Artgames vs. Game Art – Diskurse und Strategien der Computerspielkunst zwischen spielbarer Rhetorik und unspielbarer ästhetik

Abstract

Computer games are diverse: recreational fun, professional sport, culture building, and culture critical. They inspire art, and art is made with them. This article examines the discourses and strategies of computer game art. Drawing on research from game studies and media studies, it examines the distinction between artgames and game art (especially modifications) and attempts to show that both genres originate from different discourses that operate with different concepts and artistic strategies: Artgames focus on playability and rhetoric, whereas game art focuses on unplayability and aesthetics. They distinguish themselves in different ways from the care structures of commercial computer games.