Videogames as Forms of Art - Research Paper Example

Video games are forms of art Introduction Video games are perceived as a negative aspect in life that should be eliminated. The engage our brains to an extent that some people relate them to real life. What people fail to understand is that videogames can be more than a toy that is just a waste of time. In order to play some games, you need to know how to speak English, which is good for non-English speakers. As long as human see videogames as a toy, they will never benefit from it. Some games are more of a life style that a game. The graphics of some games are more realistic compared to some of the paintings that are hanging on the walls The Guggenheim museum. Why are they perceived as toys and not art? They are as beautiful as the works of arts we see in museums. Art is a manmade object, which is an illustration of an individual’s (artist) emotion and ideas that engage the audience’s emotions. Videogame engage people’s emotions and they are an imaginary world created by emotion and ideas of designers. It might not be made by artists or intended to be art, but that does not make it any less than a piece of art. Videogames even have more influence to people compared to a piece of art because you are in control, you make the calls, which engage an individual more. Supporting Arguments Video games as part of education Have you ever walked into a class and look at the teacher for the full 45 minutes without understanding anything? Well, all people have been through that moment. A school in NYC uses only videogames to educate their students. All the students are paying attention and doing everything they could because they enjoy it. They are emotionally engaged in that videogame they are playing. Videogames are made to entertain people. They entertain people by engaging their emotions and feelings. Many people cried and laughed over a videogame. There are games that need the player to think in order to solve a riddle. Videogames create an imaginary world that an individual is ruling. As a player you’re the protagonist, you’re the king, you’re everything in the game. What is a better place to stay in other than the world you are ruling? Creativity found in games As a player, you might like a game and praise the company that made it. What individuals do not think about are the people who made them (Robinson). A game is in a different world, with new building and new creatures that we never saw in real life, but where does all of that come from? It is all the imagination of an individual who spends 12 hours a day for about 4 or 5 year that is working on a game that his name will never be put into. Designers spend years making games, but never get the credit for it. They see the game as an accomplishment, a piece of art they created, but players never look at them the same way. Motivation provided by video games Most of us think that video games are items produced by specific companies to make money. However, little do we know that these video games are categorized into different genres according to the experiences they want to portray While these designers make money, they consume our time by providing us with the kind of environment that surround us (Robinson). For example, in countries where there are military wars, the situation may be felt through playing video games in the action genre such as Desert Storm. This gives the player the feeling and emotions that one would get while in the field. Informative feature of video games As a player, you may recommend and appreciate the advancement of technology. It has enabled to the player to have a close connection with the game and its set environment (Smuts). As some put it, video games have foretold how the future will look like through use of artistic designs. What we forget is that the makers and designers of the games are humans just like us and would also like to have the feeling that the player has while playing the video game. Artists may come up with products because of human activities. In most video games, they deal with real life situations such as wars that are present in modern day world. This makes video games a form of an art where the artist can share the experiences and emotions of the artist in another dimension. Most video games are fictions where the designers create their own worlds but in spite of these new worlds, there is always a human connection or relation through life. Wide variety of choice similar to arts As a player, there are many times that one enjoys the video game since one can control and move the game in the manner he/she wants. In most cases, the player is not aware that the video game designers come up with preset codes just that there is a variety of them to choose from unlike in art. When it comes to literature or movies, the audience is cannot move beyond the artisan’s ideas. We can watch the movie and in some cases prefer what the actor would have done but we cannot change the situation. Some critics claim, “Video games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control” (Hall). Scholars views on video games So what defines art? Scholars and scientists have come up with different theories to explain the meaning of art. However, all the theories revolve around human life experiences. Visual arts combines with cinema art to provide us with films and literature on life situations. When it comes to video games designers put the artisans work to the table to come up with games that are replica to the film. Who would not like to watch a film where he/she is restricted to choice then later play a video game of the same movie having access to control the actors? This is where video games come up as a form of art. At times, we should even refer to them as art works. Counter Arguments Video games are meant to benefit designers only Some people would argue that art is what is made by an artist, and must be intended to be art, but the question is what is an artist? People look at art as something made by artists, but in reality, art is what make its creator an artist. An individual start as a normal person and become an artist after he creates a piece of art, which means that art is what cause an individual to become an artist. However, the one who create games are designers and not artist, and they are creating it to fulfill their companies’ desires and not to express their feeling (Petraitis 6). Critics of video games Critics argue that video games do not relate with art in any manner (Ebert). However, art has different meanings and covers a wide variety (Smuts). Examples of these varieties include theatre, films, dance literature, and performing arts. To choose from these varieties, it depends on the ability of the artist or designer. For example, a musical artist may create music. The same music is used in video games to keep the player motivated and varies with the genre. Artistic music on the other hand also varies with the type of genre. Video games use different genre of music to play in the background to help us concentrate. What else do you need while playing Need For Speed than some rock music in the background. It cranks you up. High costs involved in production opposed to arts It is in most cases that we find video game designers to have done little to the creation of a game. However, these designers spend up to five years trying to come up with a state of the art video game. The set budgets are also similar and in some cases, video game budgets exceed film and literature budgets. For example, Grand Theft Auto 5 has taken a longer time than the other video games. Its budget was also much higher than other film budgets. Video games are a form of art and both the artisan and the designers undergo similar activities to come up with their final products. As a video game player, when you hit the stores and a new game and film have been released, you had better spend more on the game that you would play for 20 to 30 hours rather than a one and a half hours’ movie (Picard) Differing scholars views on video games Having the same origin does not make the two to be one. Are video games legitimate forms of art? Some may answer ‘no’ though critics have filed many cases in courts claiming that there is too much violence in some of the video games. In other cases, we may have read comic books in our childhood and later play video games containing he same story line as the comic book. This happens when the video game designer copies information of the artist’s comic book and uses his or her programming skills to provide us with a new game. This is known as collaborative art. Conclusion Just as any other form of art, video games are open to any form of criticism. There is not enough proof or history of the two forms as collaborative arts but due to art evolution and transition in technology, there can now be compared and contrasted (Picard). Video games contain artistic elements that seem to change with time. Changes in technology have also made them a unique hybrid. According to me, this form of art (video games) may in the future become more significant. Works Cited . Smuts, Aaron. "Are Video Games Art?." Contempaesthetics.org, 2013. Web. 25 Nov 2013. Ebert, Roger. "Video games can never be art." Roger Ebert’s Journal, (2010): Print. Hall, Stefan. "Video Games as Collaborative Art." Phi Kappa Phi Forum 85.2 (2005): 1-2. Print. Petraitis, Paulius . Video Games As Objects Of Art: Revival Of The Play-Element In Contemporary Artistic Practice. London: Routledge, 2012. Print Picard, Martin. "Machinima: Video Game as an Art Form." Proc. CGSA 2006, (2006): Print. Robinson, William. "The Aesthetics of Play: Creativity and Art in Videogame Performance." (2012): Print. Read More