In Europe.

For tax credit purposes only.

Thanks to France.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3523/video_games_officially_art_in_.php

Actually, it's quite nice to bring up this subject every now and again, much like it's quite nice to talk about infinity, the presence of a higher being in the universe and what end of a soft-boiled egg you should slice off (for me, the fat end because you can get more of your toast-soldier in for dipping purposes). Sure, it's gonna rage on with people who can't accept games as art or people who want all games accepted as art but, really, is it that important.

I mean, look at some of these pictures...









Oops, wait, not that one...



Ok, so, they're all beautiful, right? They're what we ooh and ahh about and contain moments that we'll hold with us and chat with our friends, debate online and dream wistfully about when the crappy sequel comes out. Games have got to be art, right?

Then someone comes along and stamps on your ideas, specifying criteria by which games must be judged in order for them to "become" art. No matter how pretty, no matter how thought provoking or engaging, there will always be a dissenting voice whispering "They'll never be art and that's just final".

At this point I like to think about tomatoes.

Yes. Tomatoes.

Are they a fruit or are they a vegetable. Biologically, they're classed as a fruit (it's to do with seeds and stuff, go look it up ya lazy bums!). They will never be classed as a vegetable in biological terms. Yet we use them like a vegetable, they taste like they should be a vegetable and for all useful intents and purposes (aside from I'm sure some obscure sexual ones and, of course, throwing) they are, in fact, vegetables. Well, you know what?

THEY'RE VEGETABLES!!

Chefs classify them as such. They know that biology classifies them as vegetables and they accept that, using certain criteria, they're right. But they know food in a different way to the biologist. They know that it's all about taste and ripeness, flavour and combinations. So they take the tomatoes and all the other food types and use them as they're meant to be used. Sure, some chefs won't agree as to how certain ingredients should and shouldn't be used but they're all pretty much on the same wavelength when it comes to the big stuff.

So why don't we just do this with games? We're all much more knowledgeable about games than some art professor who's probably only watched his nephews’ tea-bagging someone on Halo 3 or read something about a warm beverage mod for Great Thief Otto. We can just look at all the games around and know which ones are art and which ones aren't. There will still be debate, just like there is around fusion cooking in the chef-world or the correct wine to serve with a meal. Some people will flock to one corner and some to another, praising MGS but denouncing Tempest 2000 as just a flood of mindless colour and vertices.

At least we can stop the pointless bickering among ourselves if we accept that it totally depends on what criteria are involved in deciding if it's art or not, right?