Revisiting Games as Art - GUI 135

Alex & Mike revisit the status of games as art. Recent conversations on the subject have evoked Ebert, who answered in the negative, citing a lack of worthwhile subject matter comparable to great works of other mediums & of authorial control resulting from player freedom. Meanwhile others have said video games are a “synthesis” of all the fine arts, as though a methodology, skillset or choice of expressive matter settled the question. We opine both are wrong & for the same reason: each describes only [a facet of] the matter of potential video game art and of art generally, failing to specify its essence formal element. Listen (or read on) for i) an explanation of art according to Maritain's Art & Scholasticism [in the tradition of Aristotle, Aquinas & the Thomists]; ii) to learn why, according to this definition, video games are the most advanced phase of artistic representation.