I’m a college student and an aspiring author to be, working towards my Communications degree with focus in Journalism and a minor in Film Studies. If you know me, or you even looked at what I wear, you’d know me as a nerd. I don’t even mean that as a depreciating joke, I’m proud of it (and is it really an insult anymore?). My other interests’ aside, one of my strongest passions is how much I love video games. I’ll rave about them day and night if you let me. I’ll tell you flat out they’re an art form and I’ll defend it. The real question is how did my love for gaming happen? And why is it art?

I was young, maybe four or five years old. I was sick and I really couldn’t go anywhere. The memory is fuzzy, but what I clearly remember is the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) my parents had in our living room. The controller was sitting there, open for use. No one was watching the TV at the time, so I decided I might give it a try, I’d seen my dad and my sister’s hop on there before. There were so many cartridges, and I didn’t really know where to begin. I eventually went straight for the original Super Mario/Duck Hunt combo. I started with Duck Hunt and blasted into the screen with my Nintendo Zapper, but eventually grew bored and hopped onto Super Mario. I sat down and played for what must have been hours.

I didn’t really accomplish anything, I died a whole lot and grew frustrated…yet I kept coming back, back to the voiceless pixelated chiptune world of Super Mario. Back to the frantic platformer of intrigue that is Ninja Gaiden, back to the vast lands and monsters of The Legend of Zelda, back to the extraordinary worlds that came in these simplistically stylized gray cartridges you’d have to blow in to get it to work again. As my family and friends got newer consoles with newer games, so did we spend our mornings and afternoons playing together for when some of us even stayed up all night never seemed long enough.

Why on earth should I or anyone dedicate my time to these games? They could be beaten, but they were essentially just “entertaining wastes of time” to some. What is so worth it about games? How are they art?

Here’s my question for you: how are games not art? Like books and movies before them, gaming offered an escape that was unlike any other: you were a part of the action and it was all in your hands. With the help of a controller, games to me were like interactive novels where I was the main character. I could transport myself to a fictional realm at any time and place to create whatever rules and stories I wanted in my own head when the visual storyline itself didn’t make them. These games offered an alien strangeness; something new to absorb and to accomplish where I lacked understanding. It’s the essence of discovery and creation that drew me in to games in the first place. Each gray cartridge, blue-colored to reflective discs were and still are portals to another dimension where I’m suddenly granted an opportunity to stay there for as long as I could because I wanted to. I wanted to learn. I took in every pixel and frame while simultaneously looking for the best way to dominate my friends in multiplayer or to defeat a boss that had been giving us trouble for weeks. I love books and I love movies, but my love for video games will trump all of the above because of how immense gaming is.

Video games are art because of the impact they have on culture. For example, remember Pokemon? That series is still around and it’s still going strong. In my opinion, the reason of why Pokemon was such a hit when it came out was because so many kids (like me) were watching Pokemon the anime on TV. Boys and girls alike could catch Pokemon just like their hero, Ash Ketchum, and explore and fight through this universe with mystically powerful yet adorable creatures at their side to prove they were the best. It’s not that this fantasy realm had to make perfect sense; the point was kids could socialize with each other with something that’s pretty much brand new. How kids interacted with each other was not only limited to the books they liked and the music they enjoyed, but what Pokemon they caught. That’s pretty revolutionary.

Good art creates a lot of discussion; games at times have something to say. Modern roleplaying games like Mass Effect, The Witcher, and Fallout all offer moral decisions to make between right and wrong, and it was all up for the player to decide what the best option was. For example, a more recent indie release called Undertale offered a different route from most games: you don’t have to fight or kill anyone to beat the game. In fact, the game’s characters themselves frown upon violence and your actions have significant impact upon the games overall story. If you start killing everything in your path, the non-player characters will hide from you and treat you like you’re a monster. In contrast, if you behave according to the different situations you come across with each character and challenge you face, you’ll make strong friendships. In fact, the only way to achieve the “true” ending of the game is by not killing anyone at all. I won’t spoil anything about the ending, but that’s quite a statement to leave upon an audience, isn’t it?

Another strong motif in Undertale is that you can accomplish anything if you “stay determined”. The same could be said for even Dark Souls in which “death is only the beginning” or Halo with “failure is not an option” against a seemingly unstoppable alien army. Kingdom Hearts taught me that even at the darkest times and places within people that everyone has some good within them. Even little games like Candy Crush (while isn’t my personal favorite) still teaches players about patterns and using their brain to accomplish their goals. The gaming industry is growing, and changing and constantly improving. There’s just so much to love about gaming as a whole, that’s pretty much undeniable.

Like an art gallery in a museum or a book club meeting, games can and will bring people together, even if they’re solitarily played and enjoyed. Your options within them are seemingly limitless, because you can do almost anything in video games nowadays. From crafting items and houses to fighting monsters to living a simulated life from beginning to end, it doesn’t replace actually living life but as its own stylistic interpretation of it. Gaming is an evolving form of magic with social messages, and they have the potential to have great power. That being said, games don’t have to be super complicated to be good, to be enjoyed, and to be art. They already are – it’s up to the player whether it’s good art or not.

So let me recommend something to you, next time you have the chance. Buy a game, or borrow one from a friend if you can, or watch someone play another online. You might find something within it that’s fun, moving, and even relaxing. Who knows? Just like a game, just like art, just like life…in the end it’s all up to you what you get out of it. And to me, that’s the most beautiful thing about it.