10 Video Games That Are Definitely Art

No room for Dead Or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, sadly.

Besides €œA/S/L?€ and €œis it safe to put this up my butt?€, the one question that everyone on the internet is sick of hearing at this point is €œare video games art?€ Does anybody care? Isn't the definition of art slippery, malleable, and open to interpretation? What makes a video game art? Because the people who made it say it is? Because critics say it is? Because barely anyone has played it? Because it's colourful? Because it makes you cry? Veteran film critic Roger Ebert is brought up most often in these arguments, having made clear his point of view was that video games are not and probably never will be art. Angry gamers took a Supreme Court ruling which considered them as such to be sacrosanct, and proof that Ebert was €œwrong€. An exhibition that included the likes of Pac-Man and Pong at the Museum Of Modern Art in New York further cemented their frame of mind. To a degree, the definition of art is totally open to interpretation. That said, there's a definite dividing line between games that are produced solely as a form of commerce €“ your average triple-A title, say €“ which aim to make no big artistic choices, or grand statements, or reflect the world at all. Then there are the ones that do. It's like the difference between a greetings card and a painting. Sure, they may use similar materials and come in similar forms, but the intentions are different. That said, sometimes those big games stumble into being something €œmore€, entirely by accident. From the indie to the mainstream, the profound to the ridiculous, the post-modern to the realist, here are ten video games that are definitely art.
In this post: 
Call of Duty
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/