This is one of the less well-known internet debates (Of course, Pirates vs Ninjas and Macs vs PCs tops the chart), but it does exist. Some people believe that videogames could be considered an art form, whereas some people are adamantly against that fact. However, before it probably would have been preposterous for movies to be considered an art form, but look at the Avademy Awards!
I think one common misconception that people have is that videogames consist solely of grizzled space marines shooting up aliens.
Yes, games like Gears of War are fun, and they look nice, but they’re made of three colours: Brown, Grey, and muzzle flash.
Above: Not art.
I’m talking about games where there’s tons of colour, where character, level design and enemy design are inspired and amazing, and where in general, the game just looks at plays great.
Yeah, this isn’t the best pic, but this is Katamari Damacy. Basically, the King of all Cosmos destroys all the stars in the sky, and it’s your job as the prince to roll up as many things on Earth as you can to make stars. Environments get smaller and smaller as your ball grows, and you can see all kinds of stuff around. It’s really nice and colourful looking, with great game and level design.
It’s hard to show how beautiful this game looks in just pictures, but believe me, when you’re sailing around an island and you’re spinning the camera around, it’s just amazing. No doubt one of the best games on the GC, it’s also one of the best looking. The cel shaded look is really nice.
Super Mario Galaxy. Oh noes Wii gaem@@@@@
Seriously, the game is beautiful. Flying through the galaxy with colours everywhere, coloured stars following you, the graphics are BEAUTIFUL, the planets are inspired, and the views of all the planets beneath you while you fly through space is just breathtaking.
Final Fantasy XII! Awesome looking game, it’s FF, what do you expect? 
great graphics, nicely drawn, it’s all 3D and prettyful.
And Final Fantasy XIII is gonna look even better @_@
You knew I’d try to sneak this BlazBlue in here somewhere. This is a great game. The way the characters move, the way you see the attacks come out, all the flashes from landing hits, the specials, the backgrounds, the cinematic Astral Finishes, every frame of this game is hand-drawn with care, and it looks absolutely stunning.
Also, Litchi Faye Ling.
King of Fighter XII, a game I have recently falling in love with.
For most of the games, all they did was either try to make the previous games’ sprites look a little prettier, or do nothing. This time, they decided to break the mold and started hand-drawing every single character from scratch.
The resulting sprites look amazing, with shadow and everything else looking perfect. This game also has almost as many frames of animation as Third Strike, and believe me, that’s a high compliment (3S played like a frickin’ MOVIE).
Bwahhhh love these games D:
Anyway. What’s your opinion on this matter? Could video games rightfully be considered art? Why or why not?
2 Comments
Well, technically speaking. Game design is considered somewhat art. If you count art and design in the same category. The game play itself is not considered art in my opinion, but what part of the process of “drawing” or “animating” the game itself, is different from a drawing of a movie or animation. If that is considered art, I guess in some ways, games can be too.
Well, yeah, I guess they can be considered art. Like the Gears picture up there, it has a bunch of colours blending (or something) and stuff.