Bioware: Jedward, Britney, Video Games are All Art

Bioware's founders Dr Ray Muzyka and Dr Greg Zeschuk were chatting away at BAFTA in London this week and had many things to say - we've got a feature coming up in fact. One of the things they, rather confusingly, touched on was the hoary old argument: 'Are Video Games Art'?

In the Q&A at the end, the esteemed doctors dealt with why the argument is valid in the first place with:

"It matters because if games are considered to be art then they will garner greater acceptance. Once that happens they will be given the respect they deserve and not dismissed as some kind of toy. This then leads to increased coverage of the medium."

This sort of makes sense. But then they were asked:

"How do you relate popular culture with art? According to the cited Tolstoy definition, all forms of entertainment are art, regardless of its perceived quality."

And responded...

"That’s exactly it. You may regard Britney Spears or Jedwood as entertaining and enjoy what they do; then they are provoking an emotional response. Ergo what they do is art. Is it any good? Well that’s a subjective call that we’re not about to make..."

So, basically, it doesn't matter. Carry on everybody.