Interview BioInterview: Games Are Not Art

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: BioWare

<p>.. saying that is <strong>so </strong>"last century" <a href="http://www.xbox360achievements.org/news/news-6202-BioWare--The-Games-Are-Not-Art-Comments-Are-%E2%80%9CSo-Last-Century%E2%80%9D.html" target="_blank">confirm the BioDocs</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;That comment is so last century,&rdquo; chimed in Muzyka, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s just the reality now. We&rsquo;re in a different&nbsp; century where that kind of &ndash; to say that games are not an art form, that interactive entertainment isn&rsquo;t relevant when there are millions and millions and millions of fans, and more every year, playing them. You know, this generation are definitely into the content. It&rsquo;s so diverse.&rdquo;</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>&ldquo;They have an emotional impact,&rdquo; said Zeschuk adamantly, &ldquo;It depends what you use as the definition, right? For us largely, it&rsquo;s things like, things that can have an emotional impact, lasting, on the person. I think that part of the problem with the debate has largely been not understanding the art form or the form of video games themselves... So, is Pac Man art? Sort of, I mean, in a way, in its simplicity it was, but you know, what we&rsquo;re doing today is completely different. Is a hack n&rsquo; slash fighting game art? Ehhhhh, that&rsquo;s marginal. You know, it&rsquo;s the same way as movies... lots of movies aren&rsquo;t art and some are. It&rsquo;s like anything else. &ldquo;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It's official, games are art.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/99522-bioware-interview.html">GB</a></p>

 

[Clockwork Knight]

[cue 20 pages]

The ones who say it isn't art are usually the ones who can't get their head out of their own ass and go

-DUUUUR INTERACTIVE SO NOT ART (because art = paintings and sculptures only, amirite)
-DUUUUR DOESNT FIT MY SPECIFIC DEFINITION OF ART (that for some reason all of you uncultured fucks disagree with)
-DUUUUR ART IS SUPPOSED TO MAKE YOU FEEL X (hello, college art degree)

And the discussion is useless anyway, since people can't even agree on a definition for "art". Like the Codex arguing about which games are good RPGs then not being able to agree on what "RPG" means.

 

[Ferdosi's apprentice]

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging symbolic elements in a way that influences and affects the senses, emotions, and/or intellect.
If we take that as the definition of art ( it's in wikipedia ) , then Video games are art because they effect senses, intellect and sometimes emotions in the best way possible.

 

[Fat Dragon]

Why do so many people even give a fuck if games are seen as art or not? What will it do for gaming if they're accepted as being art other than further inflate the already oversized egos of all these retarded Hollywood-celebrity-wannabe developers?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I just don't like the undeserved smugness of the "artistic" people and their bullshit arguments.

 

[Jaedar]

Why do so many people even give a fuck if games are seen as art or not? What will it do for gaming if they're accepted as being art other than further inflate the already oversized egos of all these retarded Hollywood-celebrity-wannabe developers?

At least where I live, games being accepted as art would mean that instead of you paying 25% extra as tax to the government, you'd pay 9%.

That's a pretty decent cost reduction.

 

[Silellak]

Misleading headline is misleading. I like to be able to bitch about an article without having to read it or even its Codexified summary.

 

[Achilles]

For us largely, it’s things like, things that can have an emotional impact, lasting, on the person.

Rape also has a lasting emotional impact on the person. So what is his point, that playing modern games is like getiing r.... oh wait. I see it now.

 

[Archibald]

So, is Pac Man art? Sort of, I mean, in a way, in its simplicity it was, but you know, what we’re doing today is completely different.

Pac man is better game than any shit you have released in last 5-10 years.

 

[FeelTheRads]

what we’re doing today is completely different.

Indeed, completely different as in Pacman had gameplay while Bioware's games have none.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging symbolic elements in a way that influences and affects the senses, emotions, and/or intellect.
If we take that as the definition of art ( it's in wikipedia ) , then Video games are art because they effect senses, intellect and sometimes emotions in the best way possible.

Well that is a pretty shit definition since it covers practically every creative expression, including childrens drawings.

Now you can define art any way you like, but when people say "games are not art" they think of the higher forms of art like really good paintings or good literature, not the baser ones, like BioWare games or pulp novels.

So really, the only way of making games into art is making the term so broad as to be meaningless.

 

[Volourn]

"Pac man is better game than any shit you have released in last 5-10 years."

No.



"Indeed, completely different as in Pacman had gameplay while Bioware's games have none."

No.

 

[Zeros]

Oblivion ought to be pretty artistic since it provoked powerful emotions like indifference and me wanting to throw up after fiddling with its gameplay design.

 

[Ruprekt]

When I hear the word art I reach for my Minigun +3

 

[Angthoron]

A developer or a producer will want the society to view their product as a product for sale - a commodity, a "content" if you will, after all, they have tried to set audience's mentality in such a way for an entire decade.

Why? Well, simply because art is meant to be provocative, to a degree intelligent, and, depending on your definition period of art, it's meant to carry a certain responsibility before the society.

Which of these features, then, would the good salesmen want to associate with? Their purpose is to sell. To sell, and to re-sell, and to re-package and sell the same recycled, regurgitated "content". Yes indeed, their produce is not art - their produce is just your run-of-the-mill pop. Can we really blame them? Nope, it's their purpose, and they proudly state it.


Besides, according to modernism and post-modernism, art is where you find it, so I will kindly ask the good doctors to sod off. I don't need their opinion on what is art and what isn't.

Heh, might be one of the very few sentiments of post-modernism that I agree with.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I hope he wasn't thinking of any Bioware games when he was saying that video games are art now.

 

[Carceri]

Video games are art because they effect senses, intellect and sometimes emotions in the best way possible.

 

[reaven]

Well anything can be art, even a wall painted with human feces, that doesn't make it better. The main purpose of a game is to entertain, if a game is more artistic or less doesn't make it better or worse as a game.

 

[Volourn]

Games aren't art. Neither are movies, tv shows, books, and so on. Only art is art. I sure wans't taught about films, books, or games in art class. FFS

 

[Elzair]

Before we take this discussion any further, everyone should read this.

 

[hoochimama]

 

[Gylfi.Fenriz.Conquests]

i can't believe this madness.

Art is anything made by a living being in a creative way.

 

[catfood]

But is it genius?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

More importantly, is it an RPG?

 

[poocolator]

And does it pay the bills?