25012291

Just a Videogame?
A study of perceptions surrounding Art and Videogames, within Australian and Western Culture.

The 'Art of Videogames' exhibition was one of the first of its kind. It highlighted artistic evolution within the emerging technological medium throughout its forty-year history. The exhibition was held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, from March 16th 2012 through till September 30th 2012. Do videogames and cultural events associated with them, such as this exhibition, fit into our cultural belief systems surrounding art?

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Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................. 3 Log ............................................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 1 - Personal Reflection ................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2 - Development of Videogames and their Sub-Cultures. ............................ 12 Chapter 3 - Videogames as Potential Art, and Cultural Definitions of Art. .............. 16 Chapter 4 - The Debate on the Artistic Integrity of Videogames. ............................. 20 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 24 Resource List .............................................................................................................. 26

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Shown above is a still from the game Limbo. Limbo is an example of a videogame highly praised by many for its artistic integrity, this praise is based upon its unique and minimalistic style. However, can our cultural perspectives allow for a game such as this to be defined as art?

Introduction
Videogames represent a form of media technology, that is of increasing importance in the context of society and culture. They have contributed to changes in people's psychological and technological environments. As a significant agent of social change, they have inevitably been the subject of much conflict and controversy. Videogames have challenged our cultural heritage in terms of traditional ideologies associated with art. They have contributed to the sense of alienation between different social groups; as new and often misunderstood gamer identities have arisen alongside various, emerging sub-cultures of gaming. These perceptions are of particular importance to me as I have been exposed to videogames throughout my life. Furthermore, videogames have been a key driving

25012291 force behind my personal creativity. For a long time I have loved drawing sketches of environments and structures. The environments I have developed in these drawings were inspired by the ones that I observed within videogames that I played. These inspirations were the foundations for my Higher School Certificate, Visual Arts main body of work. I considered videogames to be a suitable point of inspiration for my art. However, through exposure to other persons I found that the perceptions surrounding artistic merit of videogames, at least within my micro world, were more divided than I originally thought. Thus the artistic integrity of the videogames I played and by extension my personal artworks, became debatable. Therefore for my Personal Interest Project (PIP) I chose to investigate perceptions of videogames amongst members of different generations, within Australian and western culture. My PIP also explores perceptions about art itself, and how those perceptions tie into the belief systems surrounding videogames. For my PIP I chose to employ three research methodologies. The first one, a secondary research methodology, content analysis. The other two, primary research methodologies, survey and personal reflection. I chose to do content analysis to gather useful background information. By using a survey I was able to gather a reasonable amount of quantitative data to gain a broader perspective. A personal reflection allowed me to gather some qualitative data, to highlight why videogames are so important to me and to declare my personal biases. The cross cultural component of my PIP is the differences in generational attitudes, with regards to videogames and their artistic merit. To observe this generational discrepancy I researched people in two groups, those born before 1990 and those born after. I chose to draw the line at 1990, to clearly differentiate between and define today's youth and older generations. My PIP aims to determine whether there are inconsistent perceptions between different generations with regards to the artistic validity of this new medium.

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Log
Disclaimer: I am a student that is undertaking Pathways for the HSC, thus I commenced the HSC course in April.

When I started out my PIP, I originally intended to not only cover perceptions about the artistic validity of videogames, but also perceptions about the role of violence within videogames as well. I also intended to compare results across four different cross-cultural components; generation Z, Y, X and the baby boomers. After some time and suggestions from my teacher, I decided that this topic area was far too broad. I decided to focus my cross-cultural component between two separate age groups; people born before 1990 and the younger people born after 1990 (what I consider to be my generation).

I decided to narrow down my subject matter to just 'Perceptions about the artistic merit of videogames', completely scrapping the 'perceptions of violence in videogames' aspect. During April and May, I began searching for secondary material on the debate about the artistic integrity of videogames and perceptions from various art and film critics about this aspect of the medium. Thankfully for me, there was an abundance of secondary sources available to me on this subject because, it's a controversial topic that's commonly debated today. During June and throughout the school holidays, I spent time gathering more useful background information and data on this topic and then begin laying the foundations for my survey.

