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I notice that Okami has just been removed from the list of examples. While I recognize that differences of opinion may exist concerning the categorization of this game as an art game, I'm not sure it benefits the article at all to remove one of the few sourced examples and to replace it with two unsourced ones. I'll leave Okami off the list for now since the list is not intended to be exhaustive, but could people please try to source the entries that are listed with cn-tags? Thanks -Thibbs (talk) 19:11, 26 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The source for Okami seems pretty sketchy, with some guy mentioning it as art in an almost passing way (he also mentions Gears of War as an example, for it's architecture). Okami really doesn't fit the description that the article presents, so I've removed it from the list again. --Goodbye Galaxy (talk) 14:40, 28 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sure it might seem that if you know that the a sourced comment is wrong then it should be removed to avoid confusing readers about the truth. In actuality, however, the threshold for inclusion on Wikipedia is not truth but rather verifiability. The fact is that "Okami as an 'art game'" is a verifiable statement whereas your (possibly) true statement that "Okami is not an 'art game'" can only be characterized as original research.

Now you've also brought up the fact that you believe Format Magazine to fall short of the threshold to qualify as a reliable source. I disagree with your assertion that the source is non-reliable. What is your rationale? -Thibbs (talk) 15:31, 28 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm pretty having a source doesn't automatically qualify something for inclusion. The fact is that Okami doesn't fit the description of an art game that this article presents. If we want to include Okami on this list, we would have to reword the entire article to make it fit. Bad idea.

Art game is an often misused term, and I think the source claiming it is one is confusing "art game" with "artistic game." Goodbye Galaxy (talk) 22:01, 3 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The only requirements are that the source be reliable and verifiable. If a statement meets both of those qualifications the only thing that can be done to keep the information out is to gain consensus that it should be excluded for common sense or miscellaneous other reasons. Considering the definition for "art game" in the lede is "a video game that is designed in such a way as to emphasize art," and considering that the portions you removed described Okami as "a video game created in the sumi-e style," and finally considering that the sumi-e style is a style of art, I think the basic definition is met.

I agree I feel like the game is kind of misplaced among most of the other games here which are typically indie games that lack traditional plots, emphasize a political or social message, and often have seen only limited niche success. I'd be willing to help you form a common sense consensus to exclude the game from the list despite the fact that it is reliably and verifiably listed as an art game, but I think you'll need to do more than just reiterate that you're certain the game doesn't fit the art game genre. Perhaps the lede should be rewritten? -Thibbs (talk) 23:20, 3 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I see what you're saying, but I still don't feel the source offered is strong enough. Had he gone into great detail about Okami as an art game, listing reasons why, etc. then I'd concede that it should be included on this list. He doesn't do that though, and instead he just casually slips it in, without offering any real reasoning. Granted, that's more than most of the games on the list, but just because the other games are lacking sources, doesn't mean we should use weak sources. I feel like if we include Okami, then we have to include Gears of War, since they're mentioned in the same paragraph as artistic... and that's just silly.

I don't think Electroplankton should be on the list either, but it's got a good source that definitely credits it as such, so I won't make a stink about it. Goodbye Galaxy (talk) 15:22, 4 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

My only problem with that is the fact that Format Magazine article which you are suggesting isn't reliable enough is actually an interview with authors who write for destructoid.com (listed as a situationally reliable source), n4g.com (unlisted), videogamer.com confirmed reliable), and joystiq.com (situationally reliable). In particular the "some guy" who characterizes Okami as an art game is Ken McKown, a writer for n4g.com and 1UP.com (the very first entry on WP:VG/RS#General). So these aren't just guys they pulled off the streets. The interviewees are established experts on the topic of video games whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable third-party publications. Of course this doesn't mean they are infallible. Even experts make mistakes. I would be inclined to agree with you that listing Okami as an art game is more of a mistake than correct, but we need to at least articulate our reason why we think the error was made and I don't think we can make a plausible argument that the source is unreliable. The "Art game" article on Wikipedia, which you believe descriptively bars Okami, is actually primarily based on the Format Magazine article. You have to consider that if we remove Okami under the claim that it is based on unreliable sources, we also have to remove large portions of the "Art game" article (including portions from the lede). I think this would be a mistake.

I was bothered by your suggestion that Mr. McKown had listed Gears of War as an example of an art game since that seems even more far-fetched than Okami, so I reviewed the article and I think you're mischaracterizing his statement. To quote from the Format article:

Ken McKown: An art game is something that stands out for its aesthetic beauty or complexity in design. Good examples of this would be Braid or Okami. Good art can be anything that stands out in a game such as the architecture in a say Gears of War or the fact that no two houses in a Zelda game are identical. Good art in games are the minor details that really stand out and make you appreciate the nuances developers take time to put in there.

I think it is telling that he uses the phrase "a[,] say[,]" to offset his discussion of Gears of War and Zelda from his earlier discussion of Braid and Okami. I think it is quite clear in fact, that while Braid and Okami are identified as "thing[s] that stands out for [their] aesthetic beauty or complexity in design" (i.e. art games), Gears of War and Zelda are identified as simply containing "thing[s] that stand[] out in a game such as the architecture" (i.e. good art). In other words Braid and Okami are art games whereas Gears of War and Zelda are simply examples of games that contain elements of art-game-quality "good art." By using the phrase "a[,] say[,]" Mr. McKown demonstrates that he is talking about a class of games for which Gears of War and Zelda are but examples (this is clear from his use of the unspecific "a"), and that he is talking in offhand generalities (this is clear from his use of the flippant "say"). Here McKown is highlighting the difference between "art games" (e.g. Braid, Okami) and the "game art" they are often characterized by (e.g. elements from Gears of War, elements from Zelda).

I am quite glad I examined this portion, though, because I believe it holds the answer to why both of us are in agreement that Okami is not a very good fit with the article before us. Let's look at McKown's definition of art game again: "An art game is something that stands out for its aesthetic beauty or complexity in design." By stating that the game "stands out," Mr. McKown logically suggests that there is a "rest-of-the-chaff" from which it stands apart. These non-art-games from which the art games may be identified, however, are clearly part of an ever-changing medium. Thus, McKown's definition of "art game" is temporally limited to the present. And therefore his characterization of Okami is one that was perhaps accurate as of November 5th, 2008 (the date of the Format article), but that may not be accurate today. I believe we are in general agreement that it doesn't really fit today. What has changed since November 5th, 2008? I'm not really sure. Perhaps the quality of art in the non-art-games has risen to the point where Okami has been diluted out of the genre as no longer "standing out" for its art (a valid reason to strike it from the article). After all, the Format article was written only months after the game's release on the Wii and so it is possible that while the game may have been artistically boundary-pushing, critical recognition of it as an "art game" may have been affected by its novelty of release. Perhaps attitudes have simply changed to the point where, due to familiarity with the game, it no longer "stands out" in our estimation (an invalid reason to strike it from the article). Anyway I think this inherent temporal limitation of Mr. McKown's definition should be our basic reason for excluding the game from the list if we decide as much rather than the assumption that the source is weak/unreliable. Does this sound like a good reason to you? -Thibbs (talk) 18:24, 4 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I like that. Seems quite reasonable. Nicely done, and good discussing with you. Goodbye Galaxy (talk) 18:57, 4 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

No problem. Cheers -Thibbs (talk) 19:07, 4 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've removed the following examples from the list of examples of art games.

