Allen 1

David Allen
Mrs. Cramer
Comp Pd. 5A
30 Nov. 2018
The Art of Digital Games

How in the world does anyone decide what exactly is art and what is not? Where is the

generally accepted line, if there even is one? This is a hotly debated topic, with no generally

accepted answer. 1 One example that creates this kind of debate is the question of whether video

games should be considered works of art or not. People have wildly differing opinions on the

answer to this question, with viewpoints on either side or somewhere in between. Even when

people do agree on an answer, they often don’t share the same reasoning. However, because of

how video games are made and how people react and receive them, there is ample evidence to

support the viewpoint that at minimum certain video games are works of art, if not all of them.

First, the creation of video games is similar to the process of creating works of art. Video

games require the use of creativity, innovation, and hard work to form a viable product

(Zackariasson et al 1). Art is similar, requiring the same traits to make something that stands out

as a famous work of art. Because of this similarity in the creation process, video games should

also be considered art. Video games also require far more collective work than most works of art

need, as the majority of games take hundreds of talented people to create (Zackariasson et al 1).

Art is usually only acclaimed and appreciated if those works are innovative and unique, proven

by how little the average person knows about the works of obscure artists. The creation process

forces games to be innovative and unique to make them stand out in the market and actually

make a profit, primarily because players constantly desire more and more immersive and deep

1Hypophora – This example of the device prompts the start of the essay and draws the attention of the reader to
the argument at hand.
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games (Wands et al 1). Video games and art are similar in this regard, in the idea that they both

need to be innovative and unique for them to stand out. If video games draw this number of

parallels with traditional art and has such an amount of similarities, why shouldn’t they be

considered art?

Next, video games fit many of the definitions of what art actually is. A generally

accepted definition is that art requires creativity and effort to create, but also must be received

and appreciated by an audience (Lamarque et al 24). Video games require a huge amount of

creativity, innovation, and work from hundreds to thousands of people to create. In the case of a

large number of games, they are received by millions of people, who critique and appreciate

them just as directly and strictly as a critic of traditional art would critique a painting by Munch.

Art also has a huge number of definitions, with no one of them fully agreeing with one another,

nor with a generally accepted definition. Many definitions also have corner cases and exceptions

so that they appeal to certain audiences, or to fit preconceived notions of art. These definitions

also change over time to fit the culture and ideals of the nation they inhabit, meaning no singular

definition remains unmodified to choose on the basis of tenure (Lamarque et al 23). Video games

fit many of the common definitions, and while they may not fit some definitions, neither do other

forms of what we consider traditional art. Because video games do fit some definitions of art,

while particular pieces of traditional art don’t fit other definitions, it’s hard to define a particular

definition of art that appeals to everybody. This makes the argument that because video games

don’t fit a number of definitions invalid because neither do some works of traditional art and

deciding on a singular definition of art is not only difficult but impractical because art is so

subjective it’s inherently flawed.

Critics of the idea that video games should be considered art argue that one popular

definition of art, the concept that art should only be considered art if the creation is a single
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person’s interpretation of the world around them, doesn’t fit video games. While some games fit

that definition exactly, most games require large numbers of people to create. However, all of

these people follow the ideas and leadership of a select few that direct the flow of the project.

These few also usually take inspiration and design choices from a single head executive that

oversees the entire project and how it will be directed in a creative sense. The argument can be

made that video games do not take inspiration from a single person, part of the aforementioned

definition. However, it’s also arguable that traditional art doesn’t take inspiration from one sole

person. They take in ideas from their surroundings and from the people they interact with. The

same can be said for the people that design video games, where the final game product takes in

ideas from the people who created it, who in turn take ideas from their surroundings. In either

case, video games or art, many people directly and indirectly influence the direction that a

particular project goes. Because art is influenced by more than just the creator’s interpretation

makes the argument invalid that video games are not art because they aren’t created by a single

person and their interpretation of the world.

Another argument critics make is that playing video games are a waste of time, when that

time could be better spent by becoming cultured and civilized in more traditional ways. Video

games have become a monumental part of our culture and contain massive amounts of references

to other parts of our culture and other cultures. An example is the game Assassin’s Creed:

Odyssey, a virtual world that is set in Ancient Greece. The game contains a huge amount of

culture and tradition that existed during the Ancient Greek time period and everyone in the game

acts as if they truly were part of that world and is a treasure trove of information. 2 It’s immersive,

and one can get a first-hand view of what the ancient world might be like. It shows the culture,

2 Metaphor – This example of a metaphor emphasizes that video games can contain a huge amount of valuable
information about cultural references.
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music, art, people, religion, mindsets, and more that the Ancient Greek world has to offer. Just

because someone isn’t physically going to a museum and perusing the exhibits doesn’t mean that

he or she can’t become cultured through other ways. It is analogous to how someone could learn

about painting through a television documentary, while another could learn from just as well

from a lecture.3 One could argue that learning culture through a video game can be even more

rewarding, as the player is completely immersed in the world and culture that the game is based

off of, instead of looking at exhibits that they can only imagine from. Video games have a huge

amount to offer beyond the traditional stigma of shooting and killing. A large number of them

have a huge amount of opportunity to learn about culture and people and is by no means a waste

of time when played correctly.

In conclusion, there is a large amount of evidence that video games should be considered

art. Video games, like famous works of traditional art, are creative and innovative and fit many

definitions of art because of that and how people receive and react to them. While no one will

agree on a single, true definition of what art is supposed to be like, and the definitions that exist

change over time, as of now video games are a part of that family.

3Analogy – This example compares two different ways that people can learn about painting to explain that people
can learn about culture through video games.
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Works Cited

Lamarque, Peter and Haugom, Stein. “Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art.” Google Books,
Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2004,
books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9jBuDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA22&dq=def
inition%2Bof%2Bart&ots=-
sqrgmHaxW&sig=djTimeZ_cw2szlcDovkSyqFuM_g#v=onepage&q=definition%20of%
20art&f=false.
Wands, Bruce. “Art of the Digital Age.” Thames & Hudson, 2007,
https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1534611.
Zackariasson, Peter, Styhre, Alexander, and Wilson, Timothy L.. “Phronesis and Creativity:
Knowledge Work in Video Game Development.” Wiley Online Library, 2006,
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8691.2006.00400.x.