Video Games as an Artistic Medium: The Scholarly Debate
This paper examines the scholarly debate over whether video games constitute a legitimate artistic medium. Drawing on peer-reviewed sources from Phi Kappa Phi Forum, Eurographics 2001, and Library Technology Reports, the paper evaluates key arguments for and against classifying video games as art. It addresses Roger Ebert's influential claim that video games are fundamentally inferior to film and literature, and presents counterarguments from scholars and critics who highlight interactivity, collaborative design, narrative complexity, and expressive communication as hallmarks of artistic merit. The paper ultimately supports the position that video games have evolved into a genuine art form comparable to film, music, and literature.
- Introduction: Video Games and Artistic Merit: Frames central question about video games as art
- The Literature on Video Games as an Artistic Medium: Library and academic sources supporting games as art
- Roger Ebert and the Case Against Video Games as Art: Ebert's dismissal of games and Hall's rebuttal
- Interactivity, Expression, and the Artistic Case for Games: Interactivity, Clive Barker, Stuart on expressive complexity
- Chris Hecker: Video Games and the Evolution of Film: Games evolving like early cinema toward art form
- Conclusion: Games as language and tool of expression
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper directly engages a well-known opposing viewpoint (Roger Ebert's) and systematically rebuts it using multiple scholarly sources, giving the argument credibility and structure.
- It draws on a diverse range of evidence — peer-reviewed journals, cultural critics, and library science — to build a broad, multi-disciplinary case for its central claim.
- The analogy between the early history of film and the current state of video games is a particularly strong rhetorical move, grounding the argument in historical precedent.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of the "acknowledge and rebut" technique: it gives fair representation to the opposing position (Ebert, Jonathan Jones) before dismantling those arguments with evidence from Hall, Stuart, and Hecker. This approach strengthens the writer's credibility and models balanced academic argumentation.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a framing question about video games and art, then moves through three main evidence sections: a library science perspective on games as learning and community tools; a critical debate section centered on Ebert's dismissal and scholarly rebuttals; and a historical-comparative section linking video game evolution to the rise of cinema as art. A brief conclusion ties the argument together with a quotation from The Guardian.
Introduction: Video Games and Artistic Merit
Our media-rich environment, in which digital technologies are proliferating faster than our cultural, legal, or educational institutions can keep up with them, "addresses our culture's contradictory imperatives for immediacy and hypermediacy" (Bolton et al., 1999).
Should video games, which are interactive and bring a sense of immediacy to the participant, be considered an art form? Is it pushing the envelope too far to assert that video game players are not only having fun and engaging in friendly competition, but are also participating in an art form? This paper delves into that subject and points to the available scholarly literature that supports the idea that video games constitute a legitimate artistic medium.
The Literature on Video Games as an Artistic Medium
In the scholarly publication Library Technology Reports (LTR, 2006), the writer notes that increasingly "all types of libraries" are adding the phrase "gaming and libraries" to their list of services. Gaming and games have been around and have been entertaining people since ancient times — including ancient Egyptian games, Sumerian games, medieval games, and contemporary games. Games, the LTR article explains: (a) test problem-solving skills; (b) are inclusive; (c) create community; (d) facilitate learning; (e) provide "fields for practice of leadership and team skills"; and (f) develop identity (LTR, 5).
There are now whole academic fields — along with courses and departments — "devoted to studying video games" (LTR, 5). Educators are looking into ways in which to incorporate video gaming into schools and universities, according to the article. Within the context of libraries embracing video games, these technologies do in fact represent an artistic medium.
Roger Ebert and the Case Against Video Games as Art
More recent video games appear to have "artistic merit" because they offer opportunities for their creators "to collaborate on a multitude of design elements" (Hall, 2008). Writing in the peer-reviewed journal Phi Kappa Phi Forum, Hall reminds readers that the late film critic Roger Ebert stated that "video games are fundamentally inferior to film and literature as an artistic medium" (Hall, 19). Ebert went on to say that video games would never progress "beyond craftsmanship to the stature of art" (Hall, 19).
However, Hall rebuts Ebert's position by arguing that the interactive aspect of video games — that is, giving players choices during gameplay — is not the "opposite" of "serious film and literature," as Ebert claimed (19). In other words, Ebert was asserting that true art must be controlled by its author — the film producer, the novelist, the painter — and that because video games are controlled by the player, they cannot have artistic merit.
Conclusion
As Keith Stuart wrote in The Guardian, video games are now a language, and language for centuries has been a "tool of expression and change. A bit like art, yes?"
Works Cited
Bolton, J.D., and Grusin, R. (1999). Remediation: Understanding New Media / Introduction: The Double Logic of Remediation. Retrieved June 8, 2016, from https://monoskop.org.
Hall, S. (2008). Video Games as Collaborative Art. Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 88(1), 19–19.
Hecker, C. (2001). Why Games Will Be the Preeminent Art Form of the 21st Century. Eurographics 2001, 20(3), p. 1.
Library Technology Reports. (2006). Introduction. Retrieved June 8, 2016, from
Stuart, K. (2014). Video games and art: why does the media get it so wrong? The Guardian. Retrieved June 8, 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com.
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