Yes this long dreaded debate is back I'm afraid. Basically I've been wondering about this for a while because I'm generally not a video game fan, but it seems like everyone else and their mother is super interested in this medium so it got me wondering. Honestly growing up I just wasn't really that kind of a nerd, I was really a comics nerd for the most part (both manga and western) but if ever anyone in my school was upset because an arrogant teacher was saying video games were worthless and couldn't ever be considered art, I remembered that people said the same damn thing about comics (more in the past, admittedly) so I would support them and tell them the idiots were full of themselves (which was always true) and I actually made some friends that way.
But with that said, as I'm not a gaming fan I always did kind of wonder how they were really art because they're honestly just a completely different medium from movies, books, tv, comics, etc. and honestly while I hate to say this the arrogant "professionals" kind of had one semi-legit point. Because between all their pointless bluster of how games "corrupt the minds of our youth" those idiots (usually) mentioned that video games are ultimately… well, games. And games can't be art according to them, and I really hate to say it... but they might've had a point. Because as a non fan I always had to wonder, whats artistic about game play?
I think that the main problem with classifying games as art is that people aren't sure how to grade them as such, because right off the bat I can think of aspects of games that are artistic, like music, art design and story but I'm always told that those aspects are ultimately incidental and that what matters is how good the game is as a game. In a way video games are more like music as a medium, then movies or books because they are a pretty damn subjective medium since they're ultimately graded on how "enjoyable" they are for the player (I use the term enjoyable because I can't just use the term "fun" since I know games can provide a lot more emotions than just "fun" I know enough to know that they can also be stuff like Silent Hill or Shadow of the Colossus which I obviously don't play but I've been told are highly emotionally stimulating... but probably not in a fun way).
I guess I sort of explained my own question. Video games are art because for a lot of people they are emotionally stimulating, in fact some games are created specifically so that they can be such which isn't a phenomenon you find with stuff like board games. I personally think that an emotional connection is the most important factor in art honestly. But either way I thought this might be a pretty good conversation topic and I did a quick Google search to see if anyone had ever brought this up before and apparently not, so I thought I might as well be the one. I'm sure some people are tired of this debate since it gets brought up fairly often (I imagine) and it never really goes anywhere but either way I thought it was worth bringing up again especially since I'm really not well versed in the topic and I did some Google searching and I was having trouble finding good arguments for or against games as art so I thought I might as well use my wonderful forum to get some opinions.
If you don't want to participate in the debate because you're tired of it then fine, if you do because you're interested then great go nuts!