The following article is an unabridged version published in John Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth Imagine magazine (vol. 10 #5).

Feature By

Chi Kong Lui

Log onto any well frequented videogame-related message board on the Internet, and start a thread with the subject "are videogames art?" Within a matter of minutes, I guarantee you will be deluged with all kind of responses that range from manifesto-like essays to name-calling flames. Many people claim that videogames are just for fun, while others might say that games desensitize their players and encourage them to

Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2, 1912 by Marcel Duchamp

commit violent acts. Some debate that videogames are nothing but products filled with sexist imagery targeted exclusively at boys. Then there are those who might bring up the immense Hollywood-like undertaking that requires hundreds of writers, artists, and programmers to produce a best-selling videogame in today's market. videogames are nothing but products filled with sexist imagery targeted exclusively at boys. Then there are those who might bring up the immense Hollywood-like undertaking that requires hundreds of writers, artists, and programmers to produce a best-selling videogame in today's market.

The debate of whether or not games are an art form is a lively one, but it's not unique. The same debate has raged from the early to late 20th century with the Ready-made art objects of Marcel Duchamp to the controversial photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe. The debate stems in part from the difficulty of defining art; people hold passionate opinions and subscribe to a wide range of theories. These opinions and theories are often challenged when a new medium or technique appears, and people reevaluate their personal and preexisting definitions of art.

I won't attempt in this article to define art for you. Instead, I'd like to discuss videogames in the context of this debate by juxtaposing contemporary videogames with some traditional masterpieces and illustrate how the evolution of videogames as a creative medium mirrors the growth and maturation of motion pictures. The answer to the question is left for you to decide.

Art vs. Videogames... Round 1... Fight!

Self-expression is probably the most universally accepted characteristic of the fine arts. When Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec vibrantly depicted the seedier underground nightlife of music halls, cabarets, brothels (or more specifically the infamous Moulin Rouge) in Montmartre, Paris in the 1890s, he was giving his audience a voyeuristic glimpse of places where he "hung out." In doing so, he was letting people know how he viewed his own social status and the types of people he associated with.

The public and videogame creators themselves (more commonly referred to as developers) haven't fully embraced the idea that people making videogames should be considered artists, but that hasn't stopped several well-known developers from expressing themselves through their videogames. Shigeru Miyamoto—the Walt Disney of videogames responsible for classics such as Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros.—shas often said that his ideas for games are derived from his most memorable childhood experiences growing up around the rural countryside near Kyoto. Games like The Legend Of Zelda are a reflection of his youthful adventures hiking and exploring the rice fields, river banks, and hills without a map. Miyamoto wanted gamers to feel the same thrill and wonderthat he had experienced when he discovered a pond in the fields or explored a dark cave. The childlike innocence of Miyamoto's games is worlds apart from Toulouse-Lautrec's sexual iconography, but both developer and painter are wonderfully effective and descriptive in communicating how their environments influenced their personalities and perception of the world.

Guernica, 1937 by Pablo Picasso

Art also has the potential and ability to change the way we look at the world. Pablo Picasso's mural Guernica was a commemoration of an atrocity that occurred during the Spanish Civil War. In 1937, Nazi Germany blanket- bombed the small civilian village of Guernica in Northern Spain for over three hours to simply test its new military air power. By depicting and dramatizing the tragic and grotesque deaths that befell the village, Picasso challenged viewers ideals by deromanticizing the so-called heroism of battle and made one of the most celebrated anti-war/anti-fascist statements in art history. Rather than glorify warfare, Guernica sensitized viewers to its criminal dangers and destruction to mankind.