Edgebomber

By: Derek Yu

On: October 27th, 2006

Are games art?

Teeth responds: “Things become art in at least a couple of different ways. The first is the creator of the work presents it as such, and the second is a work elevated by weight of public opinion to art status. So, under the above terms, one could create a video game as an artistic installation and have people experience it, thereby rendering the answer to the question as â€˜yesâ€™. Has anyone done this? Possibly, I donâ€™t know.”

Well, Edgebomber is a video game installation where players use duct tape and scissors to create levels to run and jump around in. Does that count?

Posted in Games and Art?, Platformers, Unique / Bizarre

Teeth

There you go then. Games are art. Give me a shout if you need any more answers ^^
NO!

In your little stinky universe perhaps, but, HELLOOOO, there’s a WORLD outside your nasty room you filthy loser. Get out and see what real art is.
anonymous

yeah dumbass. Games are for playing, not staring. Why is everyone talking about games when they should be playing it. Wait, that’s what TGQ is for. You sad wankers.
mushu

So now art is defined by staring versus interacting? Someone’s never seen an interactive display at an art gallery.

NO: Insulting people for being geeks is retarded when you’re doing it on TIGSource. We’re all in the same boat.
NO!

And since when TIGSource stands for The Inepts Gathering Source? So you assume TIGSource visitors are all geeks? I don’t think so, I visit the site cause I like indy games but that doesn’t make me a geek that wants to put a shrine to a crappy game and call it art and say gaming is a life style cause that’s the only thing I’m good at.

I don’t give games more importance they deserve, that’s all, they are just one more hobby like watching TV, a crappy movie or porn. If they are more than that to you, you need to start living, there are much better things in life.
mushu

“I donâ€™t think so, I visit the site cause I like indy games but that doesnâ€™t make me a geek that wants to put a shrine to a crappy game and call it art and say gaming is a life style cause thatâ€™s the only thing Iâ€™m good at.”

I don’t think anyone’s trying to put one game on a pedestal and saying that its greater than whatever painter you love, or that gaming is a “life style” to be honored.

My point is that games could be studied and discussed, and the art of making games could advance. But we first have to recognize that its an art form for that to happen, rather than just bitching that the way games are _today_ is oriented around being commercial entertainment and assuming that every game ever made will be made under those influences.

If you’re here arguing about games being art, you’re a geek. Maybe not a games geek, but some kind of geek with nothing better to do at the moment than insult people who offend your precious beliefs. I don’t see a problem with that.

“If they are more than that to you, you need to start living, there are much better things in life.”

Your superior attitude certainly makes you easy to relate to and will also make it quite easy for people to see your viewpoint. Or maybe it makes you seem like an ass.

I’ll bite, what makes your life so much more valuable than the rest of us?
mushu

Actually, here’s an essay that makes the point I’ve been trying to get at far more effectively than I can manage:

http://www.essell.org/text/ebertongames.php
NO!

‘The art of making games’ is very different than saying that games are art. You can say ‘the art of making cakes’ but doesn’t mean cakes are art, so don’t get all confused with those terms there.

Oh yeah from wikipedia, Geek: Person who likes to discuss crap on a cheap blog. Come on, it’s weekend, I’m relaxing here and I think discussing is better than rotting my head watching TV, so there, since when that makes anyone a geek? If so, all those air headed sport fans discussing their stupid football results are geeks too? No way.

I got no superior attitude, just normal attitude. It’s just that it’s so pathetic that anyone gives games so much importance that they want to consider’em art and center their lives arround’em.

Go out with some friends, go visit some forest, have sex, play basketball, kiss a girl, go shopping, travel, etc, do something else besides playing games so you appreciate the world you live in. When you do you will think games are art no more. Games are OK, just don’t get obsessed with’em to the point you say they are art without even bringing enough arguments to justify so.
http://HTTP://GOOGLE.COM COOPERS

if you play for example “SUPER MARIO” with this prefebricated levels, characters etc., then why should be duchamp’s’readymade’ art?
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readymade
yes maybe there’s a differenc between hardware and software, but the case is the same…

how’s it about “gameart”?
“erwin wurm’s” one minute scultpures “GLUE YOUR BRAIN”
>> http://www.mca.com.au/default.asp?page_id=10&content_id=1479”
should be a food of thought…
http://HTTP://GOOGLE.COM COOPERS

i say definitly some games are art, and some are only consumer products.
you have to see games like a kind of medium, like films or as a previous version in form of a classical canvas for example, but a bit more interactive…

__>
JODI’s brilliant UNTITLED GAME (one of the first art mods ever)
>> http://www.jodi.org
>> http://www.untitled-game.org

or the one and only PONG, which is shown in an exhibitionsseries across germany and swiss PONG MYTHOS
>> http://www.pong-mythos.net

but maybe we can discuss this later on…
http://www.merseyremakes.co.uk/gibber Oddbob

I don’t know why people are so vehemently opposed to games as art, I really don’t. If its created by a craftsman and provokes a reaction, then whats the problem?

