Video Games as Art

For the final project in my Game Studies class, I decided to write about the controversy over whether video games constitute art. (My paper can be downloaded here.) I decided to write about this subject because I had read arguments about this before—particularly when Roger Ebert first made it clear that he thought video games could not be art. This controversy always puzzled me. I have been playing video games since I could hold a controller, and it seems so obvious to me that of course video games can be art. At least the ones which intend to be artful.

Through my research, I’ve come to realize what I already knew: I hate art culture. Arguments over what is art and what is not just become so petty. Arguments can appear rational at first, but after a little digging, any argument from either side will likely boil down to something completely irrational. Art is something which will never be clearly defined. It is not like science, where everyone who participates comes to an agreement on explicit definitions of terms to be used in the literature and research; everyone in art culture just picks their favorite definition, and if a dispute arises, no one within a 10-foot radius is safe from the foamy saliva that flings from the mouths of either side as they scream right past one another.

So I don’t really care any more. I’m just going to let video games be video games and let the children scream it out.

Gamification is Bullshit is Bullshit

In his article “Gamification is Bullshit,” Ian Bogost writes about his distaste for gamification. With great vitriol, Bogost denounces all forms of gamification as bull shit, saying that it is only a tool for marketers; that it perverts games. Game developers which make use of it are just taking the easy way out, Bogost says. He believes that the “bullshitters” which make use of gamification are not liars, since bullshitters have no interest in the truth.

I’m not sure what triggered his rant, but the truth is Bogost’s article is bull shit. Gamification is something which people do and have done naturally, way before video games were around. When children walk down the street and jump over cracks, they are gamifying their walk home to make it less boring. When you offer yourself rewards for completing small steps in a project at work, you are gamifying your work (“whistle while you work” is telling you to make a game out of a boring task). And doing this can make you more productive.

If Bogost’s beef with gamification is that some game developers overuse it, then his article should address that instead. It is an entirely different complaint. To throw out the whole idea of gamification is just nonsense. To say game developers who use it are just being lazy is ignorant and short-sighted. Game developers use gamification because games are funner when a player has clear goals, and gets rewarded for his or her actions. And most people play games with the goal of having fun.