"Videogames Can Never Be Art" – Spike Lee

>"Having once made the statement above, I have declined all opportunities to enlarge upon it or defend it. That seemed to be a fool's errand, especially given the volume of messages I receive urging me to play this game or that and recant the error of my ways. Nevertheless, I remain convinced that in principle, video games cannot be art. Perhaps it is foolish of me to say "never," because never, as I've once said, is a long, long time. Let me just say that no video gamer now living will survive long enough to experience the medium as an art form."

Did he have a legitimate point?

He does. Only teenagers believe video games are art.

>Spike
Is this an Ape Escape reference?

Spike Lee is right. Video games are just toys, but damned if they're not fun toys.

he's right. Writing in video games is trash nowadays. Even Kojima took a nosedive.

Or people in the video game industry

>I'm not making toys mom, it's art

Uh he looks black

And yet he made a vidya game? What did spike mean by this?

lol spike made the story mode in the last NBA game. Guess what, the writing is trash

Therefore his opinion is even more valid

He doesn't, because it was Roger Ebert who said that.

Art is about the message, not the medium.

>Implying Kojimas writing was ever good

Every story he's written has been "based off" an 80's scifi/action flick.

>because never, as I've once said, is a long, long time
>as I've once said

But his game was shit

These threads attract the most pretentious faggots. Only threads worse on Sup Forums are e-celeb shit and anything remotely Sup Forums related.

Art is anything
This is not an argument

Don't summon him.

There have been ignorant fucks throughout history. When man first made paintings on the walls of caves, surely a neanderthal would have walked up to him and said "lol this will never be art faggot"

personaly I don't want them to be considered art, I mean have you ever been to an art exibition recently? It's full to the brim with the most despicable garbage imaginable, hell the same goes for most art films as well.
I don't want games to be art because I actualy like games

People in film keep saying vidya can't be art is the same way people in literature said that movies can't be art. It's all apart of the entertainment cycle and vidya people will say the same once the next big thing arrives.

how isn't art just a toy then?

>Red Tails

Anything can be art.

But he's one to talk since out of the 35 films he's made, only 1 was decent. All the other shit he's made is nothing more then cheap, "we waz kings." circlejerking.

>getting your philosophy from a negro

Reminder that he made NBA game.

And he even made himself into a character in it.
And congratulated himself on a job well done at the end.

And it was awful.

this pasta never gets old, especially because nu/v/ falls for it every time.

CAN they be art? Of course. Video games can easily have artistic value.
ARE they art now? Not really. There's too much corporate interest and gamers are giant manbabies. The best you'll get are souls games, bioshock, and shadow of the collosus.

Well to be fair. He has made a game since that quote and it was absolutely horrible. So take what he says about the medium with a grain of salt. Spike should just stick to what he's good at; being an annoying little shit at Knicks games.

Spike Lee is correct, but none of his movies are art either.

shut the fuck up, retard

>Did he have a legitimate point?
He didn't make a point, just a statement.
His statement is correct.

Go back to the set spike

This was not said by Spike. It was said by the Raiden of our time. Spike said,
>white people can never be trusted

The fact that there seems to be just like a single person in this thread who actually recognizes the pasta makes me realized just how much of a nosedive this fucking board has taken over the last few years.
My god you fucks should really not be posting here.

Has a nigger really ever said anything of importance?

The argument isn't "video games are toys and toys can't be art" (They can).

The argument isn't "Video games are bad and bad things can't be art" (They can).

The argument isn't "Video games have corporate meddling, and corporate things can't be art" (They can).

The argument is video games are subjective experiences, no two people will ever experience the same video game, because they will all play it differently. Some people will die 100 times, some will not die a single time. Some will make a Mage character, some will make a Fighter. This greatly affects your experience of the game. Everyone watches the same movie. Everyone reads the same book. Everyone looks at the same painting. Interpretation of those art forms will vary from person to person, but the experience is the same. Not true with video games.

The argument you want to prove and or debunk is "subjective and unique experience of a medium isn't art" not "pixels and sounds aren't art"

But, because "video games aren't art" is such a vague statement, it's guaranteed replies because people are stupid.

