No, it is merely an idea. The cards that the person chooses to play the game with are art, but the game itself is just purely mechanics.


Yes to both, the game comes with the art package.

After reading most replies, I've gathered there is a large group of people on here that consider games art. Yet, this is not exactly the most unbiased group of individuals to argue that point. I am not saying there aren't many out there that enjoy video games, yet consider it in-artistic. I am simply stating you might as well go to IMDB and ask if movies are stories. The large amount of answers will be yes.

HOW-ever.... I, as one single, simple mind would argue that video games are in-fact art. This statement requires that you also know what my personal definitions of art and video games are (to avoid assumptions). I consider anything that evokes an emotional response, sparks interest, or creates new ideas in people ART. I consider anything that is digitally interactive and entertaining where you manipulate the tools given to create an outcome of your own volition, a VIDEO GAME. I also consider any game where you control an outcome emotionally investing. IF you have interest, you have invested some emotion. These are MY OWN opinions. No-one else's. And as my opinion varies from others, so will other's opinion vary from my own.

So not to end this debate but I concede to the notion of "Let's agree to disagree." until there is a more clear and standard definition of these two terms. I feel personally that until this happens it will merely be an argument based on hearsay and opinions. No-one except politicians have any business with these types of arguments.


BTW.... first post. Hello I'm Shiburo! Nice to meet you all.

Welcome to the forums! I appreciated your post... made me think of a certain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWuNf4gxwuM I get whenever I even listen to Morrowind's main theme

All video games are art. So many game haters out there tho

What a dumb comment. Is a painting supposed to be art? No, it is supposed to be a canvas painted in a way that is aesthetically pleasing, representational, or emotionally evocative. Being intended to be an open-world RPG doesn't restrict it from being anything else.

I agree 100% When I watched the official release trailer for skyrim the first time and suddenly heard the burst of manly chorus in the style of the main TES theme, i literally broke down in tears. It was.... beautiful.

The short answer is: Yes.

The long, but short:

Games combine, at the best of times, the best of filmography, literature, illustration and painting as an art form, all contained within a singular product; much like film combines filmography and photography to convey something to the viewer; whereas in games, this message is conveyed to the player. Add to this, the functionality of games, (The engineering work done behind the scenes) and games begin to cover virtually every creative outlet.

Edit: Also forgot the musical component, so there's that...

My opinion, nothing more, there are a lot of very artistic people involved in the making of what is just a commercial product. It's a game, designed so that people think they will enjoy it enough to purchase it. Doesn't mean there isn't a great deal of artistry involved, in the same way master craftsmen and women, and talented artists in the true sense of the word, might be employed to make a Hollywood blockbuster.

Popular art is, more often than not, a commercial product.

I see what you did there. :Andy Warhol

Not every book is art. Not every video is art. Not every game is art. Skyrim is art for very obvious reasons. (And Roger Ebert must play some video games for himself before forming opinions.)

I think the medium is everything a movie can be and much more, undoubtedly in every way. I rest my case. Although my problem is, "the much more" part isn't really that much in most cases.

That is like asking if you think movies are an art form. Yes, it takes creativity. "I don't pretend to know anything about art. I make pictures for entertainment, and then the professors tell me what they mean." - Walt Disney

Edit: @vtastek Anything can be art so long as the creator puts his or her heart and soul into it. Even still, if the creator does not put in the effort and yet someone else gets something meaningful from it then it is still art. Just because a particular game, movie, book, painting, whatever happens to pertain to your interests does not give you the right to decide whether it is art or not. This of course is not an attack on you at all as your statement did not bother me, just sharing a bit of my opinion.

In my opinion, videogames in general ARE art. Sure, there are bad videogames, but there are bad movies, bad pictures and bad sculptures. However, cinema and visual arts are... well, arts.

I have to admit I did not expect to see a "Video Games: Art or Not" topic in Skyrim's forum, nor would I have ever expected this to be my first post. But then, life isn't interesting if something new doesn't happen.

