21
With the question of "Are video games art? Can they be art?" being something of a hot issue in recent years, it's always interesting to see how "art for art's sake" and a profit-driven enterprise like, well, video games mash together occasionally. This week's Escapist Magazine has an interesting article entitled "Limit and Measure: Welcome to the World of Art Mods". Something of a cross between (frequently wacky) performance art and run of the mill mods that many people add to their games, art mods
... strip away some of the games' basic elements and ideas, rather than adding on or multiplying the things you can do. In that sense, art mods pull back the technology a little to reveal the little human decisions we take for granted. Violence is slowed down, exaggerated and poked fun at. Sexual politics in games are examined, mocked and re-organized.
The Escapist, as usual, is worth a read, and I think the question of the art/game divide is made more interesting (and more complex) by the addition of little works of art in games, added by people other than the designers.
