Can Videogames be considered as art?

[ZealKnight]

Can Videogames really be considered as art? I have stuff to say but I'll wait a while to see what goes down.

[Zephira]

Seeing as how I go to college for video game design, and nearly every class I take involves drawing, painting, photoshopping, texturing, and modeling (otherwise known as "art"), I have to go with the "YES!!" option. This is only counting the conceptual side, too. There's still the music, UI, box/CD/cartridge art, promotional posters, text, writing, and voicing to take into consideration! Probably a lot more that I'm forgetting, too.
But seriously, next time you doubt video games as art, pull out Starcraft's manual. The worlds and histories in that game are more developed than most novels, and there's pictures to boot!
Art generally has to be able to evoke some form of emotional or philosophical response in the viewer, too. If you doubt the emotional and philosophical implications of video games, just look at this website.

EDIT: To clear up any further doubt, I present ZEAL from Pixiv.

[Truthordeal]

Yyyyyyyyyyyyy-nnnnnnnnnnn-mmmmmmmm, yes. I will go out on a limb here and say yes.

Video games are more or less an interactive version of an amalgamation of several different artforms: visual(graphics, sprites), written(storyline, character design), auditory(music, sound effects) and direction(bringing it all together).

[Zephira]

For further evidence:
http://www.starcraft2.com/artwork.xml
http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/media/artwork.xml
http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/13795/Halo-3-Art/
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/media/artwork.html
http://xbox.about.com/od/screenshot1/ig/Gears-of-War-Screens-Gallery/
http://www.neoseeker.com/Games/Products/GC/zelda_twilight_princess/concept_art.html
http://zs.ffshrine.org/ocarina-of-time/official-art.php
http://zeldapower.com/index.php/downloads/music_&_soundtracks/super_smash_bros._brawl_soundtrack.php (312 full music tracks... how is that not a work of art?)
http://www.ffcompendium.com/h/art.shtml

By the art alone, Starcraft II is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Just thinking about it and the story involved brings a tear to my eye. Can mere books or pictures alone do that?

[tushantin]

HELL YEAH! Don't tell me I've been wasting my time on nonsense! XD

Dude, concept arts, story plotting, ideas, detailed backgrounds, etc. If all those creative acts aren't art then I don't know WHAT is!

Okay now I'm gonna make an RPG on Mona Lisa.

[Radical_Dreamer]

Of course.

[Thought]

I will go further and say that video games may be considered literature.

If one points out the art-as-in-pictures achievements of videogames, few will deny that Oblivion, Assassin's Creed, Bayonetta, etc are visually beautiful and require skill to produce. But like comic books, that art is not particularly seen as significant because it is a vehicle for something that is often considered to be vulgar.

Video games, however, can be valuable works of literary significance. Sure, a lot are light on words, but "pictography" is still a valid means of conveying stories. We don't necessarily gather around a campfire glow and listen to tales of Darmok and Jilad at Tenagra, but why should gathering around a TV's glow and playing tales of Link and Midna at Hyrule be any different?

[Prince Janus]

 Let me just say, I very recently started playing FF6. I wasn't too sure about this subject before, but now I'm quite certain they can be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NC45S948ss&feature=related   

[kingpingu30]

Yes, of course they can!!! I've always believed them to be, as they combine many different artforms(as I know has already been mentioned). So, yes. For any more proof, CT. That is all.

[Lord J Esq]

By using the word "can" in your question, the answer becomes an incontrovertible "Yes." Video games provide not only games and/or entertainment; they also provide a medium for art. Because the answer to the question of "Is it art?" is chiefly a matter of opinion and will be settled differently from person to person, it is inevitable that some people will sometimes see artistic value in some video games. Of course, that's the easy way of looking at it. There are also the elements and principles of art, which provide a more quantifiable framework for establishing the artistic structure of a work objectively. In this sense, too, the answer is "Yes." Even if a reactionary conservative were unwilling to consider video games themselves as an independent artistic medium (which would be a preposterous position given the uniqueness of video games), we would still be able to identify artistic value in the various pieces of video games, such as the music, drama, and visuals.

If you had phrased your question in a more confrontational sense, perhaps: "Are video games art?" then the answer would have been more ambiguous: "Sometimes." But, regardless of how the question is posed, anyone who would disagree that video games are ever art is just being foolish.

[V_Translanka]

Anything can be art. The real discussion comes from what is or is not GOOD art. Video games are obviously art as they take like dozens of artists to even make...>_>

[Sajainta]

By the art alone, Starcraft II is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Just thinking about it and the story involved brings a tear to my eye. Can mere books or pictures alone do that?

They certainly can.  I've cried over many books and even some pieces of art.

[Lord J Esq]

Anything can be art. The real discussion comes from what is or is not GOOD art. Video games are obviously art as they take like dozens of artists to even make...>_>

I would add the proviso that art must be created, and--although I'm not sure about this part yet--with at least some deliberate intent. So, in other words, nature and unintentional works would be out.

[ZealKnight]

Ok, I dont mean could they eventually. I mean can you consider modern videogames as art.

Anything can be art. The real discussion comes from what is or is not GOOD art. Video games are obviously art as they take like dozens of artists to even make...>_>

I guess I thought it was understood that I meant that V. I mean could videogames ever be considered such art that we may one day start to learn about them in classes. Similarly to movies and literature.

[Thought]

Movies are still often pooh-poohed as art. But then, novels were once quite low brow and they were though to rot the brain and corrupt the youth.

Josh, just to be sure, you are not including gardens and other intentional landscaping efforts as part of "nature," correct?