Whether or not video games can be considered art is a "parlor argument," says Rockstar's Dan Houser, explaining that his studio makes games enjoyable above anything else.
November 18, 2011
Author: by Staff
The legitimacy of video games as a medium of artistic expression is irrelevant to Grand Theft Auto series maker Rockstar Games. Speaking to Gamasutra in a rare interview, studio co-founder and vice president of creative Dan Houser called the argument a "parlor debate," saying that it never affected the studio's output. "We make something we think above all is going to be enjoyable for people to play. Otherwise they are not going to keep doing it -- and the idea that anything could be artistic and not enjoyable is something that I am not sure I agree with," he says. According to Houser, games are a commercial medium -- just like pop music and cinema -- and can be artistic just as easily as they can be exploitative. True, the public in general has a hard time grasping this, but will the common man accept games as a credible medium? "In some ways I hope not, because we will become more and more controlled and Academy-sized [as an industry] and you'll lose a lot of the freedom that we enjoy," he says. More thoughts from the elusive Houser at our extensive Gamasutra interview.
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