Throughout the next school term I spent a large amount of my time constructing my survey, making sure that it addressed the requirements for my PIP. During this process throughout June I realised that I would also need another primary research methodology, interview. I originally intended to interview a developer of a videogame studio and an author of one or more of the articles that I used in my secondary research. I sent those people emails with a request for an interview. Up to three

25012291 months later, I got nothing. I then decided that I would have to resort to other research methodologies to complete this task or modify my current ones. My teacher gave me the idea of interviewing one of the HSC art teachers at my school for a hopefully unbiased opinion about the definition of Art then ask them if they think that definition could be applicable to videogames. However instead of this interview, I eventually used another secondary source to gain a definition of art. I had concerns that an individual in this case the teacher, is susceptible to personal biases and that a peer reviewed secondary source was more appropriate and less convoluted for my purposes. As for the developers, I again fell back onto secondary research, sources from the developers websites to discover about their opinions about art and the medium that they work with.

During July, I began to finalise everything. I gathered results from my survey and then analysed them, while also continuing on with my content analysis from secondary sources. This allowed me to write up my final two chapters. My PIP was completed before the 29th of July.

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Chapter 1 Personal Reflection.

25012291 Over the past three decades, videogames have become a rising phenomenon within Australian and western culture. As an new form of media, videogames challenge established cultural norms and have therefore been the centre point for much controversy and debate.

I chose to focus on perceptions surrounding the artistic validity of videogames from people within Australia as a representative sample of Western culture. I chose this topic because I care about how this form of media is viewed by my local community and the general Australian public. I wanted to discover what percentage of these people do, or do not view videogames as legitimate expressions of art, and to explore if there is a discrepancy in this result due to factors such as age.

I'm a person that plays, enjoys and is passionate about videogames. I acknowledge that this will undoubtedly affect my personal views and bias on this subject matter. Videogames have been a significant driving force behind my creativity and my passion for the Visual Arts. I am a student who has recently completed the Higher School Certificate (HSC) Visual Arts course. I produced large geometrically rich sketches for my practical assessment. The aesthetic nature of these complex sketches were for the most part, inspired by the videogames that I play.

There have been arguments about videogames and their place in western culture for decades. Particularly in relation to videogames and violence. This is a controversial topic currently, grossly debated, particularly in the Untied States after the recent Sandy Hook Elementary and Aurora Cinema shootings of 2012.Violence is not the main focus of my PIP, but it is important to recognise that violence is a factor in shaping peoples negative perceptions of videogames, and therefore may cause bias when people try consider the positive merits of videogames, such as their artistic merit.

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I have a strong belief in the importance of not only the aesthetic nature of videogames, but also the narratives and themes which they convey to their audiences. In my opinion, these aspects of a game largely contribute to the 'art' within them. Novels and their film adaption's such as Cormack McCarthy's No Country For Old Men hold rich themes, for example 'principle and higher law'. I believe that videogames also have the agency to feature similar profound narratives and complex themes.

An example of a videogame that holds both a profound narrative and a variety of complex themes is the survival action-adventure game, The Last of Us [2013] (developed by the Naughty Dog studio). This videogame is exceptionally important to me, my relationship to this medium and my research topic because of the following aspects:

The game is centred around a dark, complex human tale of survival in the United States well after an apocalypse. The game presents its players with serene images of man made monuments, slowly being reclaimed by the natural world. All the greenery throughout game's environments is reclaiming humanity's domain, a subtle visual metaphor emphasising how little control man has over their environment.

The hostile, lawless nature of the games setting, highlights the illusion of anthropocentrism, placing mankind's existence at the centre of natural order. The game is also riddled with themes of desperation, denial, terrifying justification and presents these directly to the player.

