Games as Art / Literature

“Several factors trouble the status of video games as an art form. They are generally a form of popular entertainment, which might not best serve what may be thought of as higher purposes of art. But an even more intractable problem lies with their status as vehicles for play, and ones that typically (or arguably by definition) involve competition. That is, no matter how artistic a game may be, the purpose of its creation is arguable located in nonaesthetic goals.”

— David Ciccoricco “Games as Art/Literature” (2014)

In this passage, we look at the wider purpose of video games, further than their basic form. Whilst they are a form of popular entertainment and leisure for many, there is a complete different side to video games. The advances of the screenplay, the narrative and the graphics is what most notice, but we must also consider these changes to the technological advances. The way a game is coded should be considered a work of art. Ciccoricco also discusses the idea of a player’s agency within a video game, how they play to produce an outcome. This all aligns in the advances that produce a video game as a work of art, and although “the game industry is still only four decades old” it should still be recognised as an art the same as others around it such as paintings and novels. Why shouldn’t video games be classed in the same literary or artistic genre as other, more definable pieces?

Players and readers alike respond to different aspects of novels and games and create their own representations and as above, agency. These representations and agencies generally relate to the narrative, and “the related notion of video games as literature, or as possessing literary qualities, is by and large predicted on the extent to which the game draws on or projects a narrative.” What is being said here is that most people believe a game to be good if there is some sort of storyline that they can play through, unlock achievements and the like. If there is none of this, or a different form of this then there is this idea that the game may not be as good as others, even if the graphics and overall aesthetic. Video games have always been positioned as being in the “broader context” of electronic literature, but there is definitely an argument for them to be in their own field. Ciccoricco also discusses the irony of that other digital forms of literature such as digital poetry and fiction also struggle to have their own field, being placed inside a bubble and never escaping, whereas video games are stuck on the outside.

Game designers clearly see themselves as artists. It is a unique form of artwork, most definitely, but there are still awards each year for best video game, best game designer, best graphics and the list going on and on. So if these awards happen each year, then does that not make video games art? They have a narrative, characters, graphics, soundtracks – all which separately would be considered literature and art.