Apple »

Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

February 20, 2012 – 12:39 pm | 3 Comments

Tiny Diggers has just been released on the iPad and soon the Mac computer. Here’s the details on this fun, educational game from TouchTilt Games.
Tiny Diggers Delivers Learning With Construction Trucks For Kids on the …

Read the full story »
Home » Art & Design, Industry

Poll: It’s Game Time and Are Games Art?

Submitted by on July 9, 2008 – 8:17 am2 Comments

Over 700 of you answered our most recent Poll concerning the amount of hours you spend gaming per week. Here are the results:

20+ (I have a lot of free time) (29%, 203 Votes)
5-10 (19%, 136 Votes)
1-5 (18%, 124 Votes)
10-15 (17%, 122 Votes)
15-20 (12%, 83 Votes)
Zero. I don’t play games, you nerds. (6%, 39 Votes)

203 or 29% of voters said they invest over 20 hours a week in gaming, while 39 of you don’t game at all – which makes me wonder what you’re doing here. That’s a lot of game time though for the majority; To put it in perspective, I can only manage to get roughly 1 to 1.5 hours a night in for my favorite games after work, family and Aeropause time. That’s about 10.5 hours a week at the very most.

are video games art?

Our new poll asks the age old question: Are Video Games Art?

Roger Ebert seems to think not:

“There is a structural reason for that: video games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control.”

I guess all those self-expressionless Writers, Designers, Level Artists, Musicians and Animators who work on video games don’t consider their creation as a whole, a work of art. But who are we to judge? To each his own, as they say.

Novelist, Clive Barker challenges Ebert’s disagreement by saying:

“We can debate what art is, we can debate it forever. If the experience moves you in some way or another … even if it moves your bowels … I think it is worthy of some serious study.”

There was a Newsweek article back in March of 2000 where Jack Kroll argues: “…games can be fun and rewarding in many ways, but they can’t transmit the emotional complexity that is the root of art.”

I don’t know about you, but I feel complex emotions when I play certain games; ICO was a sad game for me and Patapon, right now on my PSP, is a gratifying and uplifting game. Whatever the case may be, head on over to the new Poll to your cast your vote.

Image via: Dvice (who thinks video games aren’t art)

Tags: , , , ,

  • http://www.eklipse.net Mike Koss

    /me puts on his flame-retardant suit.

    For me, art is an outpouring of one’s soul into the creation of something. As a software developer, there are many ways to implement software and as such I view it as an art-form where my tools are a keyboard, my canvas is a computer screen, and my audience is my customer. As a hardware developer, the same holds true, too.

    To limit art to something where the audience only passively participates, would be a great disservice to all artists. Those who create new automobiles consider their designs a work of art, especially those who rebuild/restore cars. To say that this is not art because the ‘audience’ (aka driver) is able to control the vehicle would be demeaning to the heart and soul poured into that vehicle by the re/builder.

  • http://gotgame.com GotGame.com

    Roger Ebert is naive and asinine. Video games have always been art–they’ve always been a form of self expression for the developers, artists, animators, etc. And now, with games becoming more and more complex and intricate, they are even more artistic than ever. Just look at Metal Gear Solid 4 . . . MGS4 is better (artistically and in entertainment value) than 98% of the movies that came out/will come out in 2008.