Friend of BSR and local game enthusiast Landon Poague wrote this interesting take on gaming as an art form, which I feel strongly about. It is an art form, and should be appreciated as such. We would love to hear your opinions on the matter as well.
Landon writes:
Now that I have a second to put down the controller and take a look back at the last couple of months, I have to say, this has been a great year for games. The best part of that is the fact that we are only 1/3 of the way through the year! We have had a stellar set of games come out, games like Mass Effect 2, Heavy Rain, God of War III, Splinter Cell Conviction, Super Street Fighter 4, Bioshock 2, and the list continues! Games which continue to push gaming as an entertainment medium; Graphics that dazzle, tighter more responsive game play mechanics, and stories that are taking us to moral choices none of us thought that we would ever get the chance to experience. This year will really show how what games are capable of.
Yet even during such a great start to the year, debate continues to follow! One that I will never understand is over whether games should be considered “art” or not. Film critic Roger Ebert has reared his head once again to claim that video games, by their very nature can never be considered art, and are inherently inferior to other mediums that can be considered art, like film. My two cents on the entire subject are that I don’t think that other mediums can hold a candle to games. Games offer a more complex and satisfying experiences in my opinion, and as such will continue to grow and surpass books and movies in the ways that they emotionally engage us! Just look at how movies continue to pilfer some of gaming’s greatest ideas to make horrible movies! What do you think? Should the film industry be afraid of games? Or do you think that games are inherently inferior to movies and should just stick to being a million dollar business?