The other day, Roger Elbert passed away. To some he is know as the man who said video games could never be art. And he backed up his opinion with good solid argument. However, I did not agree with him, and I wrote him a letter explaining my position. I honestly do believe video games are an art. But I dont think we always should like of them like that. 

Take Twilight for example... I personally believe the book sucks balls, but regardless of how much I believe how terrible it is, it does change the fact that Twilight is an art....

Ok now back to our interactive medium of video games. I believe all video games are an art, BUT, not all of them are artistic. Lets take two recent releaase games (excluding Journey, otherwise I would talk about it forever). Medal of Honour: Warfighter and... Spec Ops: The Line. Both games are art, both show us something about ourselves and/or the culture we live in, but I think Spec Ops is what I would define as artistic. Why one may ask... 

Well mainly the concept of interpretation. Spec Ops: The Line, I am impacted by even after I am away from the screen. Much like the poetry I read, or books I enjoy, or songs I listen to. Medal of Honour, even if I wanted to, I couldnt dissect the game to the full spectrum as I could with Spec Ops: The Line. and that is not simply with good writing. This comes with the time spent with details. This added details is what makes games artistic. The hidden meaning in a game, or multiple interpretations.

I believe as our medium evolves, we should take games rather seriously. I would love to have more Journey's and Shadow of the Colossus's. Bioshock's and Spec Ops: The Lines. Anyway, this was a weirder post. Next post I wantto talk a bit more about Bungie's new game Destiny.