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Shown above is a still from The Last of Us. Recent progress in computer technology has allowed the level of visual fidelity or accuracy in detail within videogames to flourish, as can clearly be seen above. Advancements such as this have arguably revolutionised the visual aesthetic nature of this medium. This advancement allowed for an even greater level of visual sophistication and depth, not only to the environments within the game, but also to the characters that they depict. This further enhances their narratives. In my opinion, The Last of Us is an outstanding example of a game that holds all of these revolutionary aspects. Because of this, it is a primary illustration of the complex artistic potential of the videogame medium.

This specific videogame has made a notable impact on me and my relationship to this medium. I found its profound, complex aspects and thoughtful story completely riveting. Favourable opinions about this game are held by many. Numerous highly credible critics from sources such as The Guardian and The New York Times have also enjoyed and praised these aspects of The Last of Us. However, it is also apparent, at least within my micro world, that there are countless others that do not share this point of view.

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There are people I know who have completely dismissed the existence of artistic and profound aspects of videogames. For example, when I have found myself emotionally invested in the narrative and characters of a videogame, I have sometimes been presented with comments such as "It's just a game". From my point of view, a comment such as this can be compared to referring to a novel as 'just words on a page'. Such comments helped to spark inspiration for my PIP. I also wanted do discover how drastic this division was and if there were cross cultural links regarding age, associated to it.

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Chapter 2 The development of videogames and their sub-cultures.

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25012291 The increased prevalence of videogames within western culture. The focus of this chapter was to highlight and analyse the increased prevalence of videogames within western culture, and to discover their established role within it. I have investigated the extent that videogames have expanded within western and Australian culture and how this may have potentially affected perceptions about the medium and it's possible artistic merits.

In the past three decades, videogames have become evermore prevalent within western culture. In a survey conducted in 2008 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, an initiative of the Pew Research Centre, the MacArthur Foundation revealed that out of the 1,102 of the youth aged 12-17 that participated in the survey, 97% of them played video games. This is a significant finding, considering that video games didn't exist in mainstream culture before the 1970's. The rapid growth of the prevalence of videogames within the Australian cultural space is evident through looking at the history of the retail sector in the past 15 years. The first Australian EB games store was opened on 5 July 1997. As of 2013, there are now 261 EB games stores located around Australia, a significant increase. Increased advancements of technology which drive forward the creative potential and expansion of Videogames as an artistic medium. During the 1980s and 1990s, there was a steady push to improve the graphics and visual fidelity of videogames. Platforms such as the Sony PlayStation and the Nintendo-64 were key platforms in driving the evolution of the medium during this period. The rate of this evolution skyrocketed again in the early twenty-first century. New hardware such as the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox allowed for another evolution in the visual fidelity within videogames. The level of aesthetic complication of the characters and environments within videogames increased. In 2005-2006, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were released, which ushered videogames into the high definition era. These new systems were substantially more powerful than their predecessors. These platforms allowed developers to fully harness their imaginations and creative visions with less technological constraint.

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25012291 New technology derived from these platforms, such as performance capture, increased the believability, creative potential and richness of videogames. With this technology, developers could capture the exact movements of a set of actors. This increased the general realism of a game, and how immersive and convincing the characters appeared to audiences. This technology added a whole new dynamic layer to a game that just wasn't possible ten to fifteen years ago. With this 7th generation of consoles, developers continued to push the graphical bar of their games more toward photorealism. This graphical evolution in videogames also allowed them to become more cinematic. Titles such as Heavy Rain from developer Quantic Dream created interactive drama action-adventure and began to seemingly blur the line between videogames and films. This phenomena complicated cultural belief systems related to the nature of videogames.

This generation of consoles also focused on expanding this medium into the casual market. Gaming expanded towards more non-gamers through the promotion of intuitive motion sensing technology, as seen in the Nintendo's Wii platform and Microsoft's Xbox 360 platform with 'Kinect'. However, home systems were not the only thing driving forward this medium during the early 21st century. The iOS and Android platforms introduced games to a much wider audience via new, powerful mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. This revolution began on June 29th 2007, when the iPhone was released. This platform revolutionised the way people were exposed to videogames as a medium. As of 2012, more than 8.8 million people in Australia owned a smartphone. According to Casey Johnston, the average iPhone user also spends on average 14.7 hours a month playing games. Chris Foresman found that 93% of customers who have download apps, have paid in the last 30 days to get their hands on a game.

