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Video Games Are Art

In the April of 2010, renowned film critic Roger Ebert released a think piece on his website entitled "Video games can never be art". This multi-piece argument emphasized that due to the financial incentives behind game development, a lack of culturally significant titles, and the conventions of video games being more similar to sports than other art forms automatically discredited video games as a considerable force in the movement of artistic expression. Reception to this article from "gamers" was understandably unenthusiastic. Only a few months later did Roger Ebert apologize for his piece, conceding that it was rash and his arguments were not well organized or thought out. Saying that he was without a clear-cut definition as to what "art" is and admitting to not playing many games to give him confidence in his claims that commerce and entertainment are emphasized more than anything of artistic value. Seven years later and with plenty of thinking on my end along with many controversies in the gaming industry either it be the Gamergate movement, or for a more recent example, the push for lootboxes in big name titles, has led me to believe that it's about time this argument is brought back from the dead. I stand by the claim that video games are NOT art. Neither by the technicality of dictionary definitions nor by the more abstract notion that art can be anything in the eye of the beholder. My arguments, which I will further explore in subsequent rounds emphasize that the elements that make video games "artistic" do not belong to the gaming medium, that gamer culture itself discourages games with artistic value, many critically acclaimed games are purely for fun, and that the financial incentive in modern games undermines artistic value with commerce (but not in the way Roger Ebert argued). To anyone who accepts this debate, this first round is open to your opening statements and arguments you wish to present in subsequent rounds. As far as pure 'argue/rebuttal' goes, that will be entirely dependent on which points you wish to address, as you do not need to find a counter argument to every claim I make and the same goes for me. And finally, I want to clarify that while I completely and unironically proclaim that the video game medium is not an art form, that does not mean that I do not see all games as devoid of artistic value. I will be bringing up games that I believe fit that bill in order to support my own arguments. That, and I wouldn't actually go out of my way to tell people to stop calling video games art. Because that would make me a jerk. I also encourage that those who will eventually be voting do so by the quality of our arguments, and not by if you agree or disagree, as I understand that my position is a pushy subject. Also, please only accept this challenge if you are willing to commit to all 5 rounds. I await a challenge!