{"id":3814,"date":"2017-11-27T15:40:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T22:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nathalielawhead.com\/candybox\/?p=3814"},"modified":"2017-11-27T15:40:27","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T22:40:27","slug":"if-games-are-art-challenging-the-toxicity-of-gamer-culture-and-preconceptions-of-what-a-game-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.nathalielawhead.com\/candybox\/if-games-are-art-challenging-the-toxicity-of-gamer-culture-and-preconceptions-of-what-a-game-is","title":{"rendered":"If “games are art”: challenging the toxicity of gamer culture and preconceptions of what a game is"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you have been following me on Twitter then you may have noticed my tweet thread here<\/a> explaining that <\/p>\n

“If games are art then we have to embrace the idea that they don\u2019t have to be fun. Art is not always fun. It covers a wide spectrum of emotions, and concepts.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s the opening tweet, I explain more in the thread<\/a>. It’s worth reading in full before commenting or attacking.<\/p>\n

This was largely a reaction to criticisms from gamers that where justifying the toxicity directed at me by saying “if I didn’t want to receive toxicity then I should have made a funner game”. Interesting supposition because, again, what I made is not a game. It’s a “games as art” interactive experience.<\/p>\n

I’ve had a lot of time to think about this intersection over the many years of doing this. This flood of toxicity has shown me that we have a lot of work to do in making games more inclusive to these experimental experiences.<\/p>\n

The very first “this is not a game!” project of mine received similar fall out. I gave a talk about it here, where my conclusion was that games are ready for these experiences. The talk is worth watching, but I am SO SORRY for the misleading conclusion. Games are not ready for this.<\/p>\n