Why video games are art - about visual aesthetics and narrative gameplay

It cannot be seen from the hand that numerous video games by creative individuals are developed with an artistic drive and effort to create aesthetic works that stimulate, reflect and think.

Video games to assimilate inspiration from the film and television industry in the early phases of their development This was only logical because video games combine all audiovisual components, whereby the gaming experience and the illusion of the player's freedom of choice are the special features.

In the pursuit of artistic independence, narrative video games that created their own stories and wanted to represent the hero's journey in their individual way were faced with the challenge to differentiate themselves from the art of filmmaking. As Brett Martin in his contribution for "Videogames and Art" ( see Clarke and Mitchell, 2007 ):

From a stylistical point of view, the cinema is the medium that comes closest to video games. Both are heavily dependent on technological developments to attract masses and are firmly anchored in the commercial world. ”

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However, he added that

Nowadays, films have more to offer than games, and as long as games do not stand out from films, they are not recognized as art. ”

These statements have made critics argue that video games can contain artistic elements, but in themselves do not represent a valid art form. Since then, almost two decades have passed and video games have partially blossomed into cinematic worlds of experience that even outperform films in visual aesthetics.

Modest beginnings as a pastime in the 1980s

In the past three decades, video games have started to fundamentally change their function and use. By 1994, games were not much more than time -consuming, competitive electronic entertainment. Of course, there were graphics, music and dialogues, but the offer was mainly based on wealthy teenagers or parents who had enough financial means to buy a play equipment.

For this reason, the medium was viewed by many as something that does not go beyond digitized games - with the argument that if we do not recognize chess or basketball as an art form, we should not classify titles like Pong or Madden football as art. The volume of this view was the renowned film critic Roger Ebert . From 2006 until his death in 2013, he publicly opposed the performance that video games were art.

In a post on his blog * with the title "Video games can never be art", he explained:

Nobody, neither within nor outside of this area, has ever been able to name a game that deserves a comparison with the great poets, filmmakers, novel authors and poets. ”

Narrative video games in the nineties

From the 1990s, most narrative video games were transformed in many ways in which the player made decisions, but still remained recognizable as films. Video games were created that not only began to hire actors for the setting of their characters, but also film these actors in dramatic cutscenes that were inserted between the gameplay sections.

Examples of this are the Command & Conquer series (1995), Wing Commander IV-The Price of Freedom (1996) Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 (1997) and Star Trek: Klingon Academy (2000), which underlined the influence of the cinema. Particularly noteworthy is "Metal Gear Solid" (1998), which offered a captivating plot with complex characters and a gripping action adventure story that was divided into three acts like a script and tried to relate the artistic strictness of mirrors .

These approaches not only aimed to introduce the player into an interactive experience that was crossed by narrative motifs, but they also transformed the story of the story into what was actually played. Nevertheless, the cinematic similarity to the critics initially did not sound. On the contrary, many argued at the time that art was borrowed from other media and therefore was not an essential part of the game.

From today's perspective, however, the principle of the narrative by gameplay fundamentally changed the perception of video games as an art form by considering the content of these games as an independent works and not as a mere accompanying products of the film. This happened through the integration of narrative elements that are closely linked to game mechanics and user interactions instead of restricting the narrative to cinematic or literary aspects.

In the 1990s, many video game stories tended to take on cinematic topics, which means that the player often only acted as a viewer of the plot before immersing them again. In Metal Gear Solid, the player experienced hours of stories as a spectator, a summary that could actually be longer than the entire season.

The developers have given up these limited perspective in favor of a more diverse perspective on the gameplay narrative, in which the player hardly ever loses control of the character. Through the progress of physics engine technologies that reproduce real physical interactions, crowd systems that simulate the behavior of people in public space, as well as artificial intelligence at NPCs , which react directly to the player's decisions, countless dynamic narrative opportunities have opened up in recent video games since the turn of the millennium. These non -defined situations are unique for every player if he/she interacts with the world designed by the developers.

In this context, we can find that the playable element itself has achieved a narrative relevance and thus an artistic value, similar to performative arts in which artists interact with their audience. And because of the interactive character of the gameplay , his artistic dimension cannot be assigned to filmmaking or another art form.

