Games are now officially recognized by the U.S. Government as art

[Demon_Princess_Kay]

Of course it's about money, but that's not my point. What I'm getting at is that art is subjective, and them declaring anything that anything is legally art is the same thing as them declaring that steak is legally delicious it's just silly.

[Azrael]

In those terms, sure, but without the recognition there's no money. Furthermore the subjectivity of art is up for debate. This does nothing to decide the merit of artistic value of any particular video game, simply that the medium of the video game is now considered art.

[Parn]

The money thing doesn't work that way though.

Ahaha.  Sure it does.  Do you really think the NEA won't be requesting larger amounts of funding now that they've added gaming into their repertoire?  I may love gaming, but not enough that I think federal funding should go towards it.  The very idea that some indie developer could get a $200,000 grant to make some Angry Birds derivative bothers me.  There's government waste going on all the time, but I don't care for adding more onto the pile.

As far a preservation, that's just short term, who knows what the state of games will be years from now but federal grants have played a huge part in keeping various pieces of art alive. Video games are special because of the digital format, but again, who knows the state of things to come in the future.

Old games aren't going anywhere, period.  Federal grants play a part in keeping various pieces of art alive because it's physical.  That stuff requires upkeep to maintain it due to decay and what-not.  Digital media can be copied, duplicated, and spread across the globe in seconds.  Hell, I can download AOL Instant Messenger 1.0 released in 1997 right now if I so desired.  Why would anyone bother archiving that?  Nevertheless, it's being done... and in multiple places.

[Azrael]

Like I said it's hard to tell what will happen in the future, but the point is that now it's there and it could provide benefits that we can't know.

As for the money, just because they request it doesn't mean shit. The NEA has had its budget, like all other budgets, consistently cut. I really don't see the government allocating them more money because suddenly they want video games added to the list.

[Parn]

True enough on the budget thing.  But I'd like to emphasize that I wouldn't want even a dollar of federal funding towards video game production.  To take that line of thought an additional step, watch the NEA budget shrink dramatically in the FY2012 budget when it's discovered by Congress that video game production is being funded by tax dollars.

[Dice]

Games Now Legally Considered an Art Form (in the USA):

The US National Endowment for the Arts now considers videogames eligible for artistic funding, legally recognizing them as an art form.

Read the article here.

Shit just got real.

About goddamn time.  Very little staddled them away from movies by this point (mileage varies with that too).  But I'm glad!  Lots of talent goes into their development, now more than ever.

[Commander Jubby Shepard]

How long until it's accepted as a valid form of literature (yes, that is what I care about)?

[Hathen]

I'm curious as to what these "public works" video games would end up being like. I'm afraid a lot of you will be sorely disappointed because it'll probably end up being Nintendogs-like games being stuck in theme parks or museums and the like.

For example, at the Taiwan Flora Expo there's an exhibit showing interactive flower on touch screens and the like. I'm pretty sure that's what this kind of thing would go towards funding.

[insertnamehere]

If it does fund things besides stuff that Hathen thinks it would, is it like likely at all that it would fund localization?
I want to play with all of my tits asap.

[Demon_Princess_Kay]

In those terms, sure, but without the recognition there's no money. Furthermore the subjectivity of art is up for debate. This does nothing to decide the merit of artistic value of any particular video game, simply that the medium of the video game is now considered art.

I believe that the subjectivity of art was never up for debate. Because the beauty of art is that it is subjective, open to interpretation. To say that something is factually art trivializes the whole concept behind it. There is no universal scale in determining the artistic value of any thing or any medium it's all based on opinions and perceptions there are no facts to it. Without the subjectivity art wouldn't exist.

Overall yes I do believe good come from this but I stand by what i said about it being silly.

[MindCandy]

How long until it's accepted as a valid form of literature (yes, that is what I care about)?

On that note, how much longer until they teach classes on it at uni?

Will Chrono Trigger become required reading?

[Annubis]

This isn't hentai, it's art!

[Vanguard]

How long until it's accepted as a valid form of literature (yes, that is what I care about)?

Probably when they write a script worth reading.

I'm curious as to what these "public works" video games would end up being like. I'm afraid a lot of you will be sorely disappointed because it'll probably end up being Nintendogs-like games being stuck in theme parks or museums and the like.

Have you seen some of the stuff the NEA has funded?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ

I believe that the subjectivity of art was never up for debate. Because the beauty of art is that it is subjective, open to interpretation. To say that something is factually art trivializes the whole concept behind it. There is no universal scale in determining the artistic value of any thing or any medium it's all based on opinions and perceptions there are no facts to it. Without the subjectivity art wouldn't exist.

No.

[Bytor]

Hey! So now I can not only call myself an art collector but perhaps one day I can be a true connoisseur!

[MeshGearFox]

Bye-bye games that are fun to play, hello endless stream of terrible, overly verbose 'adventure' 'games' and clunky sadlets.

LET'S MAKE A PRIDE AND PREJUDICE METROIDVANia wait shit no that would actually be awesome.