The Place of Artistry in the Games Industry

The endless conflict between art and business is one that’s plain to see in just about any creative industry. Movies that are critically lauded but perform poorly at the box office often end up with a strong place in people’s opinions but without any hope of a follow-up from the companies behind them. Similarly, a film might also be too successful for its own good – leading to countless sequels and spin-offs that only diminish the quality of the original.

The games industry is much the same, but with so much money to be made from game purchases and microtransactions, some might ask whether there’s any place for artistry at all in the landscape.

Artistry in Every Genre?


It’s perhaps sensible to set realistic expectations to begin with. After all, the broad question of whether games should be treated as art, toys or products might not have a binary answer. They can be all three, they can be different ones at different times, or maybe it’s just up to the person experiencing them.

It’s also valuable to unpack what is even meant by artistry? Does a game have to provide a powerful, subtextual experience that comments on some aspect of the world to fit this niche? People who play the games available at the LuckyDays online casino at luckydays.ca might not be looking for this; they might just be looking for some short-form games to help them pass the time. However, that doesn’t mean that these games are devoid of artistry if the audio-visual design is capable of creating a convincing and immersive environment.

In Place of Fun?


It’s worth bearing in mind how subjective this whole question is. As with the prior example of an online casino, not everyone is going to be looking to spend their downtime with something that’s so focused on being so thematically rich – a lot of people come to games because they’re fun.

Can a powerful artistic statement exist at the same time as an emphasis on fun? Most people who enjoy games and treat them as art would say that they can, but also everyone has a different threshold for where that balance might lie and for what even qualifies as fun in the first place. That can make it difficult for some people to enjoy a game that is critically acclaimed but sits outside of their genre interests.

Visual Art


Something that more people might be able to agree on in games is the wealth of visual artistic skill that exists in the medium. A lot of people might think about this in direct relation to the graphical quality of the game, but the art styles and the art that can exist within games can all help to make a game more striking and impactful. The games that are designed by FromSoftware are all incredibly highly regarded for their visual art, even though the graphical power of those games is rarely seen as being on the same level as other standard-setters in the industry, going to show how much mileage such a thing can have.