Video games - art or not? Origins of the debate

From today's perspective, the medium of video games represents a potentially postmodern art form and should be viewed with the same critical perspective as any other form of art. Even if there is no game that can be seen as an epic, this medium develops faster than all other art forms and will continue to do so, while technology progresses and cultural perception is changing - you only consider how much games have changed since its origin more than 60 years ago.

Not all games deserve the title of art or can even be attributed to high art. However, it must be noted fairly that terrible paintings and inferior books also sell.

But why are video games part of this discussion at all?

From the beginning, video game developers have hired artists for their projects, especially illustrators as concept artists and musicians. But in the 1990s there was a change when they started to no longer only use these arts as secondary components, but tried to imitate the narrative depth, the demanding visual aspects and the emotional musicalization of the film industry.

Even if there were exceptions in which games tried to create independent artistic works without reference to film art, such cases were rather rare. This necessarily led us to the question of whether video games are only games or whether they can be recognized as an independent art form.

What does a work or medium do about art?

Although it is difficult to provide a comprehensive definition of art , a Google search shows that art

The expression or the application of human creative skills and imagination, typically in visual form such as painting or sculpture, is to create future works ”, which are primarily valued because of their beauty or emotional effect.”

In addition, art includes subjects that mainly deal with the processes and products of human creativity and social life, such as languages, literature and history (in contrast to scientific or technical disciplines).

And although these are not explicitly mentioned, some bind wisdoms stay on art. This includes Andy Warhol's statement:

Art is everything you can get through ”,

Or Edgar Degas ' bon mot:

Art is not what you see, but what you can see others. ”

As well as the general view that the goal of art is to embody an idea or to cause an experience and/or reaction.

While the classification of video games in these general criteria seems obvious to many people and they would probably twitch with their shoulders and say: "That makes sense" , it is still important to recognize that not all games meet these requirements.

For example, there is a clear separation between designers and artists, which essentially distinguishes between craft and art. While all games are designed, not every design is to be regarded as art. Design can be both creative and artistic, but it remains a craft in its nature. When working in design, the basic question of customers is often: "How can we convey this basic idea as many people as possible?" or "How can we make our brand known?"

Although these are not bad questions, it should be noted that such questions are addressed to designers and not to contemporary artists. Artists create with the aim of producing art during designers to sell their concepts. Ultimately, it is the intention that distinguishes the art of design and craft.

Artists strive for expression, designer for functionality. "

2010s: Video games are part of the permanent exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

In 2012, the New York Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) to include a selection of video games in its constant collection. This included works that ranged from the classic pong (1972) to modern Minecraft (2011). This decision caused resistance from some cultural workers.

Critics like Jonathan Jones commented in an article for The Guardian * with the title "Sorry Moma, video games are not art" and argued that "the worlds created by electronic games are more like playgrounds on which the interaction between a player and a program experiences experiences." He emphasized that the player was unable to force the game a personal life vision, while the creator of the game had given this responsibility.

Since nobody “owns” , there is no artist and therefore no work of art. This consideration led him to compare the medium with traditional board games, which are highly valued, but do not enjoy the status of art. Jones emphasizes how crucial the author's individual contribution is when determining what is considered art:

Go through the Museum of Modern Art, take a look at Picasso and Jackson Pollock's masterpieces and you will see a number of personal visions. ”

A work of art represents the reaction of an individual to life. Any definition of art that ignores this inner reaction of a human creator is worthless. Art can be created by brush strokes or selected as a completed work, but it always has to be an expression of personal imagination. Another point that everyone leads is the limited freedom of choice of the supposed author.

He argues that video games should be regarded as products from an industry as the creative works of artists.

Video games are usually developed by corporate committees. There is rarely a single consciousness behind them. It is not the case that art cannot also arise from groups of people who work together ("Jamming"), but in systems with a specified committee, artistic truth or beauty is not treated priority. You can't do anything meaningful to find a timeless expression of this truth. For them, the focus is on profit, popularity and recognized conventions; You have to constantly test your games for popularity, effectiveness and benefits. "

The debate will continue in Ted Talks

The video game designer and producer Kellee Santiago tried to clarify these questions in a TED lecture that triggered various reactions ( Adrian Gimate-Welsh reported in a Game Developer article ). Under the title "An argument for Game Artistry", she set up the thesis that all art forms emerge from very fundamental early phases, similar to the prehistoric cave paintings of modern painting.