Pretty much, he's also pretty fucking stupid. On twitter he posted the wrong address of zimmerman and it actually the home of two 70+ elderly people

we own this shit now, gramps. we love ecelebs and call of duty. make like a dinosaur and become a fossil, faggot!

There is no fucking argument
That's just a bait copypasta you moron

The closest thing gaming actually got to becoming art

I liked Do the Right Thing

wrong pic ,my bad

This was never funny. Please stop.

>despite everyone telling me I'm wrong i refuse to defend my claim
>just the fact that theres so many people telling me im wrong, must mean im right

has a stupider man existed

>people still fall for this

replying to this many people should be an insta ban

>The argument is video games are subjective experiences, no two people will ever experience the same video game, because they will all play it differently.
So... just like all other kinds of art, as dozens of most influential art critics and theoreticists pointed out through out the entire history of 20th century in what we generally know as the semiotic turn?
Just like performative art, live music, dance etc... which are without a problem recognized as art and actually always have been?

Ignoring the fucking fact that this thread is full of insane morons who actually do not know who Ebert is and why this quote is so damn notorious in the industry: This is NOT the fucking argument. Never has been.

Ebert's argument has been a lot simpler, and a lot dumber. He said that games are exclusively a competition. And competition is sport, not art. That is literally the extend of his argument that has been laughed out by absolute MAJORITY of people who commented on it, including many of his colleagues and art critics too.

This is how people generally are. They're very attached to their beliefs. Studies have shown that, when presented with evidence contradicting their beliefs, people just believe even harder rather than changing their minds.

>pictures are art
>statues are art
>music is art
>writing is art
>put it all together and it is art
>put it all together and make it interactive and it isn't art

If anything you just proved that videogames are better art than the shit people think is art because of the plethora of experiences and perceptions each person can have about the same piece.

If a woman painting with her fucking vag in public is considered art, then videogames are the Mona Lisa.

>Just like performative art, live music, dance etc... which are without a problem recognized as art and actually always have been?

No, those are always exactly the same. Each performance might be different, but everyone sees the exact same performance.

Ironically, while video games aren't art, Lets Plays ARE art.

Yes OP, we go over this every goddamn week. Video games are made of art, but they're not art. Movies are made of art, but they're not art. Keeping art as the classical definition of the fine arts should be how it fucking is. Too bad we have generations that are now growing up on the CIA's shitty modern art shit in a literal toilet bowl pieces as being called art.

>drawings
>art
>cinematics
>art
>story
>art
>music
>art

>interactivity
OH ITS NOT ART ANYMORE

You don't understand the different between "interpretation" and "experience"

Everyone who watches a woman paint with her vag has the same experience. They all interpret it differently.

Everyone who plays a video game has a different experience. The fact that no two people will experience the same game changes how they interpret it.

Video games would have been widely accepted as an art form long ago, if only the people who want video games to qualify as art weren't trying in vain to achieve this by erecting a shining pedestal under games which sacrifice gameplay for story, graphics, etc., thereby sending the message to normies that video games can qualify as art only by losing the interactive elements which qualify them as games, thus implying that video games are not a distinct art form after all.

>EVERYONE SEES THE SAME PERFORMANCE
>DOESN'T MATTER IF THEY PERCEIVE IT DIFFERENTLY, IT IS THE SAME

who cares about anything this nignog says? this fucker hates everyone who isnt black and constantly makes shit up like saying black people have no films about their historical figures

Finally the director of the shitty Old Boy remake speaks out on the important video games as art issue

Are you mad because it's true?

yeah but all of those things are complete trash in video games, especially the writing. So its not real art.

>I'm not going to tell you why, but believe me, games aren't art.
I don't give a shit, and you shouldn't either, play video games and enjoy them. If you agree with him though, neck yourself.

Not who you're responding to. I want to comment on the idea of "experience".
>I pressed "A" at 12 seconds instead of 10 seconds, it's a completely difference experience!
Fuck that shit. That's the same tired excuse faggot 17 year old youtubers try to use when claiming that their shitty let's plays are fair use.

The medium has been an art form as soon as the first videogame was created. It's an expression of human creativity. Much like Spike's """flicks""" (see: forgettable films)

If the last of us is the standard than I can honestly say I'll never be alive to see video games be art.

>it's a "it must be good to be considered art!" episode.

tired of this shitty meme tbqh

It's true though.

Famously, Yahtzee hated Demon Souls because it was too hard and he had to keep replaying the same area over and over. Once he got good, he loved the Dark Souls games. His experience greatly changed his interpretation of the game.

No one says "The latest Disney movie was shit because I had to watch the first 10 minutes 15 times"

>Write a stereotypical "uprising from the hood" basketball fantasy story that only niggers would relate to
>Game sales tank
>Make no money off your atrocious highschool basketball fantasy story
>Video games can't be art cause i ain't make money

Not every game is a linear interactive movie but yeah I hate YouTube snowflakes too.

>all these rubes who think its a spike lee quote

rubes, so many rubes

I don't know why people care. I don't need my hobby to be validated by people that have no interest in it. Your appreciation of something shouldn't be contingent upon whether or not other people like it.

>Listening to a nigger

Didn't Ebert say something like this?

>don't know why people care. I don't need my hobby to be validated by people that have no interest in it. Your appreciation of something shouldn't be contingent upon whether or not other people like it.

Because telling someone rich and famous they are wrong is extremely satisfying to people who have no achievements of their own to be proud of.

He just learned how to play the game, that's all. When you're shit at a sport, you're going to have a bad time too. That's how things work, more than just games. When you don't understand a book, you're going to be confused and you most likely won't enjoy it.

Every movie of his was trash and is only made to make a message.

And besides that, movies aren't art either.

Sports aren't art either, so you just proved my point.

>implying literally all art isn't subjective
>b-but I painted it this way so everybody sees it this way
Every experience is subjective. Video games aren't "not art" because they offer a slightly more subjective experience than other art forms.

>You proved my point
I was never arguing that video games are art. They're not art. They're made up of some art. They're a product, a toy, a game. It was a mistake calling anything but the fine arts as art.

Is a game of chess art? And just to be clear, I'm talking about the actual game: the idea of two people moving pieces against one another in ordered chaos in attempt that one of them might satisfy an arbitrary arrangement such as they are determined the "winner". There are more games of chess than atoms in the universe, certainly no two are likely to ever be the same.

Certainly a chess board and its pieces could qualify as art, and certainly be made with artistic direction, but the game itself is nothing more than an arbitrary system of rules, and the act of playing it is abiding by those rules.

If this act qualifies as art, then so does crossing the street at a cross walk. The government dictates that you can only cross the street at certain places and times, and by obeying those rules, you have in essence played a game. Indeed, street corners can often be decorated with art, and even the time to cross the street can be indicated by accompanying music. But the act of following these rules, nor the rules themselves, would be considered art by no one

Video games can incorporate much more art than your typical chess board or street corner, but is the game itself art? Is the act of following an arbitrary system of rules art? I think the only way it could ever happen is if the system of rules is so incomprehensibly complex that no one can even be sure what they are. We may not even recognize such a thing as a game.

This is wrong on literally every level. So first of all, they don't. PERCEPTUAL DIFFERENCES between people are a thing, a major thing actually, as any neuroscientists that ever studied perception will confirm.
Second of all, have you really never heard of Barthes, Eco, Eliot, Brooks, hell, even Joyce? Never heard about books like Rauela, Chazarian Dictionary, Invisible Cities - all meta-textual fiction? Never ever fucking faced the theory that interpretation might be more relevant than text itself?
Fourth: If the work will differ between individual performance, then how can you claim that the work itself (if it can be only percieved through performance, which is the case of most music), how can you declare the work itself "art"? By your logic, the musical compositions or theatrical plays can't be art: merely the INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES can be art. But that is something clearly most of art theatre and musical theory won't agree on.

Seriously, this is so laughably stupid line of thinking it may be a mistake to even give you any attention. It's stupid and the entirety of 20th century art theory has already proven you wrong.

But toys can be art.

fag

>I don't know why people care.
Because any discussion of art is actually a discussion of values. And values are interesting, and important to discuss. They are fundamental part of our basic societal order and organization. It's no different from people discussing ethics - in fact it is actually a form of ethics in some sense, and that is that people are pretty inherently motivated to debate.

