Letters

To the Editor:

In his article “Games People Play” (Winter 2012), a look at the nature of today’s video games, Robert VerBruggen makes some rather lofty claims for their importance as a new artistic genre. VerBruggen says that while this pursuit was “once a pleasant diversion—merely a game—[it] has become a fascinating form of expression, worthy of serious commentary and criticism.” He goes on to suggest that there are serious artists at work here, and that the current excellence of their creations is due to the grand leap in modern processors and their capabilities for precision and expressiveness. I will assume that it is indeed possible that very fine artists/craftsmen are so engaged, and I agree that technology is just grand. But we will need to apply certain longstanding criteria to determine if these endeavors are really “art.”

It