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Shown above is the iPhone, an example of a platform and a form of technology that is exceedingly popular in the West. Platforms such as this have brought videogames, to a much broader audience than ever before, expanding the medium into new subcultural spaces.

The heavy emphasises on motion controls, the causal market in home consoles and the expansion of indie games on mobile platforms such as iOS and Android have contributed to the amount of people that are exposed to videogames within Australian society. These platforms could ultimately play a large role in the perceptions about the artistic validity of videogames from the masses.

Cultural festivals in the West that celebrate potential art within videogames. There are a variety of cultural festivals that celebrate videogames and the art within them. Examples of events such as this include: The Game Art Festival held at the University of California, Los Angles, The Electronic Entertainment Expo or 'E3' also held in Los Angles and the Penny Arcade Australia exhibition, hosted at Melbourne, Australia. Festivals such as this display that increasingly, videogames are being perceived as art in the eyes of Australian and other western societies.

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Chapter 3 Videogames as potential Art and Cultural definitions of Art.

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25012291 Games as Art.

The concept of videogames as a form of art is a controversial topic. While video games have attained legal protection as creative works by the supreme court of the United States, the philosophical concept that videogames are works of art remains up in the air, even when considering the contribution of creative elements such as graphics and music. Even games that are purposely designed to be a work of creative expression, have been challenged as works of art by some critics and the general public. So in order to further investigate this divide of opinion surrounding the artistic merit of videogames, we have to investigate notions of art itself.

What is Art?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, 'Art' is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination. The idea that this concept can be applied to videogames is subjective. People appear to have divided opinions about this. Through contact with people in my micro-world, I discovered that opinions on this topic were much more divided than I originally thought.

Developers on videogames as Art.

The developers of videogames also have varying opinions about this form of media as an art form. Different studios have different philosophies to the way they make their games and what aspects are incorporated into them. Some developers strive to create more artistically oriented games, and others don't. An example of a studio that highly values the art of their titles is Bungie. In their own words, "Bungie was founded in 1991 with two simple goals: Develop kick ass games that combine state-of-the-art technology with uncompromising art, captivating storytelling and deep gameplay" (2013). This official statement from this well known developer displays that art strives to be an important aspect within the videogames that this studio develops. Other developers don't place as much focus on the artistic aspects of their games, which can be observed by investigating the belief systems of the creative directors

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25012291 such as Hideo Kojimia, head of Kojima Studios. The role of this figure is further explained in my next chapter. How do notions of art relate to our entrenched belief systems? Perceptions about what constitutes art can often be affected by the principles shared among a group of people within a culture, these are belief systems. Belief systems provide a framework of values, morals, norms and attitudes for people. These belief systems have a direct affect on a person's opinion about ideologies associated with areas such as the role of art within a culture. A survey that I conducted clearly reveals that perceptions on this subject matter are divided. Of the 69 people that participated in my survey, 73% of them stated that they found videogames enjoyable, and that they thought that that they are legitimate expressions of art, with another 12% stating that they did not find videogames enjoyable; however they did think that they are legitimate expressions of art. Contrasting this, 14% stated that they found videogames enjoyable, but not legitimate expressions of art, with 2% outright stating that there was no artistic merit in videogames whatsoever. From this data, it can be concluded that without my cross-cultural discrepancy in generations component coming into play, overall perceptions about the Artistic merit of videogames appear to be positive. Signifying that they are perceived by a majority of western society to fit within the values and mores (rules) associated with artistic ideals. However, there is still a sizeable percentage of people who's opinion differs from the majority causing conflicted belief systems. They believe that videogames do not fit their definition of art. In my survey 52% of people born before 1990 said that they found videogames enjoyable and also thought they were legitimate expressions of art. 86% of people born 1990 and after answered the same. This increase of 34% reveals that there is an increased level of appreciation amongst younger generations and a more positive attitude towards gaming as an experience and as a legitimate art-form.

