The Tragedy of the Art Game

Computer games have come a long way in terms of being considered a creative practice, even an art form. Apart from dedicated festivals, also established electronic art institutions have embraced computer games. Previously separate practices of computer games and interactive art (Wilson 2008; Leino 2013) are slowly converging. However, we argue that this has been possible only because a fundamental conflict has been conveniently overlooked – a conflict ‘built in’ to computer games as a “medium” (cf. Sharp 2015), between the artist and the player. The game artist wants to express themselves through their creations, while the player wants a new instrument to play (with). Apart from either side compromising on their interests, there is no reconciliation in sight; hence the “tragedy”.