Video games: infantile fun or useful art?
Stereotypical thinking often portrays gamers as shy, antisocial, infantile idlers. This completely ignores the great strides made by video game developers, the fact that games have long been competing with TV shows and films in their ability to build a narrative, and the fact that professional gaming is a sport in a multi-million dollar industry.
Especially for those who were forbidden to play on the computer by their parents in childhood, we will collect arguments why games are actually useful and have long been classified as works of art.
One of the key features of video games is their ability to train strategic thinking and resource management—skills that can be used even in casinos. For example, when playing online casino games such as craps, it is important to choose the best craps strategy to minimise risks and increase your chances of winning.
For beginners, it is recommended to master simpler strategies, such as placing basic bets and avoiding complex combinations, which will help you better understand the basics and increase your confidence. The same logic applies to video games, where you should first master the basic mechanics before diving into more complex levels or modes.
If you’re exploring online platforms for gaming entertainment, a good place to try your strategies would be Richard Casino, where players can find a variety of games that cater to different skill levels.
🧐 Games will never become art!
If you think so, you are not alone. This was the title of a blog post by Robert Ebert, one of the most influential film critics in the world, in 2010. This column concluded a multi-year debate in which the author participated so vigorously that a separate page could be created on Wikipedia.
In it, Ebert stated that video games will never be able to compare with the works of great painters, filmmakers, performers, and poets.
The same position is shared by the Japanese game designer Hideo Kojima, who created the game Death Stranding and is remembered in the history of the Internet as a figure in the meme ‘Kojima is a genius’. His argument was simple:
Art is something that radiates from the artist. If a hundred people pass by and one person is fascinated by this radiation, that is art. But video games don’t try to captivate one person. The game should be designed so that all hundred people enjoy the service it provides. It’s something like a service. But it’s not art. Because I suspect that the way video games provide this service is more like an artistic style, an art form.
In addition to the massive popularity of video games, there are other arguments against it. One of them was expressed by The Guardian critic Jonathan Jones after visiting an exhibition dedicated to 13 video games that are an art form at MoMA.
According to him, if there is no artist, there is no artwork. Among other arguments, they emphasise the entertainment nature of games and their direct interaction with the player.
🤨 So why do you write that it is art?
Going from the opposite argument, The Guardian published a response shortly after Jones’ column, in which it reasonably noted that the same argument about the author-artist was once made by critics of Carl Andre’s most famous sculpture Equivalent VIII and Marcel Duchamp’s readymade (i.e. an art object not created by the artist himself) Fountain. Both are now considered classics.
Indeed, there are video games that are created by a single person, which removes the question of the author-artist, and those that are formed by a whole team of artists: concept artists, painters, scriptwriters, composers, etc.
This makes games similar to the concept of gesamtkunstwerk, the idea of artistic embodiment of reality through the interaction of different art forms, which was particularly embodied by composer Richard Wagner when creating his operas.
It is not so difficult to find philosophical and scientific publications on why video games can be art—there are more and more of them every year. The main thing is to understand that not every game is art, just as not every novel, song, or film is.
Video games are exhibited in art museums, studied in art departments at universities, and nominated for awards—and this happens as often as with other art forms.
To conclude this discussion, I’d like to quote Jeff Sangalli, the art director of Sony PlayStation Studios:
‘For me, a true work of art should make you feel something, from overjoyed to sad. I think video games definitely have this effect.
It’s not only a way to tell incredible stories and let people interact with them, but it’s also a teamwork, training, discipline and collaboration of the art department, similar to the work of a music band. I think it’s palpable when a player emotionally resonates with the game. And great works of art should have exactly this effect.’
😲 Can you give examples of games that can be considered art?
The aforementioned MoMA exhibition in 2012 featured games such as Pac-Man (1980), Tetris (1984), The Sims (2000), Dwarf Fortress (2006), etc., which were later supplemented by The Legend of Zelda (1986), Animal Crossing (2001), Minecraft (2011), and others. But the list is not limited to this. These are just a few examples of a unique approach to video games:
Since we have mentioned Kojima, it would be strange not to mention his brainchild as an example. Death Stranding is an intricate open-world game in which you play as a courier in post-apocalyptic America.