• Seven Minutes (2008, PC) - Platformer as nihilist philosophy.
• Pathologic - a video game by the Ice-Pick Lodge studio, that explores the survival of healers in a dying city.
• Tension - survival-adventure video game, also developed by the Ice-Pick Lodge studio, depicting surreal world of Void. Every action in the game (except simple moving) is done via drawing.
• RPG Triptych - Last Intervention - RPG Triptych [1] is a role-playing art game in the style of 1990s Japanese RPGs created by artist Samson Young [2], featuring philosophical conversations from Jean Baudrillard's Fatal Strategies. Featured in October Contemporary 2009 in Hong Kong [3], and Prospectives09 International Digital Art Festival at the University of Neveda. [4]

These games have been listed as "citation needed" for over a year now and it appears unlikely that any citations will be forthcoming. If any editor wishes to re-insert them then proper sources indicating that the games have been referred to as "art games" or "arthouse games" would be necessary. In addition, I would suggest that interested editors begin to consider how to limit the list of examples considering that it is rather on the large side now and is bound to only continue to grow. One possibility would be to limit the list to games that have won prizes or have been featured in art exhibits or other notable achievements. -Thibbs (talk) 18:33, 29 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I think this was a good call, and I agree that the list is still too long. In fact, we might want to consider getting rid of the list altogether (wikipedia hates lists), and turn it into a prose section, talking about notable examples and specifically why they are considered art games, rather than just the title and a brief description. This would help filter out a lot of unnecessary titles, since we'd be looking for sources that describe WHY they are art games, and not just saying they are without explanation. --Goodbye Galaxy (talk) 14:53, 30 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It is not that WP hates lists, but there are certain types of lists that are better as prose. That said, what I'd recommend is actually a table, with game name, developer, publisher, system, year, and a brief rational for its art-gamey-ness. This table would be at the end of the article, but the prose can mention games already in the table, etc. to provide better background. --MASEM (t) 15:13, 30 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What about MYST or RIVEN? They are certainly art, especially when DOOM was the other big hit of 1993. Endlessmug (talk) 22:01, 8 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that the game art in Myst and Riven was spectacular for its day. But there's a difference between game art and art games. See art game versus game art. To include Myst or Riven as an example of an art game we'd need solid sourcing indicating that either game is considered an "art game"/"arthouse game" or something equivalent. -Thibbs (talk) 00:20, 9 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The article currently has it listed as 2002, but I can't find any material to back that up. --Goodbye Galaxy (talk) 20:21, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Lately this portion of the article seems to have become problematic. As a bare list of examples of art games, there isn't much guidance as to what is appropriate to include and what isn't. Obviously it's inappropriate to list all art games in this subsection since then we'd basically be talking about an unbounded list, so how should we address this? One idea is to provide a brief (1-2 sentence) header for this subsection limiting the list to a set number of the best-known, most-notable, or otherwise defining examples of the genre. This might be difficult to define, however, and the only real way to achieve this would be to have the list of examples defined by local consensus. Another idea is just to get rid of the subsection entirely and instead to transfer those games into inline reporting under the "history" subsection. The games that don't fit into "history" could simply be categorized under Category:Art games and removed. Which plan sounds better? Are there any other solutions I haven't thought of? -Thibbs (talk) 02:42, 16 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

We should list a few examples, and then possibly consider if a "List of art games" makes sense, though certainly highly a category for art games. But the examples should be obvious with significant RS describing them as such to be included as an example. the MGS2 entry is stretching the truth compared to others. --MASEM (t) 15:07, 16 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm for doing away with the list altogether. Other game genre articles generally don't include such lists, and instead incorporate notable examples into prose (in a history section or whatever is appropriate), and I feel that's the best course of action for this article. A major problem with the list, and in fact the article in general, is that most people don't know what an art game is, and reviewers will frequently apply the label to artistic games (Okami, MGS2, etc). Most of these citations come from video game reviews, but are these sources reliable? Clearly they're reliable when dealing with video games, but what do they really know about art? It seems kind of like citing a baseball commentator on the impressionism page (hyperbole, but you see where I'm going). One possible solution would be to only accept sources from notable ART critics, rather than GAME critics, though we might then find the problem there simply aren't enough notable sources from the art community talking about art games. Just sort of thinking out loud here. --Goodbye Galaxy (talk) 15:59, 18 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That sounds best to me as well. I think it would be difficult to provide a good objective definition of the "elevated notability" that would earn a game a spot in a "notable examples" list. In modern times video game coverage is often wide enough that we'd be asking for more notability than the Wikipedia guidelines. Even if heightened standards were applied we'd only be slowing the growth of what amounts to a potentially infinite list. So unless there are objections, let's shift the list here into talk pending a proper merge of the material to a "history" section. Does that sound good? -Thibbs (talk) 13:31, 12 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thumbs up. --Goodbye Galaxy (talk) 13:53, 13 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

OK I've shifted them into a subsection below. Some of them are more important to the history and development of the genre than others so I think that some of them should really be restored to the article in the form of a history section. The sources all seem pretty good so they could easily be reused for the article mainspace. Other members of the blow list, however, appear to be much less important to the history of the genre and so including them would probably violate WP:UNDUE. Anyway I think this should clear up a lot of the problems of the list growing unmanageably huge. -Thibbs (talk) 22:35, 13 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Examples

Examples of games in the art game genre include:

• Moondust [[5]] (1983, C64) - a video game created by Jaron Lanier that is generally considered the first art game. It has been used in numerous museums as an art installation.
• Ico (2001, PlayStation 2) - a title created by Team Ico that has often been cited as an example of a game that is a work of art. [[6], [7], [8]]
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001, PlayStation 2) - a stealth game by Hideo Kojima that has been cited as a primary example of artistic expression in video games, [[9], [10]] and is considered the first example of a postmodern video game. [[11], [12], [13], [14]]
• Invaders! [[15]] (2002, PC) - a political art game making reference to the September 11 attacks.
• Samorost [[16]] (2003, PC) - a video game that employs organic and wooden materials in its presentation.
• Super Columbine Massacre RPG! [[17], [18]] (2005, PC) - a video game exploring the Columbine High School massacre whose exclusion from Slamdance '07 led to a partial boycott of the event for anti-censorship reasons by numerous high-profile indie developers. [[19]]
• Electroplankton [[20]] (2005, Nintendo DS) - A free-form music game considered to be the first art game for the Nintendo DS.
• Shadow of the Colossus (2006, PlayStation 2) - a title created by Team Ico that has been referenced numerous times in debates regarding art and video games. [[21]]
• game, game, game and again game [[22]] (2007, PC) - A Flash based absurdist game, one of the first to combine poetry with art in a game interface, created by Jason Nelson.
• Virtual Jihadi [[23]] (2008, PC) - a political art-piece created by artist Wafaa Bilal.
• Aether [[24]] (2008, PC) - a video game that employs a unique visual style and atmosphere.
• Braid [[25]] (2008, Xbox 360, PC; 2009, PS3) - a video game that enables the player to "rewind" the game at will
• The Graveyard [[26]] (2008, PC) - A simple but highly artistically detailed game about an old woman visiting a graveyard.
• Gravity Bone [[27]] (2008, PC) - a cinematic spy game featuring cubical characters. Winner of the GameTunnel Best Arthouse Game 2008 award.
• The Path [[28]] (2009, PC) - An experimental game developed by Tale of Tales in which the player uses different characters to unfold the narrative in a Little Red Riding Hood inspired environment.
• Passage [[29]] (2008, PC) - a meditation on death created by independent art game creator, Jason Rohrer.
• Every Day The Same Dream [[30]] (2009, PC) - An existential game by Molleindustria that addresses the topics of labor and alienation.
• Deadly Premonition (2010, Xbox 360 & PS3) - A survival horror that has been described "the strangest video game of the year" and a primary example of "games as art", praised for its "emotional range, from traditional survival horror scares to farcical comedy". [[31]]
• Limbo (2010, Xbox 360) - Platform-puzzler game using film noir-like [[32], [33]] monotone visuals and subtle ambient environment sounds as the player guides a boy through a dark and scary forest to find his missing sister. [[34]]
• Flower (2009, Play Station 3) - Game designed to arouse emotions to the gamer and doesn't follow normal gameplay.
• I Wanna Be the Guy (2007, PC) - Extremely hard game that parodies classic games. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.148.107.108 (talk) 15:12, 8 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I believe Rez/Rez HD (and the spiritual sequel Children of Eden) are heavily considered artistic, and perhaps could use an honorable mention on this page? ProjectPlatinum 06:15, 12 May 2011 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by ProjectPlatinum (talk • contribs)

I agree, but there has to be reliable sources claiming it as an art game (and not just "artistic") --Goodbye Galaxy (talk) 13:24, 12 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'd also be cautious about adding Child of Eden yet since as far as I know it hasn't been released. -Thibbs (talk) 13:33, 12 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Someone might want to add "The Company of Myself" to the list. --109.186.9.50 (talk) 13:48, 27 January 2012 (UTC) done — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.6.93.74 (talk) 18:46, 14 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This article is actually a split from Video games as art and as such there are issues with the embedded list of art games that have been discussed there and that represent a consensus approach to editing this article now. Specifically, see Talk:Video games as art#Removal of sourced entries and Talk:Video games as art#Removing unsourced entries and Talk:Video games as art#What to do with the "Examples" subsection for important discussions regarding why sources are necessary for the this list. -Thibbs (talk) 19:15, 14 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

what about an actual art game like Mario Paint?— Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.4.152.78 (talk)

The addition of Mario Paint would also require sources for the reasons listed in talk above. I think it's a nonstarter, though. Although it allows user-creation of "game art," Mario Paint is more of a nongame software tool or utility that has been dressed up to be a game than an "art game." See Art game (disambiguation) for clarification on the difference between "art game" and "game art." -Thibbs (talk) 15:36, 15 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Games requiring a reliable source calling it "art"

• Grim Fandango (1998, LucasArts, Microsoft Windows) - A adventure game that combines film noir with mexican folklore.

There is actually an argument that all games are art so I think it's more important to find a source actually calling Grim Fandango an "art game". The same goes for Killer7's source (gamescanbeart.com) which simply describes it as "art" instead of an "art game" or an "arthouse game" - the specific term defined by this article. -Thibbs (talk) 14:22, 6 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The same is also true for Riven which was just added. The source claims "Art, finally, is what Riven approaches" and does not suggest that the game is an "art game." A basic analogy can be drawn to "art films". Even though a film like The Matrix may be fairly described as art, there's a huge difference between a mass-appeal Hollywood spectacular like The Matrix and an actual art film like Rose Hobart or the 1964 Empire. Those are strongly juxtaposed examples and of course there are plenty of other less navel-gazing films that kind of straddle the line between attempted blockbuster and arthouse, but you can't just find a source describing the lush backdrops of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring as "elevating the film to new artistic heights" and assume that this means it's an arthouse film. It's not. The Myst games clearly make use of artistic elements and they are great examples of games as art, but they aren't "art games" unless they are directly described as such by the RSes. They may be as much "art" as other games that are art, but I'm not sure they're particularly comparable to actual art games like Every Day the Same Dream or Passage. On the other hand, if sources can be found that show them to be "art games" rather than simply "games that are art" then I shut my mouth. But explicit RS claims are necessary here. -Thibbs (talk) 01:22, 25 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