To begin, allow me to explain some of my personal definitions. First, aesthetic involves the emotional response to a person's sensory experiences. It is not about what something looks, feels, tastes like, etc. It is about what emotion(s) the appearance, feel, taste, etc invoke in a person (which varies from person to person). Art, to me, is interested in the aesthetic. The aim of art is to emotionally invest someone in that work, whether it be for 5 seconds or 5 lifetimes. A game is an intellectual puzzle that has a defined set of mechanics that are used to achieve a specific goal.

Using these definitions, Skyrim to me (as well as Oblivion, films, fiction, song, poetry and many others) is art because it exists to elicit an emotional investment and response in the participant. Skyrim may have mechanics like a game does, but instead of being used to solve a puzzle to arrive at a specific goal, it is used to tell a story. Several stories, in fact. The mechanics exist to facilitate a person's participation in the work of art. A work such as Starcraft 2, for example (focusing on the multi-player aspect), is a game where the defined goal is to defeat an opponent. The art, in the form of voices, sound effects, visualizations and so on is there to aid in the use of the mechanics. In short, if you stripped Starcraft 2 of all of its individual artistic components you are left with a strategy and tactics puzzle. If you strip Skyrim of all of its individual artistic components, what you are left with is a story, a work of literary fiction. This fiction just happens to be portrayed visually and interactively.

In really short form, Skyrim is a work of art because it is a story meant to evoke an emotional response, not a puzzle to be solved.

Well, perhaps a distinction can be made between 'art' and 'Art'. 'art' would include all many acts of human creative endeavou, for example the portraits of tourists produced by pavement 'artists' outside most of the popular tourist attractions in Europe. There is of course loads of this sort of art in Skyrim, for example the meshes and textures of every creature in the game.

'Art' or perhaps 'High' art is however something else, something produced by human creative endeavour that is greater than the sum of it's parts, it creates an emotional respnse in those that experience it that has lasting resonance in their life. It is something that has enduring appeal ane cultural signifiance.

There is no doubt in my mind that pretty much all videogames are 'art', but I also believe that games have the potential to be 'Art'.Maybe very few games have achieved this yet. I've not played that many games, but the Playstation 2 game Ico could perhaps fir the criteria.

I believe that Skyrim could be 'Art', but we won't know until we've played it

Most likely bad art, as most games are.

When I said "not every book...", I was referring to the manual to my Honda Hybrid. (edit: I'm pointing the tricky question. Not all books, pictures or videos are meant to be art. Asking a tricky question like "Are books art?" then giving examples of car manuals is what's going on here.)

I think there's a lot of confusion in here about art.
Please tell me what art is for you guys...
And please tell me what is a beauty...
and tell me what is ugly...
I think you know where im going with this.

art: refer to my post earlier
Beatuy: i heard it is a horse
ugly: uggo boots

Thank you for stating my entire post more eloquently.

It's funny I was gonna start a thread similar to this one in the general Elder Scrolls forum. To me, any videogame is art, for each game has its own style which can please or displease the eye. The method of "painting" is different (programming versus brushes) but I totally agree with you Chuck.

I don't know much about painting eras, but I was thinking Skyrim is somewhere between Romanticism and Impressionism, so far as graphics go. Very early videogames on the Atari 2600 or original NES are more like abstract art. something like that.

All games are art. If it contains a story, music, visuals or then it cannot possible not be art. All games are art, even if a lot of them my be awful art, sixist art, homophobic art, poor quality art or idiotic art- they are still art. In the same way all paintings are art, it doesn't matter how poor the painting, how vile the meaning or how moronic the painter or the painters audience, it is still art.

In direct response to one Mr Roger Ebert- how can music be art, visual designing be art, storytelling be art and yet all these things put together not be, merely because there is objective or interaction involved?

Um... In response to the OP, yes most definitely, but not because it is Skyrim specifically, but because it is a game.

There was videogame exibit displaying some of the more artful videogames deecided by people.

So yeah. The art style, sound design, story......all this can be art. and its all combined into one package.

But whether or not skyrim is a good videogame or a skillfull piece of art is yet to be seen.

I think yes. I think every video game is art as long as there are artists working on it. Graphics designers, story writers, musicians, they are all artists, so why wouldn't the work they put out together be considered art?

Skyrim is a product of multiple individual's crafts, literal arts, and it tells a story. It is art by multiple definitions.