In the world of art, you can expect to encounter a multitude of different mediums of art. A medium of an artwork refers to the materials that that artwork is composed of. So if you walk into a museum and take a close inspection of the little white plaque next to it, you can expect to see what the artist used to create it. --oil or acrylic paint on canvas, metal, glass, marble, modded Super Mario Bros. cartridge.

Huh, that last one is weird, isn’t it? There are of course the ‘normal’ mediums of art. Paintings are made up of paint, sculptures are made up of some sort of rock or metal, and conceptual art is made up of mundane everyday objects like a banana. But Super Mario Bros. is a video game; it’s not something you would normally perceive as art. And yet, this is what artist Cory Arcangel did in his piece Super Mario Clouds, in which he removed all of the video game’s assets, including Mario himself, and left only the clouds scrolling across the screen in the background. He removed all aspects of what made it a video game. 

But what if it was still playable? What if what was on display at a museum was a video game that allowed any museum-goer to pick up a controller and just play? Can video games be art? I believe so.

To answer whether or not video games are art, it would help to see what exactly art is supposed to do. This itself is a debatable topic, but some common consensus is that art serves to elicit an emotional response, allow for artistic expression, and to give people a better understanding of the world around them. And, boy-oh-boy, do video games succeed in all of these areas.

Most video games do invoke at least some sort of emotion in the player. Looking at some extreme examples, perhaps an unwavering burning rage or a jumping-out-of-your-chair happiness, you can pretty easily find games that match these emotions. Getting Over It with Bennet Foddy is an unforgiving experience where you must climb up a mountain with the only means of doing so is with a hammer to drag and launch yourself. One mistake can cost you hours of progress. Unsurprisingly, players around the world had swears being thrown left and right, as well as chairs, mouses, and keyboards. But to the few who did beat it, they felt the euphoric satisfaction of, well, getting over it. 

Artistic expression has an obvious presence, allowing the creator of the game to stylize not only the visuals, but gameplay, story, and music as well. A Times article written by Chris Melissinos explains this perfectly, saying that video games “include many forms of traditional artistic expression that combine to create something that transcends any one type.” In this sense, game developers have the most creative freedom than any other medium as it is really a combination of many other mediums of art.

The last and what is arguably the most important point is the ability to make the player think about the real world situations and problems that the game could be presenting. Like many other artworks of different mediums, they can depict or represent ongoing issues to shed some light on their significance. Games like This War of Mine, which explores being a civilian trying to survive in a war rather than being on the front lines of it, or Gone Home, which is about a young woman who returns home after a year abroad to find her family fell apart after her parents discovered her younger sister was in a lesbian relationship. Award-winning game developer Brenda Romero, at a TEDx event in Galway Ireland, explains that video games don’t shy away from difficult topics. They’re evocative. And they purposely take these problems head-on like many over forms of art.

Not all video games meet any of these three criteria, but neither do all works from other forms of art. Because of this, video games should be considered a form of art. One that allows for more artistic expression and freedom without detracting from the experience of the player. But most importantly, like with other artworks, video games can put a spotlight on important issues that may be present in our world today. And with humanity’s younger generation being raised in a more digitized age, the influence of video games could make it the most important medium for art to be in.