like it seems fucking obvious, right? any medium that can contain degrees of symbolism, has the potential to provoke viewer interpretation, has the potential to contain specific or vague messaging from the creator, and just generally can be used for self-expression has the potential to be an art form.

Why the fuck is/was this a point of discussion? to the point of heated discourse, even! Was it just the most geriatric people they could find on the street? Weird snobs?

like, the second games started having narratives this should have been a moot topic. why the fuck did Kojima parrot it?

reading his statement, i feel there's two different discourses happening, the already solved (:lt-dbyf-dubois:) point of "can video games be art" and the more interesting question of "does the video game industry currently have a culture that promotes artistic endeavor over mass appeal"

to which my personal answer is 'no, but we're slowly getting there with the rise of auteurism (despite some of the problems inherent to it) in acclaimed development teams (:praise-it:) and the indie scene's entirety, and we'll see if it starts to push against the corporate board schlock in the future.'

but still, god damn, half of this debate comes from the same place as the video games cause violence bit and the other half is just people being annoyed with call of duty schlock, which, fair. but why is the former even a debate that happened/is happening. i'm genuinely curious.

  • Ericthescruffy [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    games be art” and the more interesting question of “does the video game industry currently have a culture that promotes artistic endeavor over mass appeal”

    to which my personal answer is ‘no

    Ah, but you see: to the same crowd that's triggered because Marvel Movies don't win oscars that's essentially the same question!

    Obviously there's many nuances in any discourse but I firmly believe that the largest discourse around "are videogames art" has been an argument above all about legitimacy and/or being valid. The majority of people want videogames to be considered 'art' for the same reason they want their capeshit to be considered 'art'. Because if its 'art' then it validates their consumption of it as being something worthwhile they don't have to justify anymore!

    The proof to me that this is the case is that when videogames are subjected to the kind of artistic analysis they claim to want through various outlets and youtube discourse and people talk about what their "art" actually represents and stands for: that same vociferous group will immediately become defensive and start screaming "ITS JUST A GAME! STOP GETTING TRIGGERED! ITS JUST FOR FUN!!!!"