Today, I came across a comment asserting that there is no value in considering video games for their artistic value. This is not the first time I have heard this opinion. When the Museum of Modern Art added Pac Man to their design section, they received many comments to the effect that video games should not be exhibits of an art museum, because they are not art (though, MoMA will point out that they added it to their design section, not their art section). The fact, however, is that video games are art. Many video games may even be classified as more artistic than traditional art forms like painting or drawing.
To begin with, let's consider the components of games. The most obvious component of video games is graphics. Graphics in video games are digital graphic art. Nearly every video game has some level of graphic art. Even most text based games draw maps with graphics composed of text characters. The only exception is pure text games where the only feedback is descriptive language text.
The second major component to video games is sound. The oldest video games that used sound used beeps and simple music. While simple beeps may only be considered feedback, even simple music certainly qualifies as art. Not all video games have a sound component, but a vast majority of modern commercial games certainly do.
The third major component of video games is story. Not all games have stories, but most modern games, even the trivial ones, have some sort of story associated with them. On average, video game stories are not as good as those found in novels, but some games have very good stories and even bad stories qualify as art (though perhaps not very good art).
These three components of video games are the most important components. They also all qualify as art. If a collage, a specific music arrangement, or a collection of closely related stories qualify as art, then the combination of these elements of video games should also qualify as art. This is just the simple argument though, and I can imagine that some people would not consider a collage, a music arrangement, or a collection of stories to be art. Video games are much more than a mere collection of different types of art though.
Video games combine different types of art in specific and deliberate ways. In Super Mario Brothers, the game music changes depending on a number of factors. The music for outdoor levels is happy and uplifting. The music in underground levels is a bit darker with a hint of foreboding. The boss fight music is ominous and threatening. When you get a star, the music becomes optimistic and exciting for the duration of the invincibility. Video games are not just collections of different types of art. Video games are compositions of different kinds of art. In this sense, video games are just as much art in themselves as the composition of frame and picture is art (and if you have ever taken an art class using physical media, you will know that the frame is an essential part of the art it encloses).
Video games may be more qualified to be called art than any other art media. This is not just because they are compositions of different types of art either. Writing computer code is its own art form. True, it is more mathematical than traditional types of art, but it is the same type of art as any artisanal (note the root "art") craft, only more so. Crafting code is not an automatable task. It requires human decision making and creativity on at least the same level as any other form of art. It may seem more directed than other forms of art, as any given program probably has specific performance or other requirements directing its coding, but this is not any different than the limitations imposed when a painter is contracted to paint a specific image for a client. In short, even a video game that manages to avoid any other kind of art is inherently artistic because the code itself is a form of art.
Video games are not just art. Video games aspire to be the ultimate form of art. Video games attempt to appeal to nearly all
of the senses. Graphics appeal to vision. Audio appeals to hearing.
Vibrating controllers even appeal to touch. We have not yet figured out
how to generate taste or smell art using computers, but when we do,
they will be used to push video games even further into the realm of
ultimate art. On top of this composition of other arts forms, video games add another unique form of art: coding. Not only are video games art, they are the truest, most complete form of art ever created by mankind.