There is a problem with both the definition and the selection criteria - few or no sources are using the specific words "art game" to describe games that are considered art; the few that do, I suspect are doing so influenced be the title of this article. If you enforced the strictest interpretation of the current criterion you'd have like three games in the list or so. The current list (including Myst) compiles "games designed to emphasize art or whose structure is intended to produce some kind of reaction in its audience", which can be supported by sources more easily, but that still requires something more than just describing the artistic heights of its production values; the context of the review must be explicitly about games as art. Diego (talk) 07:12, 25 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That's not accurate. The majority of the games in the list at present have sources that describe them as "art games" or "arthouse games" (although several newer additions are steadily diluting this). This article was also created December 2011 and by my count only 14 of the 59 sources post-date it's creation. I can see no evidence at all of WP:CIRCULAR but if any of the sources make reference to the Wikipedia article as their sole basis for conferring the term then they should be removed. The problem with editors interpreting the phrase "games designed to emphasize art or whose structure is intended to produce some kind of reaction in its audience" to describe games that the RSes don't actually call "art games" is that this is original research. The term is so vague that any game fits the description. What game designer creates a game hoping for no reaction from the audience? The definition is suggestive and properly sourced in the context of "art games" so I'm not saying it should be removed, but it's certainly not sufficient to rely on to conduct original research regarding definition of a game's genre.
Within the industry there is a distinct meaning to "art game" which makes it more comparable to "art film". I really think this analogy is a good one. Art games are typically indie games that are of only niche interest and that are intended as vehicles for artistic messages. Although the art game aesthetic has arguably pierced into some mainstream titles today, and although the Roger Ebert business has provoked many to re-examine all sorts of old games and to describe them as art or to highlight their artistic elements in the context of traditional art, true "arthouse games" are actually rather uncommon because they are frequently created without regard for commercial success and so the list here will naturally be relatively short. -Thibbs (talk) 15:01, 25 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Note - I still think it would be best as a companion list to this article instead of an embedded list, though, since as time goes on more and more art games are made and the list will eventually start to overwhelm the article. -Thibbs (talk) 15:21, 25 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps the solution is to have two lists: one for games that are specifically considered "art house" ala "art film" games - a distinction that is going to be made more on the developer's side than the reception side - and a second list for "games considered examples of video games as art" - eg Grim Fandango, etc. By their nature, all art house films would be in this second list, but I would not include them in both but have a callout in the second list to the first. ("Art games are also considered examples of games as art, and examples are listed here."). --MASEM (t) 15:31, 25 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah that sounds like a good idea for the list article. -Thibbs (talk) 15:42, 25 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I was going to suggest the same. So if the three of us agree, it has to be a good idea. Diego (talk) 18:56, 25 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Split list

Ok, I've split the list among the lines of the conversation above. I've been ruthless with the inclusion criterion and moved to the new list at Video games as art absolutely everything that wasn't described with the exact words "art game", "art videogame" or "arthouse game" within the available sources.

This is likely to have produced some false positives (The Path?), but that's what was agreed upon, and I hope it illustrates the problem that I was talking about above with using a criterion that's too strict. If you want to move some games back from there to here, be prepare to find a source using the magic words to define the game, or to explain why the game should be listed here without them. Diego (talk) 23:01, 25 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Besides that, the next step should be to dig through the article's history and recover any sourced artistic games that were still deleted for not being an "arthouse game", and place them at the other list. Diego (talk) 23:03, 25 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

And I've moved The Path back here. It wasn't difficult, but it wasn't sourced as an art game with the previous reference. I hope this exercise will serve to clarify the exact criterion by which games can be listed, and to improve the available sources. Diego (talk) 23:13, 25 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This looks like a great start to me. There may yet need to be some tweaks like that which you identified for "The Path", but thanks for the effort Diego! -Thibbs (talk) 23:48, 25 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hotline Miami should be considered for this list. It's being extensivly discussed and analyzied in both the game community and media. For example: http://www.errantsignal.com/blog/?p=424
81.234.243.219 (talk) 16:35, 10 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I think the list is already too long. Aside from the problem of editors adding in unsourced entries and the fact that many of the sources are not listed as RSes, the designation of particular games as "art games" (RS or no) is often controversial and as such the limited benefit of having the non-prose and thus less-explained list in this article in the first place is undermined by the unneeded controversy it creates.

The prior consensus was to remove this portion of the article as it has the potential to become very large and overwhelm the rest of the article. This is in fact what is currently happening. Given that there seems to be strong interest in listing games as "art games" rather than just using the category I'd like to again propose that:

• We should incorporate the truly important art games (first few art games, particularly genre-defining or controversial art games, art games provoking commentary from the non-game world - particularly in terms of art-funding organizations, etc.) into a prose history section and
• I'd also endorse Masem's suggestion above that a sourced list of art games could be split from this one together with #Examples from above.

81.234.243.219's suggestion to add Hotline Miami to the list of art games may be OK if RSes can be uncovered to indicate that it is an "art game," but I think it would be best to add it to a new List of art games article. Any thoughts? I'll start research on a prose-style history section for this article either way. -Thibbs (talk) 19:30, 10 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

We could al-- oh wait, you said my suggestion already :) As long as the requirement to be on the list is "a reliable source defining said game as an "art game") (as opposed to a game just notable for its art), we're golden. --MASEM (t) 23:42, 10 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

• OK so I was just about to make the split now (to shift the embedded list to here), but considering that there has been some resistance to the idea in the past I reconsidered and I now think that the best thing to do is to use WP:SIZESPLIT as the brightline. Right now the article is ~45k including the list. I say that we wait until 50k per SIZESPLIT and then go for it. Does this sound like a good idea to everyone? -Thibbs (talk) 18:32, 9 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I realize I'm going slowly with this, but one of my stumbling blocks has been in trying to think of a way to complete elements of the split that were imperfectly carried out just over a year ago. An "art game"-heavy history section already exists at Games as art#History, and I've been trying to think of a way to use this material as a starting point without being redundant to that article. But now I'm thinking that the best way may be to simply move the "art game" material here and to refocus the history section there on the debate that is the topic of that article. Obviously some mention of art games should appear in the history section of the "games as art" article, but I don't know if it's appropriate for them to be primary focus. Likewise we wouldn't import historical info like the National Endowment for the Arts' recognition or the US Supreme Court case since they relate to "games as art" but not to "art games". But otherwise, I think the two middle paragraphs and some of the first paragraph should be shifted here. Any thoughts on this suggestion? -Thibbs (talk) 15:39, 25 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, part of that section could be moved here. Just give it a try and lets do some editing on it. Diego (talk) 00:38, 26 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

OK I shifted over the top part (first 3 paragraphs) of the history section from games as art, but cutting it from the history section there would leave it in quite shabby shape. I'll try to rework the section therewhen I have some time. Right now my internet connection is behaving very poorly... -Thibbs (talk) 01:16, 26 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Seeing games like Synth (video game),[35] that have an experimental approach but aren't classified as "art", maybe there should also be a category for experimental video games? Diego (talk) 00:59, 26 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I've heard the term used descriptively, but is it a stably defined expression in its own right? In other words will the experimental games of today still be considered experimental in the future or is the expression limited to the time period in which it is used? If it's a stably defined expression then I think it makes sense to make a category like this. Otherwise there could potentially be room for a small discussion of the related term as a tangent within this article. I feel the same way about games that have been commissioned for or displayed in art exhibitions at art museums. -Thibbs (talk) 01:21, 26 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The term "Experimental Gameplay" is certainly used with some frequency, and Google books shows a good deal of interesting results for that and ""Experimental game". I think the best place to discuss it would be at Game design, but frankly the game-art articles are in better shape and have more active discussion. There's also some overlap with this article, as art games do tend to include experimental gameplay. Diego (talk) 01:38, 26 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Place below those games that have potential to be included (clearly are artistic experiences by independent developers, but doesn't currently have known reliable sources classifying them) - in the future, maybe someone describes a source that allows us to include them. Compiling all suggestions at one place will help editors to review them from time to time. Diego (talk) 00:26, 26 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