Surely anything can be considered art, thats the beauty of art?

Tracy Emin doesn’t do it for me, ruffled beds aren’t my thing unless I sleep in them – but some people consider it high art. Fair enough. No skin off my nose. You can have her, I’ll have Banksy, ta.

Personally, I consider I,Robot a masterpiece of visual flair and design genius – which is good enough for me to class it as a work of art. Same for the minimalism of Tempest. Take a static shot of Minters latest… artistic? Darn right.

Art and fun as well as art and interactivity don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

TGQ whinge tangent approaching:

Having said that I *do* have huge issues with deep critical analysis of games – but I have the same problems with art critics every step of the way.

People who can’t see beauty in design for what it is without feeling the need to take it apart and disect it and sap the soul from it, taking away the very thing that makes it brilliant by writing a 10 page dissertation on it.

Honestly, I don’t want to read that ever.

But someone saying “yeah, I like that/hate that – here’s why” from the heart… bring it on.
Dan MacDonald

Derek, you are most certainly damned.
Cycle

what
ManyNanny

You say developing games isn’t worth anything and can’t be called art.
You just have fun with it…let it entertain you.

Well you know…The person who is experiencing the art does NOT have to know that it is actually art…I go that far and say, the person playing is not able to judge whether this game is art or not.
The person playing can be doing the most stupid things ever discovered by a human being…and yet it is possible to say that this person is affected by art (the game)

Art is something made by a conscious mind, knowing of the consequences. If I was making an game that makes you feel bored, and I knew this is going to happen and I provoked it INTENTIONALLY, then it is art.
Don’t tell me that’s stupid and too easy…Art is relative. The more you are aware of the consequences and the more advanced your goal is, the more you can call your work art.

There are a lot of stupid developers, thinking that cloning Tetris is fun for others to play, but actually it is boring, because we experienced this sort of gameplay too often…thus there is no more experimenting (which is the actual fun!). The only art is the programmer being able to code a game like this, knowing which codelines lead to which result. The gameplay itself in this example is at a RELATIVE low level of art.
Also a lot of stupid and rich developers think…hey lets just sell this footballgame again with better graphics(without knowing which part of the gameplay actually led to fun) and the people will have fun playing it. …this is the same. The only art are the graphics and the promotion(simply said)

If you believe those nuts saying, all the stuff hanging in a museum is art and is the only worth thing…you should rethink your situation.
A lot of “artist” are doing just the same as those stupid rich game developers described above…”hey lets paint another image in my special style (although this is the only style I’m capable to do) and the people will be stunned by my skill and give me monnnnney”. I hate these guys which do not actually know why their painting are so “good”…they do just copy another style because it’s proven to be successful.
And then other interpret some fancy shit in it and then claim the person who made is an artist.

You do not know a shit about what the person who created it did intend…so naturally you can only guess.

Everything can be art…and you do not have to know if it actually is.
Dan MacDonald

(for bringing up this topic)
http://[email protected] BMcC

I’m with you, D-Mac. (Can I call you D-Mac?)
http://ithamore.blogspot.com/ ithamore

Games are art, but they’re too postmodern for some people to accept or comprehend as such.
mushu

D-Mac is art.
Teeth

Why are we still talking about this? I answered all your questions in my first post. Let’s move on, people
negative zero

Oddbob:
wow, that’s deep bro.

NO!:
you suck.

Teeth:
with you on that one.
http://null/ NO!

negative zero: no, you suck.

Let me explain why.

I kiss a girl every five seconds.
Every. Five. Fucking. Seconds.
Do you understand how much life I have? I pwn you all at life.

What’s that? “Pwn” is a geeky gamer term to use? I’m just using it to show you all how geeky you are. Unless you agree with me. Then you’re totally cool, and you obviously kiss girls at least half as often as me.

What’s that? You kiss guys? That’s shit. Gay people don’t have the right. Everyone should be married to someone of the opposite gender and painting and reading novels. If you say otherwise, I’ll poop my pants at you.
http://null/ The Real NO!

Now some asshole’s trying to impersonate me.

How lame are you people going to get?
Teeth

NO! is all right, especially when he’s YES!.

Not saying that I agree with what you’re saying there though NO! :)
http://[email protected] BMcC

*Every* five seconds? Really?

I mean, that’s impressive, but like, what about when you’re on the toilet or eating a beef sandwich or something? What if you have to dial 911?

“I’m at Lombard ::smooch:: street. I need ::smooch:: help quick! There’s a ::smooch:: fire in the ::smooch smooch:: uh, hold on ::smooch smooch smooch::”
http://null/ NO!

Beef Sandwiches can be female too.

Don’t even start on the toilet…
http://null/ Cycle

“Donâ€™t even start on the toiletâ€¦”

Too late. ;)
The Real NO!

(Poops pants)
COOPERS

EDGEBOMBER IS GAMEART!
negative zero

NO!:
Nah, i’m pretty sure you still suck :)