Videogames and how they are art

Videogames are a fairly young medium by today’s standards, so when someone compares them to the older and more established ones a few heads usually turn. To call videogames a form of art one must justify an explanation. What part of the videogame is considered art; the graphics, the story, the character development, the game play? To simply say that games are a form of art leaves to vague of a definition, so to try and fix this I will try to explain how the different parts of the game all come together to achieve the goal of being called art.
First off the bat, are the graphics. Since videogames have come into being their graphics have improved by leaps and bounds. This suggests however that they only became art once the graphic reached a certain undetermined level. Does that mean though that early game graphics from for example were not art? No, that is not the case. By the technology that we have presently and other early games are rather lacking in the eye candy department. That doesn’t mean society can simply dismiss them though. In comparison it would be like saying that painting a portrait is no longer art because we can simply take a picture of the person. With advances in technology as we move toward the future humans must remember to treasure the effort it took to get to where they currently are. After all if no one painted portraits or tried to capture on canvas or paper what they saw in the first place, then cameras may never have been invented. The same can be said for early games. They didn’t have the tools we have today but if game developers didn’t try then there is no logical reason we would have what we do today.
Even with the best graphics the industry has to offer, without a story there would be far fewer games in the world. A majority of videogames have at least some basic story behind them after all even fighting games have a Story Mode. If a story has the ability where it can draw you in and make you feel like you are a part of it, or it makes you want to keep playing then its art. Art isn’t just about its appearance; it also deals with how it makes its viewers feel.
Classic literature is art because it makes the readers feel for the characters (whether its love or hate depends on the individual and the literature)and brings them into the story.Videogames that have a good story do the same. If a character dies and I don’t mean the kind where you are in battle and can just heal them or resurrect them, but actually dies in the story and you feel sorrow, or in some cases joy, for the death then I would say its art. It is getting an emotional reaction from the player meaning it has done its job of pulling in said player.
In order to get an emotional reaction from the players then the developers have to make a character that would invoke emotions. Due to these conditions character development can be an extremely tricky task. First you have to get the basics of the character down, and you have to make sure that they are believable or it’s an ultimate fail on the developers’ part.
When developing the characters it is important that the theme of the story is kept, for example a highly optimistic happy go lucky house wife for a main character would not work in a post apocalyptic world, then again neither would some one who just mopes about. To get not only the human aspects down but also one where players would enjoy being that character is not only difficult but also worth it. Nobody likes a whining and spineless main character so to get a likable main character is mandatory.
Ah the game play how easily it can make or break a game.
It doesn’t matter how good a game’s story line or graphics are, if the game play sucks then people will not play it. The game play is the only control that the player has in the game, so if the game isn’t user friendly there is a high chance that people will stop playing less than an hour in and sell the game.
For a game to prosper in this respect then they have to have a system that is easy to understand yet still gives the player a challenge. To capture the attention of a player yet challenge them is a difficult task that invites creators to give various difficulties to a game.
If all of these work together than it is in my opinion that a game can rightfully be called art. The only problem here is that everyone will have their own experience with a game and therefore creating their own opinions. If using math terms then the unknown variable which can change the whole outcome of the answer would inevitably be the individual gamer.