According to James Marsden’s “The True Definition of Art,” art experience is the satisfaction produced by an individual when they are enjoying an art production. An art production is something man-made that gives people an emotional or satisfying experience. Video games are a kind of digital product that can provide people with a special experience that lets them get involved in the game. They are sometimes considered “the ninth art,” but also as spiritual drugs. So, it is a debatable topic: Is video game art?

As we know, more and more video game products have been exhibited in museums recently. Some people argue that video games are only a kind of popular digital entertainment product. Usually, people think digital products have no emotions. Jonathan Jones, an English critic, commented that games will never be art in his article named “Sorry MoMA, Video Games Are Not Art.” He pointed out that an art product should have a specific author and subjective mood while the experience of video games does not have independence, a specific author, or even subjective mood. However, it can be said that this opinion is not true. On the one hand, video games are created by many authors such as conception designers, programmers, directors, artists, etc. On the other hand, game players can experience subjective mood from the plot of video games. For example, Arknight, a famous video game, had shocked many players with its impressive plots. Frostnova, a character of Arknight, her death had “earned” many players’ tears. It is hard to say it is not emotional. So the opinion of Jonathan Jones is hard to agree by the video games players.

If we follow the definition of art above, you will see that it is unproblematic to consider video games as art. Even though we know most video games are made for commercial purposes, it is undeniable that some video games are indeed thought-provoking (for example: Monument Valley and Gorogoa). In my opinion, video games can be art to express artists’ opinions on society since they have their own aesthetic characteristics to spread authors’ opinions such as beauty of interaction, narration, vision design and so on. Furthermore，video games can express authors’ attention to society and contribute to its development，which makes them thought-provoking and valuable as an artistic medium.

In conclusion，video games can be considered as an art form based on Marsden’s definition of art experience and their ability to provide emotional or satisfying experiences for individuals who play them.