Some Thoughts on Cross-Cultural Video Game and Music

This was originally written on September 15, 2020 and published on LinkedIn. I’ve decided to move the posts here for better searchability. Those that know me well, know that I am a video game history researcher, and this is just some of my random published articles. In his aptly named journal article ‘Are Video Games Art?’ (Smuts, 2005), Aaron Smuts addresses the issue as to whether video games can accurately be defined as art in both a philosophical sense, as well as an aesthetic sense. Ultimately declaring that video games are “an art or sister art of the moving image” (Smuts, 2005, p. 4), Smuts concedes that although some video games may be considered art, not all video games fall into this category. Conversely to this however, he also concludes that “several recent games have reached levels of excellence that exceed the majority of popular cinema.” (Smuts, 2005, p. 12.) Likewise, Henry Jenkins in his essay ‘Art Form for the Digital Age’ (Jenkins, 2000) asserts that video games are…