Video Games as Art - Why Not? Part Deux!

While fine art has The Museum of Modern Art in NYC, video games have bargain bins or previously owned shops. Film has the Academy Awards, while video games have the groan-inducing VGAs (Video Games Awards) on SpikeTV.

The VGAs don't respect games the way that the Academy Awards respect film. The VGAs are just an excuse to push products on viewers/gamers and feature celebrities that have nothing to do with games. Rather than honor games that are really good, or bring attention to little-known independent games, the show uses games solely to sell the viewers products that have absolutely nothing to do with the games.

As seen in the video above, instead of nominating real voice actors for their voice work, they nominate celebrities such as Megan Fox for doing voice over in the horrible game accompaniment to the (also horrible)Transformers movie.

The VGAs play a role, if a small one, in why video games are not taken seriously. Video games can be the focus of an award show, just not in a way that gives no respect to the players or the game developers. Video games are still seen as a child or man-child form of play. This notion is reflected in the theme and focus of the VGAs. While video games are a form of play, they are simultaneously art created by the game developers.