作者：Hilary Goldstein

玩家总是会因为非游戏玩家对电子游戏产业的抨击感到极端愤怒。就像当美国著名影评人Roger Ebert公然反对游戏是一种艺术形式这一理念时，大多数玩家便极力讨伐Ebert的荒谬。但是如果事实上Ebert的想法是对的，游戏真的不能称得上是一种“艺术”，那结果又是怎样？众多玩家们，请不要对此感到惊慌。以下我将列举出游戏即使称不上是艺术也没关系的5大原因。

film vs video game(from azubu.com)

1.艺术很多时候都是扯谈

最近我前往纽约现代美术馆参观一些备受瞩目的现代艺术作品。但是却发现这些作品之所以被称为艺术只是因为它们被挂在博物馆的墙上，并被赋予某些意义罢了。所以我便开始观察那些观看者而不是作品本身，因此发现很多人脸上都出现了困惑的表情并说道“我并不明白其中的含义。”尽管如此，他们最终还是会报以欣赏的笑容，并装出自己真的在欣赏艺术品的神情。如此看来，大多数人都希望看到一些被冠以艺术之名的作品而不是自己去判断它们。所以，艺术的属性变成是为消费者所做的定义而不是消费者自己下的定义。这并不是一种合理的判断方式，纯粹是扯谈。

我所提到的情况不只局限于博物馆中的艺术品。我看过一部荣获奥斯卡大奖的电影《艺术家》，而我发现很多人之所以高度赞扬这部影片只是因为它是一部电影，理应得到这种殊荣。甚至有些人在看完电影后跟我说“我想是因为我不够聪明才不能理解这部电影吧。”他认为电影本身并不是问题所在——毕竟这是一种艺术上的努力，所以到最后观看者也只能从自己身上找原因了。也就是如果你看不懂这部电影，只能说你太过愚蠢了。

“艺术”本身的理念其实被滥用了，因为公众，也就是消费者并不能判断什么是艺术以及什么内容具有艺术性，是行为和媒介在为公众下这一定义。而如果我们将游戏套进这种艺术标准（游戏邦注：也就是博物馆，电影院以及小说中所使用的标准）中，这便是一种错误的定义。

2.游戏超越“艺术”

将游戏称为“艺术”是一种愚蠢的表现。这种行为就像是将游戏捆绑在与其它媒体相同的标准之上。但是事实上游戏却与其它艺术形式不同。游戏具有交互性，玩家并不是在观看角色在自己面前如何移动，玩家也需要融入角色中。也就是在游戏中，玩家的行为将影响游戏。甚至是在最线性的游戏中玩家的每次跳跃也会对游戏的发展产生影响。当玩家掉落并死亡时，游戏的故事将发生变化，即使这种变化只是让你返回原点重新开始而已。

玩家会担心如果自己所玩的内容未被当成一种艺术形式，游戏便会失去其效用。对于电子游戏来说这是一种非常局限性的观点。游戏是一种较新的媒体，不能被简单地定义为“艺术”或一种纯粹的娱乐形式。我们在以一种全新的形式玩游戏时（即使是最基本的《Pong》）总是会油然生出各种情感，而这更是不同于我们在纽约现代美术馆观看“艺术品”所产生的想法。所以切忌用那种陈旧的理念去限制新的体验和思考方式。我们要清楚游戏是一种全新的内容，是一种与众不同的内容。

3.体育运动不是艺术

我们在观看足球比赛时总是会感受到各种紧张的时刻，但是不管怎么样这都不能说是艺术。每个周日都有数百万人在观看足球比赛，但是他们之中却很少有人会关心Roger Ebert等人的想法。体育能够振奋人心，让人上瘾，甚至支配着我们的生活，将我们连接成一个不可分割的社会体。从传统定义来看，这并不能称得上是一种艺术形式，但是这也不会影响人们每周日定期收看足球比赛的热情。

我认为体育运动中具有独特的叙述元素，也就是这里的剧情并不只是关于谁赢得了比赛，还会牵扯到情感表现。体育迷们总是清楚谁是真正有实力的选手，谁曾经在比赛最后搞砸了一切，谁身价更高等。这也是体育剧情中的重要部分。甚至有时候，这种剧情与好莱坞大片的情节一样吸引人，但并没有人会关心这是否是一种艺术。这只是一种体育运动，这便是它的与众不同之处，不是吗？所以游戏亦是如此。它们具有娱乐性，信息性，能够以一种独特的方式感动我们，但同时它并不等同于我们传统意义上的艺术。

4.游戏属于大众群体

游戏主要是面向劳动阶级。当然了，有钱有势的人也能够享受游戏的乐趣，但是游戏的设计核心还是针对那些努力工作却不能获得大量的回报因而需要在忙碌一整天后放松心情的人。虽然游戏是由这个产业中的无数人投入大把金钱开发创造，但真正推动游戏行业繁荣发展的却是普通大众用户。

其实关于“游戏是否是艺术”这一争议只是玩家希望游戏获得认可的表现。就像我们希望非游戏玩家能够将游戏当成一种不断进化的娱乐形式，从而让我们能够“心安理得”地享受游戏乐趣。走自己的路，让别人去说吧，游戏只属于我们这些普通人。我们并不需要以任何形式去获得别人对游戏的认可，我们甚至可以无视那些不了解这种娱乐形式的人。游戏是属于我们的而不是他们的，我们只要记住这一点便可。套上“艺术”标签只会让游戏失去对其长远发展甚为关键的亚文化元素。

5.谁在意游戏是不是艺术呢？

游戏是否是艺术真的重要吗？如果游戏被冠以与奥斯卡获得者或年度畅销书籍一样的荣誉，你是否就会以一种不同的方式去体验它们？别人与你喜欢同一款游戏没有什么大不了的。如果你认为《Limbo》的黑暗世界是你在游戏中见过最特别的内容但是你的好友却认为它是无趣的，这也没关系。所以，对于那些非游戏玩家是如何看待游戏有何重要呢？你只要默默地同情他们不能感受到游戏的乐趣（即真实的沉浸感，社交联系以及情感满足）便可。

总之，我们不要去纠结别人是怎么看待游戏，怎么为游戏归类。我们真正需要在意的是自己该如何体验游戏，如何在游戏社区中与别人分享游戏乐趣。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

5 good reasons games are not art

Hilary Goldstein

Are games art? Let’s hope not.

