«Stop ruining games for us!»

«Don’t bring X into gaming! Games are supposed to be fun.» I’ve heard that argument a million times, and usually it isn’t true.

Can games be art?

In the late 90s I heard a lot about how we’re not supposed to call games a medium or an artform, because games are supposed to be fun, and art is to opposite of fun. The discussion went on for a while, then a consencus was reached, and then a year or so later it would spring up again.

As far as I know, it never got to the point of death threats or rape threats or even online stalking, just flame wars online and in real life, and sometimes people got slightly mad at each other.

It went a little bit like this:

– This game that I’m making is art.
– No it’s not, you pretentious piece of shit, it’s a…