A version of this article first appeared in the November 2009 issue of Game Developer magazine. It’s an expanded version of this blog post.
Whether or not video games can be art has been debated for as long as game devs have been putting pixels together. It’s a question that goes beyond mere academia – games as art brings professional legitimacy for the industry, and goes to the heart of the concept of games as protected speech.
Naysayers argue that video games will never tell complex stories, touch as controversial topics, or display emotions as textured as those found in film – largely because games are obsessed with ’fun’. This argument suggests that until designers get out of the rut that is focusing on this singular emotion, art will elude us.
I feel like this particular line of reasoning completely misses the point of where the art of video game design actually lives.
Do games have to be fun to be successful? Almost certainly.
Does this mean that every game needs to push the same emotional buttons? Or that games can’t be art? No to both.
Let’s back up. Continue reading
Recent Comments