Gamers have fits of Internet rage when non-gamers attack the video game industry. Roger Ebert has spoken out against the idea that games can be an art form. Most gamers will tell you that Ebert doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But what if he does? What if he’s right? What if games actually aren’t “art” at all? Don’t panic. Back away from the ledge. Here are five good reasons why it doesn’t matter whether or not games are art.

1.Art is bullshit

Recently I was at the MOMA in New York, viewing highly touted modern art. Most of it was crap. The only thing that made it “art” was that a museum hung it on a wall and said, “This means something.” I started watching the people more than the art itself and seeing the confused looks on their faces that said, “I don’t get it.” Yet, they nodded, showed mild appreciation with a smile, and leaned in as if a closer look would provide clarity. The truth is that most people want to be told what is and what is not art rather than make that determination for themselves. Art of this nature is often defined for the consumer, not by the consumer. Which means most art is manufactured as art. It’s not organic. It’s bullshit.

It doesn’t stop at art in a museum. I enjoyed the Oscar-winning movie The Artist, but many people spoke highly of it only because it was a movie you were supposed to speak highly of (it’s a silent film released in 2011 — how daring!). “I guess I’m just not smart enough for this movie,” someone told me after seeing it. The movie itself isn’t questioned — it’s already been deemed an artistic endeavor, after all — so the viewer questions herself. If you don’t get it, well, you must be stupid.

The idea of “art” itself is corrupted, because the public — the consumer — isn’t determining what is and is not artistic. It’s the industries themselves and the media making those decisions for the populace. We risk that same level of corruption of integrity if we stress that games must meet similar artistic standards that we see in museums, in theaters, and in novels.

2.Games go beyond “art”

The hang-up on games being labeled as art (or even potentially being art) is foolish. It attempts to tie games to a standard similar to other mediums. But games aren’t like those other forms of entertainment. Games are interactive. You don’t just read or watch a role played out for you; you become that role. In a game, you have constant influence on what’s happening. Even the most linear of games is still altered by when you choose to jump. Fall and die, and the narrative evolves, even if that evolution is merely restarting at a previous checkpoint.

Gamers worry that if what they play isn’t recognized as an art form, it loses validity. That’s a very limited view of what video games offer. Games are something new, something that can’t be so easily defined as “art” or even as pure entertainment. Emotions are elicited in a whole new way with games so that even something as basic as Pong can cause a more visceral reaction than just about anything shown in the New York MOMA. Don’t confine a whole new way to experience and think about the world to old concepts. Games are something new, something different.

3.Sports don’t need to be art

Fourth quarter, time winding down, fourth and long with one last shot at the end zone — this is about as tense a moment as you get in football. It’s not art, though, is it? And yet millions watch football each Sunday, unconcerned with what Roger Ebert or anyone else thinks of what they enjoy. Sports thrill us, engage us, dominate our lives, and connect us as a society. It’s not art by any traditional definition, but that doesn’t make it any less valid of a way to spend a Sunday.

I’d argue that sports bring a unique narrative. The drama isn’t just about who wins, but who has a grudge against whom. Doesn’t it matter a little more when Peyton Manning faces Eli Manning on the gridiron? Sports fans know who talked smack about whom, who has a history of blowing it at the end of games, who is overpaid, who’s a cheap player, etc. That’s part of the drama of sports. In the proper context, it’s as intriguing as a Hollywood plot, but no one worries about whether or not it’s art. It’s sports. It’s different, right? Well, so are games. They entertain, inform, move us in unique ways — but they are something different than what we’ve usually labeled as works of art.

4.For the people

Games are for the working class. Yes, fat cats can enjoy games, too, but the core of gaming is designed for people who work hard, don’t make a ton of cash, and need to disappear from the world for a little while at the end of the day. Though it takes hundreds of people and millions of dollars to make some of the top titles in the industry, it’s the average Jane and Joe struggling to make a living who keep the games biz thriving.

The “games as art” debate is merely a cry for legitimacy. It’s as if we need non-gamers to see games as some evolved form of entertainment in order for it to be OK for us to enjoy them. Let snobs be snobs and have their lives of snobbery. Games are for us — the common person. We don’t need validation to make video games “legitimate” in any way. Heck, we should despise such accreditation from people who seriously don’t have a clue about this form of entertainment. Games are ours, not theirs. We need to keep it that way. Being labeled as “art” takes away some of the subculture of gaming that is still vital to its long-term survival.

5.Who cares?

Does it matter if games are art? If games were recognized as being equal to an Oscar winner or the National Book of the Year, would you experience them differently? It shouldn’t even matter if other people love a game you love. If you think Limbo’s dark dream world is the most incredible thing you’ve ever seen in a game, it shouldn’t matter if your friend thought it was dumb. It certainly shouldn’t matter what a bunch of non-gamers think about anything in gaming. Pity them for not being able to enjoy the things games have to offer — true immersion, social connection, and emotional gratification.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about games. It doesn’t matter how others categorize games. What matters is how you experience, enjoy, and share games with others in the gaming community.(source:venturebeat)