Video Games as Art

Today I saw an article by an executive at a games company complaining about the ESRB, the group that assigns ratings to video games.  The gist of his complaint is that as art, each of their games needs to push the envelope, and the current ratings climate prevents that.

Let me say now that I've been playing video games for a long time.  I remember the original Mario Bros game, and the original side-scrolling Duke Nukem.  I played the first MarioKart game as well as Wolfenstein and Doom.  So there's no question in my mind- video games are art.  If you have any doubt yourself, I urge to play HalfLife 2.  The visuals in that game are stunning, the story excellent.  If first-person-shooters are too much for you, try something from the Myst genre.

The point I want to make today is that it doesn't matter.  Video games are art, but they are art largely aimed at children.  As such, the art should take a completely different direction, push different envelopes.  Nothing is stopping anyone from making the kind of video game they want.  They only thing that will happen is they will get the rating that's appropriate for what they've created.  If that means you've created a game that receives a mature rating, but you think you have a good game, you can still market it to adults.  If you are unwilling to do that you may just as well admit to trying to sell smut to children. 

And don't complain about the M rating hurting sales, either.  There are two completely different markets here, and the kid's market happens to be larger than the adult's market.  If you want to sell games to adults, recognize that fact up front, set your marketing and development budgets and strategies accordingly, and go from there.  It's your job to build products that will expand the market and bring more people in.  It's not the ESRB's job to expand the market for you by lowering standards.