I got into a heated debate about this with my mom and have heard this bouncing around a lot in the last years. Do you think video games are Art or Entertainment? Why? I think they're art that is entertainment. Anything someone makes that's their own is art, but you are still entertained by the game, you can still sit down and enjoy the beauty of a game while playing and interacting with it. Heavy Rain and Shadow of the Colossus are two games I can never play simply because of it being so much art, it'd be hard for me to play through because of how hard the decisions made in it are. Note: Sorry if this is in the wrong section.
All forms of Art provide entertainment to a certain degree, why look at a painting? It entertains you, so games are a form of art. People don't seem to understand this, and some games really foo deserve the title of "art", such as Portal, Oblivion and to a lesser degree, Yoshi's Island and Persona series, the Museum of Modern Art even has a section for games. Every aspect of a game is the "art", so the soundtrack counts as well, so Metal Gear Solid, Symphony of the Night, and Chrono Trigger, are works of art, and who could forget the proclaimed greatest game ever created, Ocarina of Time. Many people who don't play games don't realize the work that developers put into their games, as they are just the same as other art.
I totally thought this was a thread in response to Nostalgia Critic's new episode which discusses the matter. But since its not here's that, since it basically explains what I think about the matter better than I could. In a nutshell: yes, video games are a form of art. Doesn't mean every game is artistically well-done (in objective or subjective ways), just like every book, drawing, painting, film, song, etc.
Yeah, I confess I got this idea from the video. There's so many meanings to interpret games. Right now after watching the ending of Braid which is a MASSIVE art game and I highly recommend. People are still in heavy debate about the ending and the symbolism of it. What I interpret as the ending a lot of different other people are saying something different. Like a painting on the wall or a sculpture, I interpret it differently than other people do. Even the simplest games, hell, even Pong, can be considered art because people have a lasting memory of it.
I think you should ask your mom to define "art" and "entertainment". As you implied it yourself those terms aren' t necessarily mutually exclusive, so I' m not quite sure where she' s going with this. Sure, most video games are just the product of an industry, if that' s what she meant, but then so is 95% of the art around us. Video games aren' t more guilty of that than any other media. If she' s saying they' re games first and foremost, merely using artistic components as a mean for that end, then I' d say she' s not entirely wrong. A lot of people bash Heavy Rain for trying too hard to be a movie and forgetting to be a game in the process. I enjoyed it for the hesitant experiment that it was but, knowing what to expect of it beforehand, I bought it second hand, combed through it in a few days and sold it back immediately. Some people enjoyed it thoroughly though, so ...
She interprets art as it is in the most simplest form: Art hung on walls and/or sculptures. She even sees movies/tv shows as entertainment. Even the most unforgettable tv shows/movies are considered entertainment, even the Wizard of Oz. Which I think is art, including several games. Hell, Assassin's Creed could be considered art at least for me when I play it I get a different interpretation and thought process than others.