Behind the rather monotonous process is the idea of the importance of humanity’s unity in difficult times and mutual assistance. And all this against the backdrop of incredible rainy landscapes.
No Man’s Sky is a survival game in which you explore procedurally generated planets. This means that the game doesn’t have a limited number of universes and planets you can visit, but rather each one is generated by an algorithm as you play.
It’s a tremendous work of detail in a cosmic universe where you want to stop and observe all the flora and fauna as much as you want to achieve some goals.
Limbo is a noir 2D platformer in which you play as a boy looking for his sister. The whole game is made in black and white, and the image itself is grainy. This is an example of a game where colours and minimal sounds create the most tense atmosphere. Later, the same studio released Inside, which continued this atmosphere and received wide critical acclaim.
The Last of Us series is a survival action-adventure piece that offers an alternative to the standard, encouraging improvisation, avoidance of confrontation, and caution. The story of Joel and Ellie was a tale of the role of fatherhood, the circle of violence, and the desire for revenge. The same line continued in the sequel.
Gris is a platformer that conveys the stages of grief through the play of colours. From chapter to chapter, the player accompanies the protagonist Gris as she travels through the magical world and explores how her own state of mind affects the world around her.
For example, in the chapter ‘Anger’, the whole world is coloured red and from time to time the heroine has to hide from a crimson sandstorm, realising that the power of her anger knocks even her down.
An action game in the genre of roguelike dungeon crawler (i.e. a travelling game through dungeons), Hades seems at first glance to be an ordinary battle in the underworld of Hades. What makes it unique is the manner of storytelling used by the developers.
Unlike similar games, Hades focuses on the plot and characters. To hear all the dialogue, the player must spend an incredible amount of time. To achieve this effect, the creators wrote a script with over 30 million words, more than in the first A Song of Ice and Fire book. These dialogues follow an algorithm, maintaining the logic of the story.
👾 Gamers are still reclusive!
The stereotype of shy, introverted players who sit at their computer screens day and night with no friends is far from the truth. According to a study by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), over 70% of gamers prefer to play with their friends, family members, or colleagues.
This figure includes both online games and offline multiplayer games. Moreover, many of them are designed to encourage communication and cooperation between players, especially MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games), where cooperation is critical to success.
There is also evidence that children who play often develop better social skills than their peers. After all, many games require effective communication and interaction with other people to achieve common goals.
💻 But if you play games, your eyesight will fall!
It is true that excessive time spent in front of screens can strain your eyes, but the claim that gaming will damage your vision is exaggerated. In fact, research has shown that playing action-packed video games can actually improve certain visual skills.
Players tend to be better at spotting details, distinguishing patterns, and focusing on multiple objects at once. Action games, in particular, have been shown to enhance players’ ability to perceive different shades of grey, a skill known as contrast sensitivity, which helps in recognising contrasting images.
Moreover, scientists have found that playing video games helps increase peripheral vision, which is important for activities such as driving or playing sports. So, if you play in moderation, it may actually benefit your eyesight rather than harm it.
🖖 Is it a myth that the console improves fine motor skills?
No, this is not a myth. A number of studies have shown that playing video games with a controller helps develop fine motor skills. These activities require precise hand movements, such as first-person shooters or action-adventure games, which can improve coordination and the ability to control small muscle movements.
For example, surgeons who play regularly perform complex tasks faster and more accurately than non-gamers. This is due to the fact that video games require players to quickly and accurately react to changing stimuli.
Players are often better at multitasking, and this can translate into real-world skills, such as in the field of medicine, where steady hands and quick thinking are crucial.
Additionally, some researchers have even suggested that video games could be used in therapeutic settings to improve motor skills in patients recovering from injuries or surgeries.