In Some Games, It's the Pattern, Not the Plot, That Makes Them Beautiful

I kind of see this as a companion piece to my essay on "Why Video Games Might Not Be Art" column from a few weeks ago, though that may make little sense to anyone but me.

When I wrote "Why Video Games Might Not Be Art," it was in an effort to address a few issues that have bothered me when it comes to how folks talk about video games and art and how I feel like most of the smart talk about games has avoided distinguishing between aestehtic categories. Not that I think that that talk isn't smart or relevant, I do, just that few people seem equipped or willing to confront aesthetics themselves, focusing on other lines of critique when it comes to games, social, political, rhetorical, etc.

In any case, this post is an effort to address something that I keep hearing from game critics that seems to suggest that narrative and art are somehow intertwined, as if beauty is not accessible without a story. I would agree that story is one of the clearest access points to the beautiful. It is a great "vehicle" for art. However, I don't think that it is requisite to call something art.

In Some Games, It's the Pattern, Not the Plot, That Makes Them Beautiful