Are video games art? In this video, the first episode in the "Philosophy of Video Games" series, we explore what makes video games special.

Every age has art which defines it.

During the Renaissance, when a revolution in perspective transformed Europe, artists discovered visual perspective. During the Enlightenment, novelists explored the ideas of the time like freedom and reason. And during the last century, the mass-produced art of cinema and popular music mirrored the industrialization of a capital rich time.

If, at the turn of the 21st century, one were to predict the art which would come to define it, a popular candidate might have been video games. But now, almost a quarter into the 21st century, it’s not so clear. Sure, video games have easily become the most dominant form of entertainment, but will the medium make the jump to high art? Can Mario transition to Michelangelo?

Today, video games dominate the culture. In 2019, the video game industry brought in $150 billion in revenue, almost four times the entire global box office in the same year. There’s no doubt video games are popular, but are they art?

Traditionally, the artsy-fartsy scene shies away from popular media. High art tends to be an elitist concept, with critics preferring something niche and difficult over something accessible and popular, choosing Picaso over Pikachu.

But the 20th century did pave the way for popular media to join the art scene. And not just in the pop art works of artists like Roy Lichtenstein or Andy Warhol, but also in popular mediums like film and music. Being entertaining isn’t always a handicap. Even the most snobbish of critics have to accept successful pictures like The Godfather or Singing in the Rain. It’s not a leap to imagine video games carving out a similar art identity as film and television.

Also like Hollywood, the gaming industry has some of the world’s most brilliant creatives at work. For instance Hideo Kojima the brain behind the Metal Gear series has artistic aspirations.. And somehow it’s humanly possible for a single human being to have creative output including Donkey Kong, Super Mario, Zelda, Star Fox, and Pikmin.

And it’s not just the directors of video games, the bulk of the labor on these projects are artists in their own rights. Any major video game release is brought to life by hundreds and thousands of graphic designers, artists and engineers. But this does not necessarily add up to their work being art. Most of the creative output in these productions are more craft than they are art. Just scroll through a terrible movie like Transformers: Dark of the Moon, it’s no doubt populated by at least a dozen or so Mensa members, but is anyone arguing that this movie is art?

Clearly popularity, entertainment value, financial success or even the creative genius of the participants involved are not conclusive factors in what makes something art or not art. But then what is? What would video games have to do to become the dominant art form of the century?

0:00 Introduction
1:11 Part I - Wherefore art thou?
5:55 Part II - Alan Moore
10:57 Part III - A Last Breath

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