The Mona Lisa is art. It’s a classic oil painting created by Renaissance master genius Leonardo da Vinci. It’s a exemplary example of the painting style and techniques of the time, a portrait with a subject that continues to mystify and enthral audiences today. It’s a work that takes its place among the greatest works of art in the world in the Louvre in Paris, France.
The Lambourghini Countash is art. It’s a sports car that exemplifies the epitome of design and performance. Prized as a possession, worshiped as an icon, haunted as an obsession, it became a mainstay of bedrooms everywhere as a poster so that even people who will never make enough money to buy one can still appreciate it for what it is: the highest achievement of human engineering.
The Fountain, a urinal turned on its side and simply signed “R. Mutt”, is art. As scandalous as this artwork was in 1917, it came to revolutionize the very notion of what art is by deliberating provoking its audience. This Dadaist work has become a seminal influence on later generations by breaking down the concepts of what we consider to be art.
So, in line with any three of these models, it’s an unmistakable truth that video games are art. It’s a no-brainer, and with that realization, it’s also not some kind of endorsement. Rather, it’s a responsibility, one that now must be burdened by video gamers themselves.
Since video games are art, then they should be treated as art. Although some people may choose to appreciate video games as art by placing mint-condition copies into shrink-wrapped hermetically sealed bags, there remains a history and tradition of appreciating art that can now be applied to video games.
Having now joined this exclusive club, gamers are no longer indebted to the chore of just treating video games as consumer products to be purchased. Since video games are now art, like the Mona Lisa, Lambourghini Countash or the Fountain, it’s time to talk about them in a way other than ranking them out of ten, deeming it worthy of purchase, and wrapping up a review with the words “will appeal to fans of the genre”.
Take DOOM (1995), for example. It’s a classic game, basically launched the first-person shooter genre, a defined a generation of gamers on its fast gameplay and appealing horror themes.
It’s also bad art that, when removed from its trappings as a great game, is bereft of anything to say. DOOM has nothing to say about the existential angst of being the last remaining human alive except to use it as a premise for a last-man standing challenge. DOOM has nothing to say about a horrifying netherworld populated by demons except that it is awesome to shoot them with a shotgun.
There is no discussion in DOOM beside the busy chatter of your minigun. There could be so much more to this story since it proves the existence of god (or at least a goat-headed devil), but the basic nuance is that technology will triumph over evil (in the form of BFGs and chainsaws) despite the fact that technology is what caused this in the first place (in the form of portals). The deepest you could ever delve into the DOOM message is that what first arose from irresponsible meddling by egghead scientists will be ultimately solved by guns and a “Hell, yeah!” attitude.
Of course, there’s more to art than just discussing it, but it’s the fun part. It’s almost as good as wine tasting, something that you can be terrible at doing, but always wind up drunk by the time you’re done.
There’s criticism, and analysis, and historical and cultural context, but why would any of this concern a video gamer who only wants the prestige of having their favorite hobby earn the respect of being called “art” without any the responsibility of treating it as such.
And if it ever gets too difficult to explain the reasons why video games are art, just hang a poster of a Cyberdemon on your wall. It will be much more convenient than pointing at a appropriated urinal that have made the definition of art irrelevant.
How far I got in an hour: the third or fourth level, lots of shots fired and art criticism done
The good: it still plays as good as in my memories
The bad: The Brutal DOOM mod has kind of ruined me on vanilla DOOM, but hopefully the new DOOM will set everything straight
Will I play this again once this year is up: Yes.
Days so far in the Year of the Play-a-DayStation: 25
Play-a-Daystation 