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Video games are a serious art form.

Good evening my dear fellow DDO members, welcome. The instigator has proposed the following idea: that video games can not be an art form, or a medium to express an artistic idea. I however, being both, unofficially, an artist and a game developer and thus have insight into both fields, state the opposite: that games can and are a medium for art. Since I am holding the affirmative idea it is but fair that I hold most of the BoP, so let's begin. What is art? This is a question that is as debatable as it is vague and might as well be a debate series all on its own. However, there is a plethora of ways that may help us decipher what art is. My opponent defined art, indirectly, as followed: --Art must be a reaction to life and or events. --Art must be able to influence other art. Albeit this is a good starting point for art I find it to be highly inaccurate and downright narrow minded. In addition it completely ignores a wide array of games that fit into either or both categories. Before I start my rebuttal and then present my own case I'd like to take the dictionary definition of art: Art[noun] The expression of emotions, creativity, imaginations and thoughts; Often to make appealing or atheistically stimulating products. And: ART 1[MASS NOUN] The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power Works produced by human creative skill and imagination This is taken directly from another debate I had on the subject on art where I also discussed in somewhat optimal ways what art is. [1,2 ] this isn't a complete definition, but it is a definition that can be applied to a lot, if not all, “proper” artwork and thus we can apply it to the examples I'll choose and see if it fits. Let's get to it. Videoart as my opponent defines it. In order to fully rebut the definition my opponent gave on art I only need to find games that fit into his two categories. Simple enough. In the first example he defined art as something that portrays a reaction to human life, human emotion and human society. Albeit this is debatable I'll still go with it for the next example. Heavy Rain [2010] was for instance a prime example of human emotion and how people react to emotional trauma. The plot line starts off immediately with the protagonist attempting to save his child from a car accident: something that leaves a large emotional scar. His life starts to spiral downwards from there, and when finally the interactive plot line itself begins we find that his only son has been kidnapped by a serial killer. The entire game from that point is entirely based on what a father would do to save his son, a deep love portrayal. Many, if not all, scenes in the game are filled with emotion and sorrow and we often sympathize with him, and often feel sad and bitter. dealing with emotions such as grief, sorrow, remorse, suicide, terror, panic, love, murder and pure insanity in a masterful and lifelike way. That kind of emotional power and influence is something a true art medium can have, stringing us along like a good film would. Even when we go into the simpler things: 2001, a space oddysy. Is not the only medium dealing with the dangers of corrupt AI and advancing tech or society. System shock[1994] and portal[2007] both put the player on a fight against an AI, and better yet the former is set upon a space ship. In addition to those two obvious samples there are a whole plethora of games that deal with humanity, human society and human emotion. A quick google search will reveal a whole lot of them. The second definition involves a game being able to influence some other art medium. I could take a game and analyze it, but instead I think it would be best just to mention Resident Evil[1996], Silent hill[1999] and then every single item on this list: http://en.wikipedia.org... along with all the fan made artwork that can be found on google with a little search. I left a few examples[3,4,5]. Now, that alone should be a case for the artistic value of games, but let's move on a bit. What makes a game into art? This is a question we might go a bit into further into the debate: but to start we can simply go into the definition: “The expression of emotions, creativity, imaginations and thoughts; Often to make appealing or atheistically stimulating products.” Now, I've already shown a game that is a reflection of emotion and frankly there are a lot of games that also fit that column. Don't be fooled, it takes a lot of creativity to make a good game and especially an artistic game and a lot of skill is involved. For instance: http://i.imgur.com... This is an untextured scene from my current project. Now, I admit, the lighting is incorrect and the textures are not present, but just the bare modelling took me an hour or two. I am not the best 3D artist in the world, but then you consider that just the modelling is hard work, and when you go into high poly models you're going into soom serious skill. And then you move away from modelling and think: What about all the other things that games are made up from? I can show you that there is next to every other art present in some form in video games. We have atheistically brilliant looking games. Try making that yourself and then try and tell me that this is not art. Note that this is not painted and this is not a static, pre-rendered images. These are all, to my best knowledge, dynamic screen shots taken in-game. [witcher III, witcher II, project eternity.) And even when you take all the fancy imagery that took hours and hours, weeks and weeks, to model, texture, shade and program, we still have the audio. The art of music. A composer can tell you that soundtracks do not write themselves, and they are art just like the visuals on the screen. Just listen to some of these [6] and tell me that they are not art in some form. I had a hard time picking some to showcase here directly and still wonder if I'm listening to a 5 star classical orchestra piece, a Greek temple chant, or a soundtrack from digital entertainment. ; we have sculpturing, architecture, CGI, a whole load of voice acting, motion acting, story tellers, painters and sound designers alike and an entire team of artists ready to entertain you. To conclude Video games are the ultimate form of art. It is interactive art where the artwork lures you in and welcomes you to discover the world behind the controller. They are a mix and mash and show the co-operation of next to all other artistic medium available to the common man. They offer art right to your doorstep and to your screen. Video games are art on the highest level, they fit every single definition of art and they roll around millions just by trying to impress you and connect with you. To entertain you, move you, transport you from your life and into the life of the characters that inhabit them. Video games are not art, video games are the art. 1]https://www.debate.org... 2]http://www.debate.org... 3]http://th05.deviantart.net... 4]http://designyoutrust.com... 5]http://www.blogcdn.com... 6]http://www.forbes.com...