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  • Subject: Weekly Community Debate: Bungie Community consider Videogames an art?
Subject: Weekly Community Debate: Bungie Community consider Videogames an art?

Man of God. Fan of Bungie. Eater of many Jr. Bacon cheeseburgers.

I've been reading about various peoples opinions on the matter and I'm curious about what people of the Bungie Community think. Are video games an art form?

[Edited on 06.27.2012 10:01 AM PDT]

  • 06.26.2012 2:33 PM PDT

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Absolutely,It has adapted to be a digital/Interactive art form.For that very reason I prefer playing video games then watching movies.

  • 06.26.2012 2:38 PM PDT

Man of God. Fan of Bungie. Eater of many Jr. Bacon cheeseburgers.

A lot of people seem to say that art within games doesn't necessarily mean the games themselves are art.

  • 06.26.2012 2:40 PM PDT

Absolutely. One of my college professors said Video games arent a form of art... you can guess how fast I dropped out of that class.

[Edited on 06.26.2012 2:42 PM PDT]

  • 06.26.2012 2:42 PM PDT

I'd say they are, people are creating the music and visuals for these games just like with an other art form.

  • 06.26.2012 2:42 PM PDT

Of course! "Video games are a creative, intellectual, emotional form of expression and engagement, as fundamentally human as any other." Couldn't agree more, and even the Supreme Court of the United States agrees.

[Edited on 06.26.2012 2:43 PM PDT]

  • 06.26.2012 2:42 PM PDT

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Yes Ofcourse they are I think.

  • 06.26.2012 2:43 PM PDT


Posted by: SharkTooth__
A lot of people seem to say that art within games doesn't necessarily mean the games themselves are art.
That's like saying a collage isn't art just the pictures within it are. It's silly and holds no weight.

  • 06.26.2012 2:44 PM PDT

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Yes, I do.

Also, this thread would fit a little better over in the Flood.

  • 06.26.2012 2:46 PM PDT

Key

The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination

Video games fit that description.

/thread.

  • 06.26.2012 2:47 PM PDT
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Posted by: TopWargamer
Yes, I do.

Also, this thread would fit a little better over in the Flood.

  • 06.26.2012 2:51 PM PDT
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When the game is over, the king and pawn go into the same box

"But is it art?"

Art can mean many things to different people, but art isn't bound, in a traditional sense, to the usual forms like music, painting, and sculpting. Video games encompass all those forms in one way shape or another. Model building, graphic arts, composing music... so yes, they are very much art.

I think what people wrestle with, is part the motivation for their creation and the mass scale at which they are produced. Just because it's product doesn't mean it's not art.

  • 06.26.2012 2:52 PM PDT

Man of God. Fan of Bungie. Eater of many Jr. Bacon cheeseburgers.


Posted by: burritosenior

Posted by: SharkTooth__
A lot of people seem to say that art within games doesn't necessarily mean the games themselves are art.
That's like saying a collage isn't art just the pictures within it are. It's silly and holds no weight.


That's a good arguement. I hadn't thought about it like that.

[Edited on 06.26.2012 2:53 PM PDT]

  • 06.26.2012 2:52 PM PDT

Nope. Vidya games are vidya games. They're for fun. They're not art. Is baseball art? Nay. Most of the nerds that say video games are art are only saying that because they like them a lot and thus feel some sort of need to hold them in high esteem, which is silly.
Posted by: TopWargamer
Yes, I do.

Also, this thread would fit a little better over in the Flood.
Stop forum copping. This forum is bad anyway. Let the mods deal with it, don't spam the thread by telling the OP it shouldn't go here.
Posted by: CrazzySnipe55
The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination

Video games fit that description.

/thread.
Debatable. I suppose it fits that description, but video games are -blam!- video games, everyone in here is trying to make them out to be more than they are. That's like saying if I doodle a stick man in MS Paint that's art. No. Fitting the description isn't enough. Everyone in here is sort of maaaaaaybe making video games out to be more than they are, which I'm not surprised to see on a Bungie.net forum so I rest my case.

[Edited on 06.26.2012 3:10 PM PDT]

  • 06.26.2012 3:02 PM PDT

After playing games like Planescape: Torment and Grim Fandango... Yes. Absolutely.

  • 06.26.2012 3:03 PM PDT

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Posted by: ctjl96
Nope. Vidya games are vidya games. They're for fun. They're not art. Is baseball art? Nay. Most of the nerds that say video games are art are only saying that because they like them a lot and thus feel some sort of need to hold them in high esteem, which is silly.


Do you consider music, drawings, writing, and animation to be art? Then a video game is just a super art form combining and ton of art forms.

  • 06.26.2012 3:06 PM PDT

Posted by: spartain ken 15

Posted by: ctjl96
Nope. Vidya games are vidya games. They're for fun. They're not art. Is baseball art? Nay. Most of the nerds that say video games are art are only saying that because they like them a lot and thus feel some sort of need to hold them in high esteem, which is silly.


