Today I read that video games are now legally eligible for National Endowment ofr the Arts funding effectively granting them legal recognition as a work of art. Blogger John funk said it best:
The whole purpose of NEA funding is to create a means by which an artist can create a work of art that would enhance the public good. The logic is fairly sound - beautification fosters civic pride and paves the way for economic prosperity.The "games as art" debate will likely continue raging for years before videogames reach complete cultural acceptance, but at least one important organization now officially considers games art: The US Federal Government. Or, rather, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) considers games art - which technically amounts to the exact same thing.
This made me wonder: It's easy to see how a physical work would add value to civilization and serve as a lightning rod for business and creativity. But what if the work you are creating is virtual? How do you associate the creators and the location in which the works were made with the works themselves? I think that film serves as the best model of what we can expect. As a resident of LA, it is easy to see the utter lack of monuments that actually represent the film industry. The real places of inspiration should be the massive sound stages at Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount, Sony, etc., but for lack of anything tangible, people are instead drawn to the Hollywood Walk of Fame or Mann Grauman's Chinese Theater. Yet despite the fragmentation of the film industry, Hollywood remains at least for now, the de facto capital of the film world. This is largely due to the legacy of Hollywood but really has little to do with the reality of any global monopoly on film making. But we can certainly see the cultural benefit the United States has enjoyed from the Hollywood legacy.
What is important to remember is the financial mechanisms, tax structures, investors, talent pools, etc. that were put into place that created the environment for Hollywood to exist in the first place. I think that the availability of NEA funding for video games is a step in the right direction. The reality is that the video games industry is very much still in its infancy. There is little reason to expect that without further state and federal economic incentives that video games will remain an iconic jewel of American culture and instead come to be known as an industry ruled by the China, Japan, Germany or France. If you don't believe me, go ask anyone if they still think France is the King of the movies.
