Roger Ebert may not think games are art, but the Rome-based Association of Interactive Multimedia Works (AIOMI) disagrees – as seen in a commercial crossing Duck Hunt with the Mona Lisa.
Even as gaming becomes more and more mainstream, it still faces opposition from many who don’t game – like famous film critic Roger Ebert, who emphazised his opinion that games could never be art. While some gamers might do our hobby a disservice by responding to these critics with threats and anger – way to prove their point, guys – others seek to engage these critics with a more polite, reasoned approach: “No, you’re wrong.”
One such organization is the Associazione Italiana Opere Multimediali Interattive (AIOMI) – or Association of Interactive Multimedia Works – an Italian group founded in 2008 and based in Rome. At the core of AIOMI is the term “conscious gamer,” created by the group’s president Marco Accordi Rickards and defined as “one who makes use passionate, intelligent and informed of the videogame medium…. knows that the game is not only a form of entertainment, but also a means of artistic expression of thought, able to convey messages, ideas and emotions.”
The “conscious gamer” isn’t a casual gamer or hardcore gamer, but someone who understands the history and culture surrounding games, and is interested in their development as an art form.
AIOMI also makes really snazzy advertisements, like the one seen here. I mean, they are Italian. Those guys practically invented art! Are you really gonna argue with them, Ebert?
(Via Gamepolitics)
