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Story Credit: Fast Company

Are video games ARt?

By david zax

The National Endowment for the Arts says so, and is even putting its funding where its mouth is. But the gaming community says its probably too soon to pop the champagne corks.

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Screenshot from the game Crysis 2, said to be the most graphically sophisticated video game thus far. I think perhaps secretly thats a big desire for all of us, she says. Her own game, PuzzleBots, became something of a hit on Steam, the indie game distribution platform by Valve. Ian Bogost, a game designer, critic, and researcher, says that the real news from the NEA announcement wasnt that it had reclassified games as art, but simply that it was actually funding the creation of art again in the first place. Though the Bush years, said Bogost, the NEA mainly relegated its role to the funding of distribution and other peripheral components of art-making. He also called attention to the fact that not just any indie gamer could apply for the grants. exempt 501(c)(3), U.S. organizations; units of state or local government; or federally recognized tribal communities or tribes, and while indie game artists could apply, it would have to be in partnership with a nonprofit. Bogost also wanted to throw the brakes on a tendency he had seen among gamers to celebrate the supposed legitimacy the new designation conferred on games. I think this is encouraging, and we shouldnt belittle it, he conceded of the NEA announcement. At the same time, Its best to look at this for what it is, he sums up, an earnest gesture on the part of the NEA to include more media, and to fund art again. The NEA restricts applicants to nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3), U.S. organizations; units of state or local government; or federally recognized tribal communities or tribes, and while indie game artists could apply, it would have to be in partnership with a nonprofit. Bogost also wanted to throw the brakes on a tendency he had seen among gamers to celebrate the supposed legitimacy the new designation conferred on games. I think this is encouraging, and we shouldnt belittle it, he conceded of the NEA announcement. Its best to look at this for what it is, he sums up, an earnest gesture on the part of the NEA to include more media, and to fund art again. he National Endowment for the Arts recently made an announcement that was MIDI music to our ears: It was now considering interactive games among the art forms to which it would offer funding. Games blogs across the web threw confetti: It means that if a developer wants to create games for people, doesnt want to charge money for them, but still wants to be able to eat, there is an option, said Icrontic. The NEA announcement is a major step, to be sure. But as a few members of the gaming community tell Fast Company, its too soon to bust out the party hats. The NEA announcement is a milestone, but raises as many questions as it answers. Some people were kind of eye-rolly about it, Erin Robinson, an indie game makear, speaking to some skepticism among the gaming community. Im not sure anybody went out and celebrated. She added that while her own personal hope was to make games that the market would support, she did have friends who make weird little art games and might benefit from the funding. Theyre very much the starving artists, and itd be very neat if they were able to tap into that fund now. Robinson said that she was in the market for funding herself--she wants a more professional visual look to her next game--but that she would likely be appealing to Kickstarter, not the NEA. Why? Id have to know more about the NEA money, if it comes with strings attached, or whether I could sell commercially. Many starving, or hungry, artists, have chosen their path very deliberately, she explained. Indie game makers are skeptical of the big-publisher model--of the creative control theyd lose, for one thing, but also of potential profits if their game became a blockbuster, like Jonathan Blows Braid, for instance. though, This is not how culture works, he says. The way that art and culture develops is messy and weird, and shouldnt come down to the funding decisions of a few government bureaucrats.

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