She stated that video games have been in the beginning since 2009, but nothing stands in the way of its progress in the far -reaching future to develop into full -fledged art forms. Martin has a similar argument by reminding his readers of the tedious path, having to take photography and film before they were recognized as legitimate art forms, as is the case today.

In fact, there is nothing that prevents video games from receiving the same appreciation.

The game designer Brenda Romero also hits a similar notch in a Tedxgalway talk. Games have existed as cultural assets for at least 3000 BC. BC, while video games started in 1958. In this lecture, the motives are illuminated, which is why games can be viewed as an art form and possibly the most important art form at all.

Brenda Romero is an excellent game designer, artist and Fulbright scholarship holder who entered the world of video games in 1981. In her function as a designer, she contributed significantly to numerous innovative titles, including the rows of Wizardry and Jagged Alliance as well as games from the Franchises Ghost Recon and Dungeons & Dragons .

Away from the digital world, its analogous game series entitled The Mechanic Is The Message has achieved both national and international recognition, in particular through the Games Train and Síochán Leat (The Irish Game) , which is currently exhibited in the National Museum of Play . In 2015 she was awarded the respected Ambassador's Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards. In 2014 she received a Fulbright scholarship to research the Irish game industry and the academic and political framework.

In 2013 it was chosen by Gamasutra.com one of the ten best game developers, while the magazine Developer was one of the 25 people who had a decisive influence on the industry in 2013. Romero is a co -owner of Romero Games , who is based in Galway.

The third in the group is Noah Lin , whose tedxthemasterschool Talk also inherent the ambition to expand our horizon in the interpretation of video games:

 

In his lecture, Noah Lin asked us to take widespread prejudices about video games. How can it, he asks, be that a medium, cinematography , psychology, creative writing, acting, programming, political and social comments as well as groundbreaking technical developments and captivating interactive experiences is not regarded as art?

Lin hopes that his TEDX lecture will expand our perspective by leading us through some particularly impressive games. Noah Lin is an emerging artist in the field of soundtracks and a passionate video game fan. Video games have played a central role in his life since childhood and in recent years he has played and analyzed their design, psychology and aesthetics as works of art with great enthusiasm.

He has set several posts to Game Jams , dealt intensively with game design and is excited to share his perspective in his TEDX talk.

The status quo of the debate - where are we today?

Video games represent a versatile medium. Composers create soundtracks and sound effects, artists design 2D graphics and 3D models, authors develop storylines and dialogues, while programmers put all moving elements together into a harmonious world. This form of design of video games fulfills all criteria for a total work of art.

The players or the audience experience the games, so to speak, from a personal perspective . They act and react within the game. Many of the modern games are designed so richly that they can cause goosebumps, pump adrenaline into the veins and drive tears into their eyes. There is no other medium in which the audience or the experience can empathize so much that it uses personnel pronouns to describe what they have experienced.

The players are not just passive. Nobody reads a novel or looks at a film and claims to have chased Moby Dick himself or defeated National Socialism in World War II. To immerse yourself in a pretty digital field full of virtual flowers or to be trapped in a hectic change of shooting between online players, but does not yet make a game into art. There are numerous games that will never claim to be art. In fact, most games are only developed with the aim of achieving monetary yields.

It is not the case that the pursuit of profit contradicts art; However, a creation, the primary goal of which is financial in nature, becomes a product for your business result and not a work of art. There are video games that aim to captivate the player, to mentally challenge him and to offer him new experiences. There are video games that strive for art and offer their players experiences that are in no way inferior to the works of Monet, van Gogh or Mozart.

Let us again face Roger Ebert's criticism, as the journalist Nathan Deardorff made in a contribution by the Forbes *

By arguing that video games can never be seen as high art, but only as inferior art, he reveals his own contradiction. high art or high art is a vague, formable term. Impressionism had been embodied in art since ancient times. At that time, almost everyone claimed that the impressionists were not real artists, but naive painters who created unfinished works.

