Video Games are an art form.

This is an intresting debate, and I like your point of view, so here we go. A good movie, book, or picture are all art forms. Created by a person of group, these things can represent ideals, beliefs, ways of thinking, and choice. Art is human. From cave paintings to the Mona Lisa, art has impacted humanity in all sorts of ways. Video games can fulfill these same things, so why is it that video games are not considered an art form? Well, it comes down to a few things. A: Video Games have Goals Whether you are playing the campaign on Halo: Reach or fighting other players on Modern Warfare, video games have goals. Achieve this goal, run to this checkpoint, capture this flag, defeat your opponent. This, in essence, is how a video game is played: the accomplishment of these goals. Without these goals, a video game is nothing, an area to walk around. Do other art forms have a goal? See who can watch the movie the fastest, pay the most attention to the ballet, count how many people are in this picture? No, that is not what art is. Art is meant to be interpreted to the viewer or listener, and let that person decide how to feel based off that art form. One must achieve the goals of a video game, and thus cannot interpret the game for themselves. B: Deliberation Consider the art forms today. Literature, music, dancing, paintings, etc. These things have many things in common, but one aspect is usually overlooked: they have to be created deliberatly. Music has been around since man started eating beans, paintings since the blood of an animal accidently splashed on a wall, dance since a swarm of bees started to sting a man trying to steal honey, and and lierature as man took the sounds he heard and tried to record them so others could 'hear' it. Video games cannot happen randomly as these other art forms can. Instead, it takes years of work from a group of people to accomplish their goal of creating something entertaining. C: Creators of Art Excluding video games, all of the art forms listed in our debate have one thing in common: they were created by either a single person or a single group and one is left to interpret the art. Video games are not so. One can change the surroundings of a video game, interact with others, and affect a storyline. All other forms of art are created and then left alone for its enjoyers to interpret for themselves. By allowing the gamers to affect how the video game is played, it basically defeats the purpose of the creators creating an art form. As you can see, video games may be considered an art with music, storylines, and graphics. To anyone who doesn't think about it, it could be considered an art form. Unfortunatly for myself, as a lover of video games, and the video-gaming community, it isn't an art form. The fact that one can interact with it does not make it an art, in fact it could keep it from being an art. By making the gamers conform to a set way of interpreting the game, i.e. achieveing goals and getting passed levels, it takes away the ability of the gamer to interpret the game for themselves. And, if it weren't for the creators deliberating creating the game, there would be no game, for nature does not allow video games to be created randomly. So thus, because of all the reason stated, video games are not an art form and I urge the voters to vote Con.