Abstract

The article discusses the question whether and how video games can be regarded as works of art. It proceeds in two steps. In the first step, it criticizes the much-discussed alternative of video games as games or interactive narratives and demonstrates why video games cannot be defined in this way: There are central characteristics of video games, but their meaning is only concretized in and through each individual games. In the second part, the article discusses what it means to understand video games as a medium of art and argues that although not all video games can be meaningfully discussed in the context of art, some can. Finally, these considerations are concretized by looking at paradigmatic games. The fundamental art-theoretical thesis (following Hegel and Adorno) the paper argues for consists in the following thesis: A video game can be meaningfully discussed in the context of art if it thematizes its own being as a video game in and through the act of playing in such a way that it grants players a perspective on themselves as members of a life form.