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25012291 When asked about whether videogames such as The Last of Us belonged at international art festivals, an overwhelming majority from both the two cross-cultural groups thought that they did. 96% of people born before 1990 stated that videogames have a worthy place in art festivals. Interestingly, a slightly lower percentage of people born after 1990 stated that they thought that videogames had a worthy place in art festivals, 91% . This is interesting because to some degree, it contradicts my original hypothesis and the results from other questions, where a higher percentage of people from the group born after 1990 shared positive opinions about videogames having cultural relevance in relation to the arts. Potential futures. From the results gathered from my primary and secondary research, It can be hypothesised that perceptions about the artistic validity of videogames will continue to change. Based on my primary research data; the percentage of people that accept the artistic merit within this media will continue to increase. This gradual change within peoples entrenched belief systems about art and videogames will also be aided as more, innovative, artistically focused games will continue to emerge; such as Journey, Flower, Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us. However, it can be assumed that there will always be an aspect of continuity of cynicism and question on this topic from a sometimes vocal minority group, due to differing cultural perceptions of art.

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Chapter 4 The debate on the Artistic Integrity of videogames.

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25012291 Secondary Research The subject matter about videogames being legitimate art or not is widely debated among academics, artists, the media and the general public. It is evident that the different opinions on this subject matter aren't necessarily affected by the age group of the people. A range of perceptions relating to videogames exist and can be broken down into 'for' and 'against' arguments. For

It can be seen from my secondary research, that a large proportion of people that share perceptions in favour of videogames having artistic merit, appear to be writers from gaming oriented websites, or from 'gaming' sections of websites and newspapers such as The Guardian. These articles are incredibly defensive of videogames artistic merit or, dismiss the importance of both these supportive and dismissive perceptions altogether. This can also be clearly seen in a 1Up article written by John Constantine. This article is very quick to debunk statements from critics from the other side of this argument such as Roger Ebert, in order to justify the artistic merits of videogames. The second article Are videogames art, the debate that shouldn't be by Keith Stuart is also written in a similar fashion, defending the artistic merit of videogames. Keith Stuart is also a young commentator on games for the Guardian, therefore his perspective is reflective of attitudes on this subject matter.

"Who is to say that a Super Mario jump is or isn't art?"

-Keith Stuart. 'Are video games art: the debate that shouldn't be' article from the Guardian, 7 December 2012.

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25012291 Against.

"To my knowledge, no one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists and composers. That a game can aspire to artistic importance as a visual experience, I accept. But for most gamers, video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilised and empathetic."

-Roger Ebert 'Roger Ebert re-enters the games as art debate' article from the Guardian, 21 April 2010.

Film critic, Roger Ebert participated in a series of controversial debates and published colloquies on the 'videogames as art' debate. Ebert argued that video games were a non-artistic medium; when compared to more established art forms. Ebert was aged 70 when he died on April 24th, 2013. His age and his opinions about the medium go hand in hand with my original hypotheses and the stereotype of 'older people don't understand or appreciate videogames'.

Interestingly, some developers themselves have joined Ebert on this debate. It would be fair to assume that all videogame developers would argue that videogames are a form of art. However, Hideo Kojima, (creator of the Metal Gear Solid franchise) argues that videogames are in fact not art, "I don't think they're art either." (as stated in Games aren't Art). Both Kojima and Ebert were 45 or more years old at the time of these publications. Which supports primary data gathered form my survey.

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25012291 Another critic Daniel Golding, a postgraduate research student at the University of Melbourne; wrote BioShock Infinite: an intelligent, violent videogame? on the 9th April, 2013 in the 'arts' section of the ABC website. Written in relation to first person shooter game Bioshock Infinite, the article is dismissive and cynical of potential artistic aspects of the game. Furthermore, it was written in 2013 by a postgraduate research student in his 20's. This is interesting because it goes against the assumption that only older people are dismissive towards the possible artistic merit of videogames. It proves that this perception is also shared by other young people.