• The company of myself
• Mighty Jill Off
• Pathologic
• Seven Minutes (2008, PC) - Platformer as nihilist philosophy.
• RPG Triptych - Last Intervention - RPG Triptych [36]
• I Wanna Be the Guy (2007, PC) - Extremely hard game that parodies classic games.
• Hotline Miami [37]

• There is a large list of art games presented here. I'm fairly certain RSes could be found from the art world to cover most of these. -Thibbs (talk) 19:18, 8 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
• Here's another long list of potential candidates for the list. -Thibbs (talk) 22:09, 8 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
• In 2007, indiegames.com (an RS) cofounder Tim W. published this article which links to his personal website where he lists his personal 27 top art games (here at mentisworks.org). He also links to Kristine Ploug's 16-member list from 2005 at Artificial.dk (here). I think a fair argument could be made that the mentisworks link is an RS since the author is significant. -Thibbs (talk) 17:34, 9 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
• Since there is the argument that an art game is defined by artistic intent, the authors of these games might play an important part in determining if they are "art games" or not. So this is Jason Nelson's Gamasutra Blog where he describes several of his games that are not currently on the list as "art games". Not sure if this works as an WP:SPS on the topic of itself of not. -Thibbs (talk) 17:34, 9 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

In looking for a formal definition of the "art game" I found myself scraping for sources within the gaming community. There is interest in the term, and a lot of debate about whether it's a useful term or whether games can even be art in the first place, but there is very little in the way of a definition. Turning to sources from the art community I was much more successful. There are several formal definitions of the term coming from apparently well-respected fore-runners of the genre. I've tried to introduce the more important definitions to this WP article now, but the definitions introduce problems for the scope of this article.

Essentially what I find is that whereas the gaming community is apt to blur the lines between art games and the concept of games as art, the art community is prone to blurring the line between art game and video game art. This is a more difficult knot to unravel than "art game vs. games as art" because instead of differentiating thing from concept, we're differentiating between thing and thing. And there are really two problems with the formal definitions of "art game" that I've seen. The first is over-broad definitions that essentially equate the two concepts (i.e. If it's art and it's based on, derived from, making reference to, or looks like a video game then it is "art game"/"game art"). And the second is centered on the classification of the "art mod" (i.e. is it a game or is it just an artistic alteration?). Some of the more useful definitions I have seen use interactivity as the dividing line between the "art game" and "game art", and artistic intent as the dividing line between "art games" and regular games fitting the concept of "games as art". However there are still problems with the art mod, since art mods can be either interactive or non-interactive, and often fall somewhere in the middle (i.e. as interactive, but kaleidoscopic and barely playable experiences).

What this all means is that simple reliance on RSes isn't good enough to settle the question of the scope of this article. Instead I think we need to find a local consensus. Given that the view recognizing "art game" extremely broadly seems to be in the minority I think it's a good idea to use interactivity as the dividing line per the Rebecca Cannon and John Sharp definitions. But for the "art mod" I'm torn. I see the following options:

1. All art mods are "art games"
2. All art mods are "video game art"
3. Interactive art mods (even barely-playable ones) are "art games" and non-interactive art mods (aka basically machinima) are "video game art"

I think it's important that we should have some sort of basic consensus on this. Are there any opinions? -Thibbs (talk) 23:14, 6 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I guess this is really only an issue for the list since the prose part of the article can (and I think does) discuss all notable perspectives on this issue. For now maybe sticking with the basic "if the RS says it's an art game then it's an art game" rule will work as the inclusion criterion for the list, but this issue may have to be resolved down the road if the list gets too long. Or we could just split it. Whatever works. -Thibbs (talk) 17:53, 8 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

How is Super Columbine Massacre RPG an art game? It seems more fitting to call it an Exploitation Game or a Troll Game.

At Wikipedia we use reliable sources to support claims made in articles. If you look at the entry for "Super Columbine Massacre RPG" you can see two little numbers listed as superscripts (currently they are labeled as "[41]" and "[42]"). These numbers represent sources that are linked below. So if you click on the number it will bring you down to the sources where the corresponding source should be linked. In this case we have two sources. By reading the first source, we can see that indie game developer, Jason Rohrer, thinks that "the bottom line for SCMRPG is that it saddens us, disturbs us, puzzles us, and makes us think. It's a nice example of an art game and a perfect example of why we need independent games (because no publisher would ever fund something like this)." And then if we look at the second source we see that indie developer and Slamdance 2007 judge, Joe Bourrie "fully support the juries decision to add this Art Game [Super Columbine Massacre RPG] to the [Slamdance] roster. It breaks ground that no other game has touched, and just the fact that we are talking about it right now means that it has a strong effect on players."

So from reading these two we can see that the game has repeatedly been called an art game by reliable sources, and it looks like the general rationale is that because it moves the audience emotionally and forces them to think, and because this was the intent of the game's designer, it is a work of art as social commentary just as Andres Serrano's Piss Christ and Chris Ofili's The Holy Virgin Mary are considered art even though they also could be labeled an "exploitation pieces" or "troll works".

