotion for most people. Most people do not feel genuine sadness when watching a typical film. That said, there have been a few games that have evoked such sadness. An example is Final Fantasy 7, when a love triangle’s subplot is resolved as a female love interest of the main protagonist is brutally murdered right in front of him. Another scene is in Shadow of the Colossus when your only ally in your entire quest, a horse named Agro, seemingly sacrifices his life to save yours. This is a deeply sad scene, as this event happens at the end of the game when the horse has become a loyal friend.

Of course, sadness is not the only emotion one feels when playing a game. Frustration is perhaps the most common of any emotion experienced while playing. If a game is unreasonably difficult, a gamer might shout in anger at the game. We personify games the same way we personify a chair when we hit one of our toes on it. Another emotion is relief; this is especially felt after completing a difficult portion of a game. A horror game like Resident Evil can evoke an emotion of fear, while a game like Tetris can give a feeling of euphoria at first, then an overwhelming feeling as your blocks stack near the top.

Video games have a narrative, visual and audile forms, and a critical vocabulary. Video games should be considered art as they draw influence from many other art forms. As writer and curator Clarke points out in Videogames and Art, “videogames compile all of the art world’s tools into one medium; drawing, painting, sculpting, design, architecture, creative writing, computer and video art and acting all come together to create videogames” (Clarke, Mitchell 205). This is a compelling reason to see video games as an art form, if it is nothing more than the sum of its parts. However, a video game by itself is a whole that should be considered art on its own merits for the one thing that sets games apart from other art forms: interactivity.

Works Cited:

Clarke, Andy, and Grethe Mitchell. Videogames and Art. Bristol, UK: Intellect, 2007.

Ebert, Roger. “Answer Man.” rogerebert.com. 2005. 28 May 2008 <http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=ANSWERMAN&date=20051127>.

Forster, E.M. “Art for Art’s Sake.” Conscious Reader. 10th ed. Eds. Shroder, Shugrue et. al. Boston: Pearson/Langman, 2006. 388-393.

Hebron, Sandra. “Michel Gondry – part two.” guardian.co.uk. 2007. The Guardian. 28 May 2008 <http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,2009757,00.html>.

Salen, Katie, and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004.