What can't video games do?

Video games are saving the world, spurring on self-improvement, teaching and now they are art.

 The MOMA added 14 games to its collection this week. My personal favorite definition of art comes from an 8 year-old being interviewed by the BBC: "If the artist says it's art, than it's art."

 But in fact, Video games do not even need the extreme justification of babes. They are not bending the rules of what art is. In fact video games just intensify some of the more important qualities of an art form.

• Playing the senses. A video game engages your emotions as well as your vision, your hearing, your sense of touch. If you have the right gaming snacks: you can add taste and smell to it as well.


• It takes a village of artists. Not only does it take great artistic, programming and story skills to make a good video game, it takes a whole team of people to do it. One question that art critics often ask is does the artwork require a certain caliber of talent to be produced. In the case of games that can take 6 months to years to be produced I would say there's no denying the high level of skill involved.


• Interaction is required. Your English literature school teacher may have told you that it is up to you to interpret what Jane Austin or Shakespeare meant. In video gaming it is up to you to determine how much of the world the game creators you will see and in some cases you characters even have a dash of free will.