The List #60: Boy Meets Girl

In defense of a new art form.

Video games can be art. Whenever I say this, I am told that they’re addictive, or that many of them are brainless trash. I accept these points, but they’re irrelevant. To say that something can be art doesn’t mean it always is, or that it’s always healthy. “Art” is not a synonym for “good” or “good for you,” as Plato would be the first to point out were he alive to agree with me—which he surely would.

Great art, though, is another matter. Great art expands the soul, renews the mind, informs the heart. It’s too early in the medium’s history to say if any video games will endure to prove themselves truly great. But one game at least has all the makings of a solid contender. Even if you don’t play regularly, it’s well worth spending some time in its lyrical world.