Video games are considered artMany video games use visuals to mentally immerse players in a virtual world filled with people, animals or of seemingly living, breathing cities. According to Michael Samyn and Auriea Harvey, game designers for Tale of Tales, video games are increasingly becoming a real medium for artistic expression (Lamb). In just forty years, video games have gone from being a misuse of the new computer for entertainment purposes to a sophisticated form of popular art. The development of video games has recently produced results that arguably match other similar figurative arts. Video games share many qualities with other art forms, but they also have artistic significance in their own way. “This seems to be something new in art: the representation of the player, their action and their aesthetic experiences, within a fictional world – video games seem to provide an active exploratory aesthetic” (Tavinor 3). Although some consider video games to be an inferior artistic medium, video games should be considered art because they visually represent art, they use creative media, and they are legally considered as such. Video games deserve to be recognized as art because they represent it visually. Using the beautiful forests of Drakes Fortune, the large realistic cityscapes of Grand Theft Auto: IV and the fluid movements of Heavenly Sword, players get a taste of what video games offer as an artistic medium in the current generation. In the 2006 fantasy game The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, players are given a fictional world to explore with a character they designed, named, and assigned attributes. This world, Cryodiil, is captivating and presented with such freedom; it creates an engaging, emotional and aesthetically enriching experience...... middle of paper...... like the ability to compete and be compared to recent or past famous paintings. When it comes to video games, think of them as art because they creatively represent art in a very unique way that no other entertainment medium has the ability to do. Works Cited Birmingham, John. “Video games as a genre of creative expression.” Sydney Morning Herald - Business and world news Australia | Smh.com.au. April 2, 2010. The web. October 26, 2011. Funk, John. “Gaming is now legally considered an art form (in the United States).” The Escapist. May 6, 2011. Web. October 20, 2011. Hall, Stefan. “Video games as collaborative art.” Phi Kappa Phi Forum 2008. Web. October 20, 2011. Lamb, Robert. “Are video games art? Discovery News: Earth, Space, Technology, Animals, History, Adventure, Humans, Cars. October 25, 2010. Web October 20, 2011. Tavinor, Grant. The art of video games. Print.