Shown above is Rodger Ebert. He was an well known and influential American film critic, journalist and screenwriter. He was also an example of an individual that was highly sceptical of the relationship between videogames and the arts due to entrenched belief systems.

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Conclusion
Throughout the process of conducting my Personal Interest project, I hoped to enhance my knowledge about how belief systems effect perceptions on a new form of media technology which has increasing relevance within Australian culture. Throughout the process of my social investigation, I learned that perceptions surrounding the artistic validity of this medium were divided.

Via the cross-cultural component of my PIP, in conjunction with my primary research methodologies of personal reflection and survey I discovered that negative perceptions towards the artistic merit of videogames were less common from people born after 1990 than those of people born prior. This research proved one element of my original hypothesis to be correct. However, to my surprise a clear majority of both groups held positive perceptions towards the idea of the artistic merit in the videogame medium. This is something that I did not foresee when formulating my original hypothesis. The range of research tools that I utilised to complete my PIP were fairly useful. The information I gained from personal reflection, secondary sources and survey gave me a broad perspective of the central issues of my topic. Personal reflection enabled me to explore the artistic validity of videogames from a personal perspective as well as being able to explore observations of others in my micro world. The survey that I conducted was effective for gathering rich, quantitative data allowing me to draw more general conclusions. While a majority of the results came from within my local and school communities, in relation to my cross-cultural component, diversity of opinion within these communities is substantial, increasing the validity of my results. Secondary research content analysis allowed me to gain a greater understanding of leading theorists' thoughts and macro cultural trends in relation to my topic.

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If I were to do my research over, I would like to add another one or two research methodologies to further expand my understanding. Interviews with professional videogame developers or academics specialising in the arts, would have been beneficial. Unfortunately, I was frustrated in my attempts to interview a videogame developer in spite of having sent dozens of email requests.

My PIP has enhanced my social literacy by forcing me to consider different perspectives relating to a complex issue thus broadening my own perspective and understanding. This has taught me to take a more balanced approach to research and to macro world issues that I encounter in everyday life.

Ultimately conducting my PIP has been a very eye-opening and rewarding process that has given me a framework from which to go forward with academic studies in the future. It has also enhanced my relationship to the medium which has inspired me to want to contribute to the recognition of videogames as a legitimate and widely respected art form.

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Resource List.
Internet Articles Articles on the development of videogames as a medium

https://www.google.com.auhttp://www.localstore.com.au/stores/654/eb-games/

Used purely for statistical data on discovering the number of EB games stores in Australia. Fairly accurate since it lists every store in the country in detail.

http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/13/2612736/ios-history-iphone-ipad

By Dieter Bohn on December 13, 2011. This source provided me with reliable and an accurate history of iOS and the iPhone, allowing me to take note of data of when the iPhone was launched and how much it has grown. In terms of reliability, The Verge is also very well respected and reliable for covering aspects of this field. It is one of the most well regarded tech websites available.

http://toucharcade.com/2010/11/17/ios-stats/

Posted November 17th, 2010 by Eli Hodapp. This website gave me valuable data about the immense growth of games on the iOS platform. It presented me with clear data showing that the iOS platform had more than twice the amount of games on it that all other previous platforms combined. This clearly presented me with evidence supporting the sudden explosion of the Industry and quantity of videogames available to us today.

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http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/08/data-suggests-ios-may-be-the-most-populargaming-platform-of-all-time/

By Chris Foresman, Aug 9 2012. This article basically backs up the information gathered from the article above. It's written by Chris Foresman, a technology journalist from tech website, arstechnica.com. The article essentially states that iOS devices sales crush home consoles and gaming handhelds, offering a much broader user base. This essentially backs up my statement about the spread of videogames into new platforms such as our mobile phones and ultimately western culture.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2011/07/iphone-users-spend-147-hours-a-monthplaying-games/

