Central Interference: U.S. Government Says Video Games Are Art

The debate on whether video games can be art has been raging for some time and now the United States federal government has thrown its weight behind the medium, making video games eligible for funding that comes from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Its guidelines for the following year, originally designed for radio and for television, have been updated to say that digital media, including video games, should be rewarded with grants as long as they satisfy the standards of excellence put out by the agency.

The National Endowment for the Arts has been created as an independent government agency in 1965, with the stated aim of rewarding artistic excellence using funds coming from the federal establishment.

The new guidelines say “all available media platforms such as the internet, interactive and mobile technologies, digital games, arts content delivered via satellite, as well as on radio and television” can get grants and funding from the United States government for the development, production or the distribution phases of the project.

The money a project can get go from 10,000 to 200,000 dollars, with the sum given out depending on the complexity of a project and the platform on which it will launch, which means that probably mostly indie developers will apply.

Video games will still have to compete with movies, radio and television programs, which might mean that initially at least a limited number will get money from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Noted critic film Roger Ebert was widely cited for its pronouncement that video games can never be art because they can never deliver an experience that has the same impact as Citizen Kane.

Since then video game developers and publishers have sought to hype up their products by claiming that they are pushing the video game genre towards the art space.