A life-size model of one of the characters from the computer game World of Warcraft on display in California.

A life-size model of one of the characters from the computer game World of Warcraft on display in California. Photo: Reuters

ARE video games art? Is that even an interesting question? And how long does it take a new cultural form before people start to take it seriously?

The "are video games art?" debate has been simmering off and on for as long as I can remember but it has roared to life recently. Last month, American film critic Roger Ebert poured fuel on the fire in an article suggesting that video games "can never be art''. Australian film critic Lynden Barber ran some of the same arguments here. Tens of thousands of blog posts, comments, articles and accusations later - including quite a few in The Age's own Screen Play blog - and it would be fair to say that there hasn't been a lot of movement between the opposing camps.

I'm no objective observer on this one. I believe that video games are a significant, under-explored and under-appreciated cultural form. I grew up with video games. I love playing them both to mindlessly kill time and because I find them uniquely compelling. Six years ago my love of, and frustration with, video games led me to co-found Free Play, an annual independent video games festival and conference in Melbourne. The 2010 event will be at the State Library in August.

But I'm no unabashed apologist either. Structurally, computer games are an unimaginative industry. More often than not they fall well short of their creative potential and many people who love computer games will freely admit that. Free Play came in part from the passions of people whose creative ambitions were constantly thwarted by the commercial imperatives of their employers and was aimed in part to try to foster the same kind of independent sector for games that had long driven innovation in cinema.

Today's computer games have a lot in common with early cinema. They draw on many creative traditions to create a new one. They can incorporate narrative, architecture, acting, drama, animation, choreography, music, pictures, text and cinema itself and fuse them to create something that can be powerful and experiential or - as I will admit is often the case - superficial and dumb.

So why might cinema be an art form and not games? Both Ebert and Barber rely largely on a quite technical line. A "game" by definition, they argue, is inherently based on rules and competition. Games and art are therefore irreconcilable. The argument to me ignores precedents such as dance - which has both competitive and artistic forms - and the reality of many computer games today that aren't competitive games in the traditional sense at all.

This isn't just a semantic debate though. It comes at a time when the Australian game community is political and active. Whether games are art or not is a question with powerful political consequences in a country unique in the world for having no R18+ rating for games.

Games are the only creative form - the only art form perhaps - where creators are banned from making works specifically for adults or dealing with exclusively adult themes. Given the average computer game player is about my age it should be no surprise that the government is being lobbied hard by gamers advocating a change of law.

But do I think games are art? Frankly I'm not sure it's the right question.

Making games is a skilled craft.I've seen games that are as thought-provoking, beautiful, powerful and intriguing as any other cultural form but I wouldn't suggest that all games are artworks.

It is the talent, tradition, motivations and the consequences of painting for example that defines whether it's art or not, otherwise every house painter and signwriter would be queueing up outside the Australia Council.

I suspect the debate is largely generational. Games have already made their way into galleries, orchestras play their soundtracks, and their characters are familiar parts of many lives.

To paraphrase Mac Planck, the games as art argument won't triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up familiar with it.

marcus@marcuswestbury.net or @unsungsongs on twitter.