Are video games art or not? (Note: Your personal definition, I understand topics such as these are subjective to perception. No need to point it out)

This seems like an obvious /thread, but to throw in some arguments against video games being art: Video games have come a long way, they're amazing, I love them, etc etc. But playing through a video game shifts the focus away from the artistic aspects of the game and makes you focus on the gameplay. While a lot of people may claim dictionary video games run by the dictionary definition of art, who says it has a universal definition? If you ask me, the dictionary definition has serious problems in the context of this discussion:

art/ärt/
Noun:
1. The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture,...: "the art of the Renaissance"
2. Works produced by such skill and imagination.

a) "Typically in a visual form"? Why the visual arts bias?

b) "Works produced by such [creative] skill and imagination"? Again, who in their right mind would call plenty of porn movies art just because they took a certain kind of creative skill and imagination? No one really thinks about art with this definition in mind - most people I talk to associate art less with the creative skill put into it and more the transcendent experience they get from it. This definition is not universally accepted; moreover, it's incredibly vague and liberal, which is actually appropriate and to be expected with a lot of dictionary definitions because they have to decontextualise words to give them a definition. In the real world, however, people don't evaluate artistic merit by dictionary definitions.

Reading books about linguistics does help one understand the relationship between words and the meaning we derive from them. It's not as simply as "Well, just look in the dictionary." Remember, dictionary definitions aren't really decided by society, anyway. They're decided by whoever wrote the dictionary, and they're not necessarily right, nor should we be expected to always agree on what meaning we individually derive from words.

Now my personal thoughts: As an avid video game fan, I think most games don't have storylines that match up with books/movies/etc. in quality. That's not to say I'm generalizing or assigning this to all games, but most seem to have more focus on the act of interaction than on developing a genuine story line simply because a game is about going through the interaction.

However, I think video games are art because I personally see video games as an evolution of art, a new way to experience it, a new story-telling medium, much as movies were once new, made all the more engaging due to their interactive nature and the wide variety of gameplay they offer, as a movie is made more engaging by its visual and audio elements and its limited length, as a book is made engaging due to their only limits being the imagination of the writer, the reader, and the language being used.

Alright let me post my opinion. Technically they are protected as an art under US law. On the other hand I find few games that fit the description of being both a game AND art. There's a lot of experimental stuff that's not quite a game. Really it goes by what you call art.

I think video games as a whole constitute art, as an artistic medium, and I believe it can be art.

I call art something that makes you think. Or something that has meaning. often art is made in the intention of being art. Sometimes not, but it's a good measure.

Now on story I have my best example God of War. It's a modern Greek Tragedy, just reading the plot tells you that. I think it's art because of how it combines the story and gameplay with meaning. It plays on our past and basic ideas to make something that furthered the medium(Though was ignored).

Bioshock is the big GAMES HAVE STORIES AND ARE ART game. I disagree. It's got a nice enough story and an Ayn Rand after twist(It's not coming directly from her ideas people) but it's the design that works. The world tells a story and everything in it is designed to have meaning. Motifs pop up commonly and the world tells you more of a story than the main plot. Still it's not art to me as it's not interwoven well. It's not centered around an idea so much as a design fitted upon a story upon an idea. And though it advances the medium in storytelling it doesn't itself work as art.

Visually Okami looks like art, but it plays like a game. Does this make it a game that is art? Not to me. It makes it a beautiful looking game, but doesn't mean it has meaning.

On the other hand games like the cat and the coupe use game mechanics but has no goals or structure. I don't think it is a game so much as an interactive experience.

One of the few games I find art is Braid. I know it's overused but stick with me. It's works as both a game and art. It's designed to have meaning and make you think, and it's sad ambiguous storyline helps even if not everyone likes it. The design of the levels challenges you as a game and weaves it's way into a philisophical storyline. The last level combines it perfectly putting the meaning in the gameplay and making you question everything you thought. Even if it was just stick men and bad drawings with spoken music it would be art and a game. Why? because it has both meaning AND game mechanics. olden games before video games could be called art as well. Go and Backgammon. Simpler meanings but still work.

In the end there are few examples. I think the medium is art, and there like movies, books, and music there will be smart ones and stupid ones. Gears of War action, and Dear Esther Thoughts(Not a game in my opinion either). I don't think devs have grasped quite how to weave art into gameplay but I'm interested to see the future. I believe in it.

I love games and looking at even the NEW ideas now I can tell these are basic ideas. Choice in spec ops? Existence in Bioshock? We are just beginning, graphics have become adequate(I expect the Avatar of Video games to come one day) but the ideas have only begun to flourish. Storytelling has become critical in games lately. And we see things in a different light. I hope things don't go the Uncharted/Modern warfare way or really any way. Games need to branch out more. Anyway those are my thoughts on the matter.

Nah, Gen-serious is where these threads belong.

I believe video games are a form of art; as they're built to entertain.

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Also never was going to point that out that it was opinion. You're smart enough to know that.