And by the way, you are very wrong. Your appreciation of things should be also confronted and updated by what other people think: again this is how a society steers itself. There is nothing actually wrong about that as long as you can balance your own rationality and responsibility with the societal outlook.

>No one says "The latest Disney movie was shit because I had to watch the first 10 minutes 15 times"
Uh, one of the commonly accepted definitions of "classic fiction" is that your ability to appreciate it is partially dependent on your knowledge and education within the medium. In music, there are thousands of compositions well famous for being something most people have to listen to multiple times to enjoy it. There are many movies or books most people have to either push themselves to get through before they start to be able to appreciate them, or that require you to know some kind of broader context before you can appreciate them. This is yet another completely retarded line of argumentation.

huh could have sworn spike lee hasn't been relevant in the last decade or so

If we define "art" by it's most useful and non-douchey definition -- something man made with the implicit or explicit purpose of making you "think," or feel the world in a different way -- then yes, some games are. Some movies are not, some movies are. Some lit is not, some is. Some vidya does try to make you think/feel about the world (MGS1, I'd argue some of the final fantasy's, Last of Us, etc). Some are fucking Spyro or Splatoon.

Things that weren't intended to be art can still make someone think/feel, so you can dick around with the definition and say Spyro may be art to you personally because it made you think/feel, but you'd have to agree that it's not art "objectively" speaking because it was just designed as a retarded platformer for kiddies.

>Is the act of following an arbitrary system of rules art?
It's more about the experiences that arise from the system of rules then the rules themselves. The system is a frame work for the in game art, music, animations, and writing to work off and create meaning. The system is how you are directed to understand the piece. Like how cinematography is how see the film. But cinematography isn't quite art by it's self. It needs something compelling to be in the frame itself.

>Your appreciation of things should be also confronted and updated by what other people think: again this is how a society steers itself. There is nothing actually wrong about that as long as you can balance your own rationality and responsibility with the societal outlook.
Fuck societal outlook. Other people's feelings, especially their feelings on how I spend my leisure time or the things that I like do not matter, period. Needing others to validate you is bullshit. Rich people don't like video games? Guess I'll just keep playing video games. All I ask is that everyone leaves me alone

Why are people getting so wound up man
Obviously it's up to the person what they view as art, how can people put objective terms to something that is based around subjectivity
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that

Are you actually, unironically 14? Jesus, this is so insanely immature, stupid outlook that it's beyond belief. Fun fact: the tolerance of that society is the only thing that keeps you alive. Maybe you should really, really start thinking about them a little differently. ESPECIALLY if you contribute fuck all.

The sport argument seems the best since even beating single player is like solving a long puzzle; and that can be done at a "pro" level like speed running.

Video Games universally revolve around their game design. What does their writing have to do with it? They're not books or movies.

It makes me wonder why so many people are so keen on videogames being art considering the amount of snobs that are involved in the arts medium(like Lee). Just enjoy them and continue with your life.

He's absolutely right. Only Sup Forumseddit would argue. Garbage like Life is Strange isn't art.

Everything can be an art. Games, music, fuck, even killing people.
If you give love to it and your time, to show yourself or what you want to show, then yes, it's art.

>The sport argument seems the best
It's really not. On many levels, including the fact that across multiple cultures, disciplines that are considered "sport" are also considered "art", including dancing, fencing, martial arts, archery etc...
Second of all: A LOT of great fiction is itself designed as puzzles, in fact the ability to invite people to participate in the work, challenge the audience to connect the dots etc... is considered incredibly valuable part of art.

>Sup Forums no longer recognizes this pasta
Christ almighty, what is wrong with you people?

spike lee films cannot be art

I am a law abiding citizen that works, pays taxes, votes, and so on. The least I ask for is for is to not be bothered by other people. If you or they don't like what I am doing or what hobbies I partake in then they can fuck off. I live for myself and my loved ones. Don't you fucking talk down on me about "tolerance". You sound like a jumped up college shitheel and your like are the fucking worst with the most intrusive beliefs.