Do Video Games Belong In The Same Artistic Circles As Fine Art, Theatre, Sculpture, Music?
Video Games as a Form of Art
The question of whether video games qualify as artistic products is a controversial debate. By definition, art is anything created to display beauty and elicit emotional responses. The traditional forms of art, like music and paintings, appropriately fit this definition. Music, for instance, can evoke strong emotions that include happiness, euphoria, and even sadness. Sculptures or paintings usually reflect beauty, although they have an immense emotional value. Additionally, all forms of art depict a high level of human creativity and design.
Arguably, video games can elicit emotional responses akin to what music or paintings do. A video game where a character fights for their life or where a hero saves a baby from a monster will very likely provoke an emotional reaction. Besides, video games have accompanying music and actions that help to complement the euphoria created by playing them. These characteristics of video games qualify them as art. Video games production requires sophisticated designs by programmers. The design of characters and scenes demonstrates an artistic purpose where a developer must strive to produce the best results possible.
Due to the artistic nature of video games, people have developed a great interest that rivals the love of music or movies. Admittedly, a section of the population would prefer playing a video game to attending an opera performance. This implies that our artistic cultural collective has gained a new feature. The video game culture has indeed diversified the interests of people in art. People now gather to play video games just like how they meet for a movie. Like other forms of art, video games is a thriving business that spans production to distribution. Therefore, video games qualify as a form of art with a tremendous impact on the community.
