Are video games an art form?

          I believe video games could qualify as an art form. For the past semester and a half I have been taking a game design class and have learned how hard and truly difficult it is to even make a character. So maybe I am a little biased because of that experience, but I believe video games are valid art forms. To qualify this statement though, I do not believe all video game design is an art form, only certain aspects.

            Now some people argue that everyone in the game is computer generated so it can't be an art form, but the game wasn’t made by people! If the truth is known, the whole game is not all computer generated. People actually have to get in there and design, graph and mold each and every shape, the artists pin, and the writers pencils, both equally match up to a designers key board.

            Of course there are people out there who do use a program to make characters, but anyone who plays games can notice the difference easily. Those program-designed characters lack certain human traits. Traits that everyone has that even the people who don’t know this trait, will put into their game. It is like having the wind draw for you, by throwing light chalk into the air. Will the pattern be something? Sure you could call it art, but as mentioned before, its made by nature, not people.

            There are extremely biased people out there, who really don’t like video games and would probably be sentenced to prison before admitting video design is an art. The reason for some of this bias? Kids addicted to playing games. Many kids who play games will actually say they are studying an art. Well kids, heads up, even art critics get outside to enjoy nature and many have other jobs. You are not studying art by playing video games until you are too thin.  Even the Mona Lisa will get dull if you stare at it long enough.

             Parents? You are allowed to kick kids off these artistic video games if that’s all they do. (Though as a gamer myself, maybe not during the long boss battles? Well maybe if they keep losing, everyone needs a cool down period. ) But regardless of how long you play, it doesn't really make video gaming any more or less of an art form.

            SO is video games an art form? Yes, they can be, just ask the designers who put the long hours in making sure Lora Croft has the right look or Skyrim's trees sway the right way. It is an art, just one that you have to actually have to really look at and not just play to appreciate.  Too, it's just not an art form that should be stared at twenty four seven.