Now of course this is just my personal interpretation of what the reliable sources are trying to say regarding Super Columbine Massacre RPG, but this Wikipedia article doesn't make any of those claims. By listing the game as an art game the article is merely saying that it has been identified by reliable sources as an art game. There's no reason within this article to try to come up with a rationale for how it fits the definition. Does that help? I know some people find the issue of sources to be kind of confusing at first, so it might help to read through this explanation if I wasn't clear. -Thibbs (talk) 18:40, 18 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

And to not get into too many details that don't apply to improving the article, the reason SCM RPG is considered art is that it deconstructs the kneejerk reaction that the media had to the Columbine shootings that wanted to poke fingers at video games as the cause, providing a re-interpretation of events to mock this. It may be considered trolling, but some traditional art pieces were crafted in the same mocking manner. As Thibbs points out, as long as sources claim this as an art game, we are otherwise not to judge. --MASEM (t) 19:09, 18 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for explaining this. I am (as you can tell) a novice editor and researcher. I will definitely check those sources out. Sometimes I succumb to moral panic too easily. I guess it's the "conservative" in me ConnerFields (talk) 20:20, 20 February 2013 (UTC)(Conner Fields)[reply]

It's ok. The main point I guess is that Wikipedia isn't supposed to take a stand on whether or not something is a certain way. The whole place is supposed to be built around neutrally summarizing and clearly presenting the claims of reliable third-party sources. If you need any help learning the ropes, by the way, make sure you check out the Tea Room where friendly and experienced editors are on hand to help new folks with problems and questions. And welcome! -Thibbs (talk) 20:42, 20 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The game's artstyle takes inspiration from watercolor drawings...what makes it less of an art game than Okami? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.37.46.153 (talk) 21:26, 10 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Anything can be determined an art game as long as reliable sources call it an "art game" or "arthouse game". Find a reliable source that calls it that and we can add it to the list. But note that if all you can find are references to the fact that the game is full of artistic elements and that it is a good example of how games can be (or are) art then you can add it to this list instead. It will need reliable sources to be added to either list, though. -Thibbs (talk) 11:14, 6 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

LSD Dream Emulator seems like a good example of an art game. It's surrealistic (based on the dream world). It is based on a dream journal, and came with a companion book, and music album.-ConnerFields (talk) 22:50, 6 June 2013 (UTC)(Conner Fields) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.13.240.241 (talk) [reply]

Anything can be determined an art game as long as reliable sources call it an "art game" or "arthouse game". Find a reliable source that calls it that and we can add it to the list. But note that if all you can find are references to the fact that the game is full of artistic elements and that it is a good example of how games can be (or are) art then you can add it to this list instead. It will need reliable sources to be added to either list, though. -Thibbs (talk) 11:14, 6 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I will point out that as long as there is one reliable reference to support including a game on this list, there is a good chance (but not required) that the game may be notable, and so while a game is a red line or a link to a section of a larger article, there's no need to remove such games. For example, "Passage" presently is only given a section on Rorher's article, because there's little else to say about the game to make a full article, but it is clearly an Art Game (maybe the first game in the last few years to bring this area of games to light). The sources for a game can be questioned but as long as its a reasonable source, the game can be included on this list. --MASEM (t) 18:00, 14 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with the above. To address the redlink issue though, since it is flagged, I don't think there'd be too much of a problem in delinking redlinks that seem unlikely to ever become full articles. For items where the game and the developer are bother redlinked, for example, it might not be unreasonable to delink one or the other if it looks like one would only ultimately serve as a redirect to the other. For example, it's quite possible that "a_maze@getty.edu" would only ever be a redirect to a "Tiffany Holmes" article where the game could be discussed in context with the artist. Apart from that, I guess the only strategy to reduce redlinks is to actually create the articles. I may take a swing at some of the ones I'm more interested in some time after August when I have a bit more free time. -Thibbs (talk) 18:12, 14 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Incorrect. The existence of a reliable source is to establish solely that the information can be reliable sourced, not that the information is notable enough to be used. As an admittedly wild example, I can reliably source the fact that Obama is the President of the United States. That does not mean, however, that the information is notable enough for inclusion on *this* article. Articles or sections that are long lists quite routinely use the existence of a Wikipedia article on the topic as a litmus test for whether it meets a base level of notability to be included on a list elsewhere.

Lists like this are never supposed to be exhaustive lists. That's what your argument would require: anything that can be proven to be true on this topic must be included. That's horribly impractical and just gets space taken up by trivia. So if you reject this standard criteria used throughout Wikipedia as a way of judging what should be included and what should not, what do you propose as an alternate criteria? Anything you can source which anyone who comes here feels like adding? If so, it sounds like what you want a category page, not a list on an encyclopedia article. DreamGuy (talk) 18:14, 14 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This article as it current stands violates WP:NOT policy, as it includes a huge list of indiscriminate information. I have therefore tagged it as such. This issue is separate from the problem with red links, as even if we removed all the redlinks there would still be too much trivia here for a subsection on an encyclopedia article. DreamGuy (talk) 18:20, 14 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Indiscriminate? Surely you mean indiscriminate apart from the requirement that the games must be reliably sourced "art games" as explained several times throughout the article, right? I mean your thoughts do sound good to me in general, DreamGuy, because that's usually the way I like to handle lists myself. But I've been involved with a great many discussions over list inclusion criteria and I can tell you that there is no such rule that lists must be restricted to bluelinked members only. If by consensus it is agreed that the inclusion criteria should require notability and that bluelinks should act as a proxy for notability then that's one thing, but no such consensus exists at this article. In fact the opposite is true. Check the talk page. At present this is intended as an exhaustive list and exhaustive lists are definitely allowed on Wikipedia. -Thibbs (talk) 18:24, 14 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

• Note: I've reverted the listcruft tag you added since it was misleading (i.e. there is nothing poorly defined, unverified, or indiscriminate about the list. All entries have sources and all sources make direct claims that the games are "art games" or "arthouse games". Some relatively in depth research went into this article and this list does actually hit the majority of games described as art games by the RSes). From your edit summary I think what you really want to be doing is proposing a split. If you read the talk page above I think you'll see we've discussed this in the past. For the record, I'd still be in favor of a split. -Thibbs (talk) 18:33, 14 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Thibbs is right. While blue-linked/proper articles can be used to restrict contents of lists (often the case for "List of people from X"), that's an option, not a requirement. And again, I stress - because we are requiring one source to be on this list, there is potential all of these current red-links could be blue links. --MASEM (t) 20:37, 14 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Since User:DreamGuy has blanked (as "complete nonsense") the note I left on his talk page explaining that this page is not an unmaintained pile of cruft, and he's opted to reinstate the listcruft tag, I feel it's pertinent to address the impropriety of this tag directly. Let's start by taking notice of the fact that the article underwent a major overhaul and expansion last February. Since then we've had 9 goodfaith additions to the list and 8 reversions for failure to meet the inclusion criteria. So in the last 6 months we've seen this admittedly long list grow by exactly 1 member. In addition, disclaimer notes have been added to the list sections in several places and tweaked to clearly delineate the inclusion conditions. Thus an editor adding to the list will see this note (repeated no less than 8 times):

• "Only include games that have been explicitly described by reliable sources to be 'art games', and provide a reference for the source. Other games with a strong artistic element can be put on the related list in the 'Video games as an art form' article."

The reason the listcruft tag has been removed is that it characterizes the list as "poorly defined, unverified or indiscriminate" and this is simply false on its face. Let's break it down:

• "poorly defined" - The definition of this list is this: "video games described as art games or arthouse games by game designers or critics". This is further clarified by the disclaimer notes bulleted above. In short the definition is quite clear and the article history shows that it is obviously maintained.
• "unverified" - The inclusion criteria clearly say "by game designers or critics" and "explicitly described by reliable sources". Every item on the list is supported by a source that has been checked for verification - usually by several editors. Unverified items are routinely removed from the list upon their addition. I'd humbly submit that this is probably one of the best-sourced lists among those covered by WP:VG.
• "indiscriminate" - Currently the items on this list must be (1) video games, (2) "art games", (3) verified by sources, and (4) the sources must be reliable. Apart from the clearly limiting definition, and the clearly limiting requirement for explicit RS verification, I'm not sure how else the list should be limited. Is this just a fancy way of saying that it's a long list? It's clearly a long list and it seeks to be complete within the confines of its restrictive definition, but it's not indiscriminate by any means.

I hope that clarifies the issue. Again, if overall length is the issue then there are certainly better ways to address it than deleting the list in its entirety or hoping to arbitrarily slash verifiable list members. -Thibbs (talk) 11:10, 19 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I've seen the argument DreamGuy's used that if these were on a separate list article it would be okay, but that breaks down DG's original point - the list either is or isn't indiscriminate whether it is part of this article or a standalone. Yes, length might be an issue but I don't think we're close to a point where it must be split off. Every point that Thibbs explains is spot on as to why this is a reasonable list and why it is okay to leave red links. I point out again because of the fact these games have a source to be on here, that means there is a reasonable likelihood of being notable and the fact they are red links simply means someone hasn't gotten around to writing the articles to support them. --MASEM (t) 12:59, 19 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I've been thinking about the idea of a split in the last few days. My initial feeling was that it should definitely be split, but now I'm not as certain. There is something about the list that is helpful to a full encyclopedic understanding of the topic: It provides a handy means to see the chronology of the varying kinds of art game from the early wave in the early 80s to the re-emergence in the late 90s and finally to the indie art game explosion in the late 2000s peaking in 2008. The granularity is rough since we've limited it to games with RS coverage, but it provides a basic timeline for which other chronological events like the video game crash of the early 80s can then provide interesting context for the informed reader. If and when we get to the point where it's simply too long then I think a split is inevitable, but for now it might be worth considering the benefits that an embedded list can provide here. Just a thought. -Thibbs (talk) 13:15, 20 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It's clear from our discussion at Talk:Video games as an art form that hahnchen believes Alex Kierkegaard to fall below the threshold for citing. I believe this is the basis for the recent removal of several lines of this article. I'm certain hahnchen is aware that there are those who disagree with his assessment so I'm surprised to see this unilateral decision on his part, but setting that aside, I think he has a point with regard to one of the criticisms. Specifically, Kierkegaard's claim that "art games that subvert or deconstruct the classical video game form represent decadence and are a degenerate artform". As far as I've seen this view is unique to Kierkegaard and is pretty fringey. Frankly most critics have better sense than to evoke language last seen in Nazi Germany even if it would makes them sound more like Nietzsche. So I agree with hahnchen as to the removal of that line. The others are more commonly-held beliefs and additional sources could almost certainly be located. This doesn't mean that I agree with stripping out the Kierkegaard source, though. -Thibbs (talk) 18:14, 24 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm quite short of time currently and won't really be able to do much at all in terms of searching for additional RSes as corroboratory evidence for the two claims that are currently supported by the Kierkegaard book alone. I've suggested to hahnchen that his concerns over fringe ideas could be eliminated by moving those two claims into talk until further sources can be located. I think that the Kierkegaard refs should be left in place where they are backed up by other RSes, though, because it's been demonstrated that he's been cited by numerous 3rd party RSes and there can be no legitimate concern of fringe in cases where his refs are only backing up other RSes. As yet hahnchen is still maintaining his position that the only thing he will be satisfied with is complete removal of all mention of Kierkegaard so this compromise is effectively rejected, but I wanted to bring it up here as a suggestion that I think might provide a good way forward. I hope fresh eyes can consider the suggestion on its merits. -Thibbs (talk) 11:25, 28 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

OK well I did a little bit of reffing just now, but we need more. This criticism section should really be expanded if possible since it is just a bulleted list of grievances right now. I added the criticism that "art games aren't games" per hahnchen's suggestion at the "games as art" article. Whereas the Kierkegaard source provides a large number of criticisms all in one document, the other RSes are much more diffuse in their critiques and so it will take a bit of time to sift through them properly. I'll get on that when I have a bit more time. -Thibbs (talk) 12:00, 28 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Let's discuss fringe claims and claims given undue prominence

I'm confused about how the criticism section's problems could run no deeper than the Kierkegaard source alone. During the past few weeks Hahnchen has repeatedly argued that the Kierkegaard source was being used to support fringe theories and to give undue prominence to his theories. Simply removing the Kierkegaard refs couldn't address this complaint as the actual claims are still exactly as they were before Hahnchen became involved. What would be helpful would be if the specific problematic (fringe or undue) theories that were referred to in the last few weeks were at last identified and discussed for removal per User:Czar's suggested compromise at WT:VG. Can you actually identify any fringe/undue claims, Hahnchen? I'm eager to get started adding corroboratory sources and removing actual fringe claims. -Thibbs (talk) 23:37, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

• Well, I am not Hahnchen, but let me lay out the problem as I see it and without specific reference to Wikipedia policies at the moment because that keeps it simple. People are opinionated. We all have a viewpoint based on our individual experiences, and many of us feel the need to express said viewpoint. Most of us, however, are not great thinkers. Maybe we are uneducated on a topic, maybe we let our biases cloud our judgement, maybe we are just drooling idiots that cannot form a rational argument. Whatever the reason may be for any particular individual, I think we can all agree that not all opinions or ideas are created equal.

So how to we as a species tell the good ideas from the bad? We subject them to scrutiny. We train people that have the aptitude for critical analysis and rhetoric and set them loose to poke at each other's theories. Since areas like art criticism or philosophy are inherently subjective, we naturally end up with competing theories and then turn loose another set of experts good at classification to identify common elements of certain opinions and organize them into schools of thought. Then we let all these experts endlessly argue their points until there is near universal agreement or no one cares anymore and the ideas fall by the wayside. That is basically what academia spends all its time doing, to oversimplify a bit for the purpose of clarity.