But today people flock to work in large numbers such as van Gogh's "Sternennacht" . It is no longer shocking. It has developed into normal. Now it is considered high art. And those who rejected the impressionists in the further course of art history are now also part of high art. In fact, this trend that violates the current stream of art movements (which started long before the impressionists), in which postmodern and contemporary art culminated, where the works are so extreme and apparently absurd that the average citizen asks again:

How can it be art? A toddler could do that. "

The movement that art has deconstructed is still considered high art and is misunderstood by the simple citizen. Obviously, high art is not a defined entity or a benchmark for the value, the quality or rank of a certain medium or a certain movement.

The philosopher and game expert Daniel Martin Feige dealt with this question in detail. The professor of philosophy and aesthetics at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart has noticed that gaming aesthetics have long since influenced theater and film. * he commented :

I now see that forms of gaming and game logic enter the theater area and that film logic are processed in literature. ”

According to Feige, computer games represent an important cultural asset and are an independent form of art. Over fifteen years ago-with the rise of deep independent games , which also dealt with social and political questions-they received official recognition. In 2019, the “quartet of the game culture” launched Martin Gropius building The title is not chosen by chance and is reminiscent of the "literary quartet" , because the series deals with the cultural dimensions of outstanding computer games in a feudetonist way - so the Digital Game Culture Foundation shared this format.

The art historian and media scientist Prof. Dr. Stephan Schwingeler as part of his professorship for media science at the HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Art in Hildesheim:

I would never say that computer games are a general 'art'. "

Computer games are characterized by an opulent audiovisual design that develops its own aesthetics and grace. They present far -reaching stories and have the ability to remedy and combine other media and art forms. According to Schwingeler, this arouses parallels to the concept of the romantic work of art. All of these properties are part of the repertoire of digital games. However, this diversity does not automatically lead to classification as an art form.

A flat -rate categorization of computer games as works of art or the categorical rejection of your art status testify to an unconventional understanding of art. A medium, technology and a material without differentiation are often included or excluded into the art status. As a rule, necessary and sufficient conditions remain unclear from each other, while relevant contexts are not taken into account.

This differentiated view sharpens our understanding of the versatile world of computer games and encourages thinking about their cultural importance.

In art history there are computer games that are recognized as works of art. According to Schwingeler, this includes artistic modifications such as Jodis Untitled Game , Feng Mengbos Long March: Restart and Bill Violas The Night Journey . In his opinion, interactive media art like Jeffrey Shaws The Legible City

Nevertheless, not every computer game automatically becomes a work of art, despite the endeavor within the industry, to propagate this error. The works mentioned interact with the context of the so -called Artworld , which is characterized by discourses on art. This includes scientific texts and exhibition catalogs that promote understanding of computer games as a legitimate form of artistic expression, but without classifying all games as works of art.

At the end of his interview with the BPJM-aktuell, he summed up in 2018:

I think it is wrong to pursue a so -called paragone, i.e. a competition of the arts, in which one medium is presented more valuable than the other. In addition, I think it is absurd not to admit computer games as filming, depicting things or not just because they work differently in the media. ”

But what concrete arguments speak, beyond historical parallels and social recognition, to recognize video games as an art form? We briefly present the visual core disciplines.

Game Design - Art on several levels

Concept Art

The concept art for video games is about designing and developing appearance , style and visual atmosphere Artists are busy creating sketches, paintings and references for all essential elements that will occur in the game.

From characters and their outfits to props and weapons to surroundings, architecture and interiors - concept drawings for video games help to explore the basics for the captivating, authentic and unforgettable worlds.

Game concept drawings are a crucial step in the pre -production phase of video games. Whether Grand Theft Auto , Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy or Call of Duty - most games would not be available in the form as we know and appreciate them if there were no concept art for video games.

Watch this video to learn more about the function of a concept artist within a game development team. It is about determining limits, preparing the design of a concept, concretizing an idea and involving the team in this process.

In the second video, Stephan from the Indie Studio Animative Space to his 3D environmental conceptual process for the lonely island of Tri. In this video, the game developer shows you his 3D blockout process with @blender, basic lighting and rendering in @unity as well as color concept/post-processing in Photoshop.

Level Art / Level Design

An aspect that has always been present in the industry has gained artistic relevance in recent years: the level design . This design quickly developed into an architectural discipline , in which the functionality of each level is both playful and an aesthetic purpose and lets the player immerse yourself in fictional universes, while it is confronted with the challenges of the level at the same time.

It is no longer just about the simple arrangement of obstacles, but about art, level details and challenges in such a way that it merges with the context that creates worlds, similar to architecture, shaping meaningful spaces around us. Outstanding examples of this are "Alien Isolation" (2014), "God of War" (2018), Dark Souls series , "Elden Ring" , "Dishonored 2" , "Half Life 1+2" and "Titan Fall 2" , which all noticed through their complex and multi -layered level design.

The levels were provided with objects and orientation points, which prevented the players from making progress quickly, but at the same time offered numerous hiding places for fatal threats in the game.

In addition, an uncanny atmosphere was created in alien isolation, which gave the game its fearful and exciting appearance and opened a variety of ways to explore the level.

Level design has developed as a means of transmitting atmosphere and emotions to the player so detailed, thoroughly and demanding that it is now often referred to a level art In its meaning, it exceeds all other art forms, especially because of its interactive characteristics.

Visual sublimity

Ultimately, the rise of graphic possibilities and the grace of contemporary pictures actually gave us remarkable aesthetic achievements . The progressive development of hardware capacities, robust hard drives, powerful graphics cards and fourth generation RAM as well as groundbreaking innovations in software engine such as Unreal 5 enable visual experiences that are amazingly close to real life or bring up fantasies to life that still seemed unthinking a few years ago.

Similar to the film, technological progress has 3D modelers and animators to create representations of people, human-like beings and animals in a beauty and complexity that it would be almost absurd to dismiss this as inalistic. If the individual grade that every modeler and animator tries to give his characters - similar to how one would expect from a sculptor - are not recognized as artistic, what is that?

In addition, there is impressive landscape design, as in Elder Scrolls Skyrim, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt and numerous other video games according to their revolutionary open concept. Due to its interactive character, this powerful element of the world building cannot be reduced to a simple playground, just as little as one would doubt the artistry of architecture just because it is also interactive. Because how could one describe the fact that we have to enter and decide cathedrals where we go and whether we are sitting or standing, which windows or doors we open or close, if not as an interaction with the architect's art?

Video games as a important factor of the creative industries

In the last section of our investigation, we deal with the economic size and economic importance of the video game industry in Germany.

In Germany, almost 240,000 companies and freelancers make the face of the cultural and creative industries . Regardless of whether you are an imaging or performing artist, musicians, architects, writers, filmmakers or developers of video games: they all produce, sell and/or sell cultural, artistic or creative products and services.

The influence of the approximately two million employees in the cultural and creative industries on the macroeconomic performance is considerable. In 2023, this industry generated sales of 204.6 billion euros, which 2.2 percent of the total turnover of the German economy . Corona Pandemie 2019. (Source: Monitoring Report Cultural and Creative Industry in Germany 2024 .

The software and game industry represents about a third of the cultural and creative industries in our country and is therefore the largest sub-market. At the same time, the software industry is an essential part of information and communication technology, with progressive digitization difficult to demarize the demarcation between the industries. There are numerous connections, for example to the advertising industry or publishing . For example, e-book publishers fall under the software industry.

In Baden-Württemberg, for example, an above-average number of important software companies are based: from global market leaders to the German-centers of international companies to well-known medium-sized companies. In the sector of digital agencies , web portals and software advice, the industry is more shaped by medium -sized companies. The main players in the area of ​​games are developers and publishers , with many large players, in addition to many independent small game studios and start-ups.

The sub-areas of the software and game industry include:

• Publication of other software
• Web portals
• Other software development
• Publication of computer games
• Development and programming of Internet appearances

These figures illustrate the economic importance of the gaming industry, the role of which will continue to grow strongly in the future. This should also be useful for the artistic recognition of video games.