Are modder artists?

[phoneyLogic]

As games are considered to be art,

 

would you call modder artists?

Edited January 13, 2013 by tortured Tomato

[Ghogiel]

Modding is a very broad set of skills. So what falls into the realm of what the term modder can describe can be art for sure. Some areas are strictly art disciplines. So some modders are certainly artists.

 

I suppose there is something that can be considered the art of programming for example. But I wouldn't necessarily consider writing code an art form.

 

It's fairly arbitrary to consider it as such though. :shrug:

[phoneyLogic]

This already is a very good answer in my book. :thumbsup:

 

We'll see, with the art usually comes the commerce.

 

 

What do you think about this article?

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/04/video_games_can_never_be_art.html

Edited January 13, 2013 by tortured Tomato

[Nintii]

I'd say that anything creative can be and invariably is an art, thus modders are artists in their own right.

[McclaudEagle]

I'd say it depends on the type of mod they've made. I've made quite a few mods, ranging from my Fo3 Combat Realism mod, which is just a lot of number tweaks, to new worldspaces. I wouldn't consider my Fo3 Combat Realism mod to be an "art form", but would more likely attribute that to my worldspace mods.

[sukeban]

I'd say that anything creative can be and invariably is an art, thus modders are artists in their own right.

 

I like this rubric, though I might have a slightly less expansive reading of it. I'd just add that to my mind, art should have an aesthetic component to it, though I suppose that can be in the eye of the beholder. I wouldn't necessarily call an innovative ad campaign "art" but perhaps somebody else would. In this way, I wouldn't necessarily consider a balance/realism/whathaveyou mod to be "art" even though they often require quite liberal doses of creativity, but I certainly would consider a nice, tasteful new armor set or texture/mesh for a new type of tree to be art. But I certainly don't hold that to be any sort of universal standard or anything.

 

So I wouldn't consider "Duel - Combat Realism" to be art (though perhaps an AI programmer might :D) but I would consider Lost Longswords or Realistic Lighting (or ENBs) to be art, due to the aesthetic component that is obviously being expressed. But somebody might weep for a beautiful AI, so Combat Realism could be high art to that person.

Edited January 15, 2013 by sukeban

[Nintii]

@ sukeban ... agreed, aesthetics is most definitely a large or the largest slice in the "creative" pie ... yet I can

still "see" it in a mod you might create that is exclusively some type of animation or even some new mesh

that though static still enhances the overall game.

Alright so a glowing stimpak might not qualify as an object of any kind of great beauty but it enhances my gaming

experience ... it's part of the entire creative process - the game (as the OP states) - so, though it's artistic value

is tiny, my overall experience is better because of it ... thus I state "it" has artistic value and the creator is therefore

an artist.

 

I don't know much about cars but let's say for instance you go to the factory where they make spark plugs - not

a place that I'd call an artists workshop ... but you would agree that this items role, though small, is not only vital

to the vehicles performance but because of it ... the sheer joy of the driving experience is made a reality.

 

That's my point :thumbsup:

[juderodney]

I'd say those who make textures and/or meshes or even a new story for the game are well and truly artists. Those who just mess around with the GECK or whatever to change or add something in the game (what I did), not so much.

[Iv000]

The definition of art is debatable, and I say if someone thinks his creation is art, then it is so. It doesn't matter if people will accept it or not, example Van Gogh.

 

What I want to say is, that in my opinion yes everybody who thinks he's an artist is an artist. Modders form ideas, no matter how small of a mod you make you created an idea. Thus your creation can be considered art.

 

And why wouldn't programming be art? Poetry is art too. I form code by the ideas I had in my head and create something with it. It is visual too and if you look at the code itself, the beauty of the semicolons or curly braces shouldn't be ignored :P

 

Like I said imo everybody can go all Van Gogh when it comes to 'art'. Just don't die out of depression because nobody likes the mod you created in 2 min :teehee:

[Vindekarr]

YES! GOD DAMN RIGHT WE ARE! :biggrin: