Manifesto Games invited me last Tuesday to participate on a chat about “Games and Art” with inspiring colleagues. It was a nice experience to share some ideas and discover different point of views on the subject.

Yet, due to the subjective nature of art, it was quite hard to have a good common driver to the overall chat, it was like reading random thoughts rather than having a proper conversation with other people.

Jesper Juul put a full transcript of the chat in his site.

I’ll take this opportunity to state a simple argument on why games are art: to me, Play is the answer. Art has a lot to do of expressing how we feel, and what the world means to us. And Play is something that is strictly related to existence.

We play even since before civilizations existed: all it takes to discover this is to watch two dogs playing. And the joy of art has a lot to do with the process and not with the results: The artist enters his own universe when he finds himself absorbed by his creation, and just like the musician that Plays his instrument, or the Actor that plays his role; games are a space that lets anyone feel the power of Play.

Of course, art has nothing to do with quality, but a lot to do on discovering who we are. And as an artistic discipline, there’s no doubt that nothing has more potential than games to become an art of excellence for the years to come.