Are Video Games Art?

                                        Video Games are Not Art         Kellee Santiago's video

Kellee Santiago state’s “video games are art”. However, I do not agree with her statement. This essay will look at my reasons why I do not believe video games can be called art.

Items that are considered art take on a different meaning to different people. Art is subjective. “What you see is what you get” with video games. They are very black and white. There is no room for subjectivity. In video games it looks the same to everyone because it does the same thing and has the same stuff there is no room for personal inflection. Video games also have a plot, or objective, that can be all consuming. They can be something you have to do, not something you want to do. Art, on the other hand, is something you can enjoy and take in your own way without having to accomplish something.

Most items that are referred to as art are stationary and can be looked at leisurely. Taking time to reflect on the art and what it means to person viewing it. Video games are constantly moving causing your attention to be diverted to something different every second. Just because video games have graphics, regardless of how advanced the graphics are it does not constitute art because the images don’t conjure up the imagination like art can. The next image you see is generated from the last thing you did.

Aristotle writes, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance”. With a video game all you see is the outward appearance. You have no time to do any inward reflection. The game is moving too fast.  This is why people don’t have emotions in video games. For instance, if someone dies in a story mode, the gamer usually doesn’t cry. That can never be called art.

Kellee Santiago is a video game designer and producer, and the co-founder and president of ThatGameCompany. So why wouldn’t she want to argue Robert Ebert’s statement about videogames never being art. Kellee just wants to change the minds of the video game non believers to get even more people into the life sucking habits, called video games.

Art can be free, video games cost money and when you pay for something you are compelled to use it or play it. Kellee may be good at making video games and convincing people that video games are art, but she is definitely not an artist in my eyes. Video games are NOT art.

Source cited- "Kellee Santiago." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 06 Dec. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellee_Santiago>.