By Casey Johnston, July 7 2011This is also another source from the same website. Useful because it provides statistics such as: 93 percent of customers who download apps on an iPhone have shelled out cash in the last 30 days to get their hands on a game. Reveals that an overwhelming majority of the population that uses smartphones exposes themselves to videogames. Not entirely useful because it doesn't reveal the percentage of people that use smartphones.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/archive/news/australian-smartphone-users-set-to-jump88-million-in-2012/story-fn7x8me2-1226262214587

By Wes Hosking, February 14th, 2012. Reasonably useful article from February 2012. Useful because of the data it provides. 22.32 million Australians, 8.8 million of them own a Smartphone. This article and the one above made it easy for me to synthesise this data together to make it clearly evident that a large percentage of Australians are exposed to this medium. However, the accuracy of the data is questionable and it's source.

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Articles on Video Games as Art and the debate.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/news240106kojimaart

By Ellie Gibson Published Tuesday, 24 January 2006. Article gave good insight about contrasting opinions on my subject matter. Interesting because it displays that peoples opinions about videogames as being art are even divided within the industry. The article originated from a highly respected and credible website supporting it's validity. It's possibly bias due to it being from a gaming website.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/nov/30/momavideo-games-art

Posted by Jonathan Jones, Saturday 1 December 2012. Article written by Jonathan Jones from his 'On art' blog, in well known and respected UK paper, The Guardian, hence it is fairly reliable source. He provides a counter argument to games being art, claiming that 'No one owns the game' therefore it's not art comparing videogames to chess, not being art, just a game. His opinion is valid. I did not use this source directly in my body content because, unlike someone like Roger Ebert, I could not confirm the authors age.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2012/dec/06/video-games-as-art

Posted by Keith Stuart, Friday 7 December 2012. Interesting because it also comes from the same source as the one above, yet is goes out of it's way to completely challenge Jones opinion. The article is longer and more detailed than the one above, possibly suggesting that people on the advocating side of this debate are possible more vocal or persistent than the people of the dismissive side. Again, this article provided me with useful background information on this debate. Source is the same as above, validating its reliability.

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http://www.1up.com/features/games-art-dissecting-debate

Posted by John Constantine, Jun 04, 2010. Article provided me with an example of a counter argument/opinion to Rodger Eberts. It's from a website that focuses around Videogames so the source it most likely bias in this sense. It still provides a insightful contrast however. The website is also well regarded as well, backing up its reliability.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/apr/20/roger-ebert-games-asart

Posted by Keith Stuart Wednesday 21 April 2010. Article is useful as it provides more background information on Roger Ebert on this subject matter. The source is also fairly reliable due to being from a well regarded and popular website from a respected newspaper.

http://www.bungie.net/en-us/AboutUs

An official statement from Bungie.net, a well known and highly influential developer. They clearly state on their website that one of their goals is to develop games with 'uncompromising art'. Which proves that there are at least some developers in the field that believe that Art in Videogames has legitimacy.

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Primary, Human Resources.

Primary research related to Cultural Definitions and opinions about Videogames as Art.

My survey.

Was conducted from Monday, 22nd of June, 2013 through to Saturday, July 20th 2013 via a survey creation site, survey monkey. The survey was distributed through to people in my local community through social media such as Facebook and via direct contact with my school community. Useful for gathering a reasonable amount of

qualitative data from a broad range of people. In terms of my cross-cultural component, the results that I received for my survey were fairly balanced, with a roughly 40-60% ratio between results form those born before and those born after 1990.

Other secondary sources.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2013/jun/05/the-last-of-us-ps3video-game-review

By Paul Sartori, Thursday 6 June 2013. This source confirms the validity of reviews for such titles from sources such as this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/arts/video-games/in-the-video-game-the-last-ofus-survival-favors-the-man.html?pagewanted=all

By Chris Suellentrop. Published: June 14, 2013. Review of The Last of Us from The New York Times. This source confirms the validity of reviews for such titles from sources such as this.

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25012291 http://www.dailytech.com/Study+Shows+97+Percent+of+Kids+Play+Video+Games/ article12985.htm

By Jason Mick - September 17, 2008. Further secondary source to confirm the validity of the survey conducted in 2008 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, supported by the John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

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