Video Games as Art

I really enjoyed watching the indie games film in class yesterday. I hadn't really been aware of indie games actually, although as they were throwing out some random popular ones I recognized Limbo, which my sister had gotten me into a few years ago. It was kind of a creepy game, actually, but the silhouettes and charcoal based colors were eerily beautiful to me, and I loved it. I was almost more impressed with the art of the game, than the game itself.

Which brought me to something I'd never really thought of before, that video games are art in a way.

Now, I wasn't a huge gamer as a kid, I grew up mostly on PC and Nintendo DS games. The first actual game console we really had in our house was a wii. So I'm not entering this conversation with a lot of  knowledge. The most I really know about video games is super smash bros and Zelda the twilight princess - oh, and star wars battlefront. But that's it.

Watching that film gave me more of an appreciation for the work that goes into a game. I guess I assumed they were way easier to create than movies, and a little amount of time and energy went into them, which I know now is apparently ridiculous. When we were discussing children's media and read up on C. S. Lewis, he said he used children's media it because it was the best art-form for what he had to say. I think it's fair to apply that to video games. They can be the best platform for some people to connect with others and express themselves.  There is often an assumption that video games are a complete waste of time, but it was intriguing to watch that film and see a new light shed on the subject.