Do you consider music, drawings, writing, and animation to be art? Then a video game is just a super art form combining and ton of art forms.

The artwork is art. The music is art. The video game itself is a game. The components within it are art, but a video game isn't made to express some sort of intrinsic feeling or desire. I feel that art has to express something. Video games don't express anything. You play them. Again, not at all surprised that everyone in here is going to say "zomg fur sure dude video games ar totlly art" and then refuse to elaborate aside from providing a definition.

  • 06.26.2012 3:14 PM PDT


Posted by: ctjl96
Nope. Vidya games are vidya games. They're for fun. They're not art. Is baseball art? Nay. Most of the nerds that say video games are art are only saying that because they like them a lot and thus feel some sort of need to hold them in high esteem, which is silly.


Companies make video games for the same reason Shakespeare wrote his plays.

"They're for fun" doesn't have anything to do with being art or not. People saying that video games aren't art are trying to hold the word "art" in some sort of high esteem, as if only things that society considers more "classy" are art.

  • 06.26.2012 3:17 PM PDT

Posted by: coolmike699
Companies make video games for the same reason Shakespeare wrote his plays.

goodbye hope for humanity

  • 06.26.2012 3:18 PM PDT


Posted by: ctjl96
Posted by: spartain ken 15

Posted by: ctjl96
Nope. Vidya games are vidya games. They're for fun. They're not art. Is baseball art? Nay. Most of the nerds that say video games are art are only saying that because they like them a lot and thus feel some sort of need to hold them in high esteem, which is silly.


Do you consider music, drawings, writing, and animation to be art? Then a video game is just a super art form combining and ton of art forms.

The artwork is art. The music is art. The video game itself is a game. The components within it are art, but a video game isn't made to express some sort of intrinsic feeling or desire. I feel that art has to express something. Video games don't express anything. You play them. Again, not at all surprised that everyone in here is going to say "zomg fur sure dude video games ar totlly art" and then refuse to elaborate aside from providing a definition.


You know, I asked this very question is a Mail Sack.

The essence of art has been defined as "the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others." I could apply those same words to a job description on our Careers page. Anyone who says that video games do not deserve to be regarded as art are going out of their way to demonstrate a basic lack of understanding for the medium of interactive entertainment. Either that, or they are just a snob who wishes that berets were still in style.

  • 06.26.2012 3:20 PM PDT

Key


Posted by: ctjl96

Posted by: CrazzySnipe55
The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination

Video games fit that description.

/thread.
Debatable. I suppose it fits that description, but video games are -blam!- video games, everyone in here is trying to make them out to be more than they are. That's like saying if I doodle a stick man in MS Paint that's art. No. Fitting the description isn't enough. Everyone in here is sort of maaaaaaybe making video games out to be more than they are, which I'm not surprised to see on a Bungie.net forum so I rest my case.


I see how you've directly linked the definition of art with video games, but I dislike your opinion so no.

  • 06.26.2012 3:23 PM PDT


Posted by: ctjl96
Posted by: coolmike699
Companies make video games for the same reason Shakespeare wrote his plays.

goodbye hope for humanity


Someone's been sleeping in English class.

You know that Shakespeare wrote his plays to entertain an audience, right? And that in his time, people looked down on his plays just like you look down on video games? Here's a quote for you:

William Shakespeare's plays were written for a competitive, commercial and popular theatre. "Competitive, commercial, and popular"? That sounds like a market we have today...

Here's something else that sounds a lot like a common criticism of gaming:

greate disorders committed in the common playhouses both by lewd matters that are handled on the stages and by resorte and confluence of bad people

Content in the games (or plays) themselves, and angry fanboys acting like idiots? Hmm...

Hey, maybe you should rethink that "games aren't art" thing. Because you'll find that there really aren't many differences between today's games and the art of the past. And maybe you should learn first, and lose "hope for humanity" second.

  • 06.26.2012 3:28 PM PDT

Meh. Yes, I suppose on a technicality, it's art. However, I don't really consider it art simply because it "fits the description". Again, I feel that something has to be expressive in order to qualify as art, and games are made to amuse people, and here you (and DeeJ, obviously, he works for a company that makes them, I'm not surprised) are putting them up on some sort of pedestal.

"I could apply those same words to a job description on our Careers page."
This is exactly why meeting the description is not enough. If you are too close-minded to grasp what I'm getting at then I will resume my silence because I doubt I'll be able to reason with a crowd of butthurt Bungie.net users that consider their hobbies to be an expressive form of feeling. Hell, I don't even like art, and I know video games aren't art.
William Shakespeare's plays were written for a competitive, commercial and popular theatre.ZOMG SHAKESPEARE WROTE HIS PLAYS TO MAKE MONEY SINCE WHEN?!!

[Edited on 06.26.2012 3:30 PM PDT]

  • 06.26.2012 3:29 PM PDT

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Video games are like this generation's books. Every one has a story to tell and take the player to a new unique world. Sounds like art to me.

  • 06.26.2012 3:30 PM PDT