News French Minister wants games classified as art

[Garside]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/11...sified_as_art/

[DougEdey]

At least the guy has a sense of humour.

[antiHero]

True, but non the less a nice thing.
btw link is broken

[_DTM2000_]

Wow, what a great guy. It makes a nice change to see some possitive views on games.

[g3n3tiX]

[French comentary in English language]
While he MAY be a good guy for this (and i am impressed to learn this, from an English site),
he also proposed the new DADVSI laws which prohibit a lot of things (think DMCA), so open source programs like VLC link (might be outlawed...)

'Bout Game On : What ? No CS or any FPS whatsoever ? w00t ?

[mikeuk2004]

Come to think of it, why hasnt anybody tried toestablish video games as art. There is alot of work putingto games and alot of artwork etc. Films are pieces of art so why not games. Games are along the lines of a film to me. You have scripts, artists, actors, directors etc. Its not just code.

[ChromeX]

Originally Posted by mikeuk2004

Its not just code.

Damn right its not! Just how a painting isnt just colours. And like you say, games are on the same lines as a film, which I agree on, so surely if we made games an artform then wouldnt be have to place films in there to?

[Preti9cboi]

Yeah this does make sense. There are actual artist that actually draw out characters and such. Well, are comic books considered art??

[Breach]

If you really look at games, they are a complex system of mathematical precision, which is masked by what starts as concept art and is eventually turned into a precise 3d model with textures and colors, like a 3d painting.

How is a game not art compared to things that are called art? Carving a statue out of stone or a virtual environment still takes detication and creativity.

[supermonkey]

Originally Posted by Breach

How is a game not art compared to things that are called art? Carving a statue out of stone or a virtual environment still takes detication and creativity.

Let's look at that. Taking a large piece of marble and removing pieces to create a model of a man carrying a sling is considered art. After all, as you said, it takes dedication and creativity.

In that same line, taking a seemingly random string of letters and numbers and combining them such they create a model of a man carrying a BFG could be comparable because, again as you said, it takes dedication and creativity. After all, producing a game takes a lot of creativity and dedication, from the earliest design phases to actually implementing the code so that everything renders properly on screen. Id didn't create Quake by accident.

Still, I don't think the video game itself is necessarily art just because someone worked on it for a while. Rather, like so many things in life, I think the video game is the culmination of a combination of disciplines. It combines elements from art (such as modelling, texturing, cinematics) and engineering (computer code, etc.). Would it still be art if you stripped the pretty graphics? Is a poem or orchestral movement art if it doesn't come with pictures?

Or, as Frank Zappa said, "Art is making something out of nothing and selling it."

-monkey

[specofdust]

Games aren't art, and shouldn't be classified as so. I'd say the demoscene maybe in it's own geeky way almost approaches art, but certainly video games proper are no where near art in my mind.

[Tyinsar]

visual elements = art

sound (including but not limited to background music) = art

storyline (some have almost none but most RPGs have a novel's worth) = art

cut scenes = art

There is even an "art" to creating the interface.

But at the same time; is a board game, or even a card game, "art" simply becuase the pieces contain artwork?

I'm leaning towards a "yes but...?"

[Cthippo]

I think a better parallel would be industrial design as art, which is widely considered to be a valid link.

[wafflesomd]

Originally Posted by mikeuk2004

Come to think of it, why hasnt anybody tried toestablish video games as art.

Becuase GTA games keep coming out.

[Tyinsar]

Is a movie based on a video game art? (technically yes but I've yet to see a good one)

Originally Posted by wafflesomd

Becuase GTA games keep coming out.

(Thankfully no movie of that yet)

Although the situation is really no worse than all the sequels Hollywood keeps dumping on us. Nor is Hollywood any more creative about movies (one studio makes a movie about virus outbreaks so the other does too, one studio makes a movie about asteroids ..., one takes on a poplar comic book character(s) ...