So what does this mean for Kierkagaard? Well, it means that theories and ideas only gain credence when they are widely discussed, exhibit some level of support from experts in the field, and have garnered enough notoriety to warrant peer review and publication. This is the only objective way to determine which individuals have contributed something important to our collective understanding of the world, regardless of whether they are actually "right" or "wrong" in their beliefs. Without holding to this standard, every blog, letter to the editor, call-in to a program, or forum post has to be accepted as equally valid, and my theories on how the universe works become as relevant to the conversation as Einstein's, which I assume we can all agree would be laughable. Kierkagaard has been the subject of no scrutiny. His self-published work has not been subjected to analysis or criticism. Few, if any, scholars are debating the merits of his ideas or building on them in their own work. Blogs and journalists mention him from time to time, but do not actually bother to seriously engage with his ideas. To all appearances he is just one man with an opinion, which makes him just like any of the several billion other people inhabiting this planet. Responsible scholarship --and Wikipedia policy -- requires more. Indrian (talk) 06:17, 4 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I do see evidence that some of Kierkagaard's ideas have been examined, considered, and analyzed/expanded upon by several RSes. The fact that he has a certain level of exposure in reliable sources - some couple dozen citations at least - was central to the decision to add the source in the first place along with the fact that his coverage of the topic of art game criticism amounts to a 104-page book rather than a few paragraphs as we see with the coverage from the other RSes. The reason he was selected as a reference was not completely haphazard or without regard for WP:RS. I've been actively participating at WP:VG/RS since March of last year and I can tell you that in general dozens of RS citations (journalistic and academic) and praise from 4 or 5 notable journalists is sufficient to make out the prima facie case for reliability. I've personally never seen a case where more than 15 RS source citations were needed to establish the bona fides of a source under discussion. I'm confident I could locate double that amount pretty easily, precisely because he's received a degree of exposure that belies the "internet no-one" honorific recently bestowed upon him here. The determination of any source as reliable is a judgment call of course and I accept the fact that you and hahnchen think this source falls short. It seems that no amount of evidence to the contrary is able to change this view.

But I guess what I am confused about is how simply removing the references to Kierkegaard (like this) addresses the problem of his fringe theories or unduly prominent theories. Hahnchen is fond of comparing Kierkegaard to Gene Ray, founder of the pseudoscience Time Cube theory. Imagine if the article on "time" were edited to include the line "When the Sun shines upon Earth, 2 – major Time points are created on opposite sides of Earth" with a citation to Gene Ray. Simply removing the citation would not solve the problem because the fringe theory would remain. For weeks the argument has been made that this article ("art game") contains fringe theories attributed to Kierkegaard. Shouldn't we discuss which ones those are and determine if they should be removed? The same goes for theories that have been give undue prominence (the other major argument made against claims reffed using the Kierkegaard source). -Thibbs (talk) 11:29, 4 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I have to agree that we are trying to present opinions and not trying to promote any one over another, compared to what typically happens in fringe theories where editors trying to promote the fringe theory elevate it to try to make it "truth". Just having what various opinions that exist in the "video games as art" arena, as long as others have identified that as a possible opinion. This is a far cry from including fringe theories and trying to promote them as fact. --MASEM (t) 13:28, 4 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hahnchen is the one worried about fringe theories; I am worried about credibility. Anyone can create a blog and self publish a book and get an opinion out there. That does not make that opinion worthy of attention. Neither does a person being mentioned in blogs from time to time. Despite your protestations to the contrary, Thibbs, you have yet to provide sources that actually analyze what he is saying rather than just mentioning that he said something. A blog post or two from a site that needs to constantly post articles to generate hits is not significant coverage within the context of said blog's total output. Unless we actually have sufficient reliable sources declaring Kierkagaard an expert or acknowledging his original thought as significant then all we have is a Wikipedia editor's opinion that Kierkagaard is significant. We are not allowed to make those judgment calls. Show me some sources that certify him as an expert rather than just acknowledging that he exists, and I will have no problem with his inclusion. Indrian (talk) 17:29, 4 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It seems to me that your use of the phrase "a blog post or two" is intended here to discredit normal RSes like Kotaku, GameSetWatch, Joystiq, Siliconera, etc. It also suggests that you have discounted all of the academic references which could in no sense be described as blogs. I'm really not sure how to demonstrate to you that these sources are in fact engaging with Kierkegaard's ideas. When the entirety of at least 5 or 6 RS sources I provided (including for example one from UGO.com entitled "Deconstructing Kierkegaard") deal directly with Kierkegaard's ideas, I can only guess that you don't find them to be long enough articles. Is that it? Or is it the fact that some of them are critical of his ideas and argue against them? I'm really not sure how we can be interpreting these so differently but let's be honest about the situation: this isn't a standard level of citation for an actual internet no-one. I've reviewed plenty of sources during the last year and a half at WP:VG/RS and I can tell you that dozens of RS citations and praise from 5 or 6 big-name journalists is rather unusual. This level of reception is usually sufficient to establish a source even without certified documents attesting to expert tier opinions. -Thibbs (talk) 18:52, 4 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Since this is now the third forum for this conversation, I guess I should provide yet another summary of the sources engaging with Kierkegaard's ideas, praising him, and otherwise citing him. See the collapsed box below:

Evidence of numerous citations and praise for Kierkegaard

Gamasutra/GameSetWatch's Simon Carless is practically effusive in his support of Kierkegaard, describing his website as "delightfully well-written and geeky (looks like [Kierkegaard] is a SiliconEra contributor.)". Carless also calls him "unfairly ignored" while discussing his opinions of arcade culture, and links to his website nearly a dozen times. Joystiq's JC Fletcher (Wikipedia citation count: 612 articles) calls Kierkegaard's ideas regarding gameplay "interesting" Kotaku's Brian Ashcraft (Wikipedia citation count: 317 articles) discusses Kierkegaard's ideas regarding non-games (close cousins of art games) and states "I quite like Kierkegaard and appreciate what he does with Insomnia ... He does have a some good points for his argument" He is also cited in several academic sources including (1) John Lindholm's Royal Institute of Technology thesis, "Gameplay pipeline, med skriptspråk" (ISSN-1653-5715) - where the author notes that Kierkegaard makes a cogent point in his analysis of the word "gameplay", (2) Felan Parker's "An Art World for Artgames" published in Simon Frasier University's Loading... Magazine, Vol 7, No 11 (2013) - where the academic author covers Kierkegaard's views on art games and cites the very source hahnchen believes to be beneath Wikipedia's standards. Good enough for one of Canada's top universities to cite, but not good enough for Wikipedia, eh?, (3) less depthy citations appear in Daniel White & Michael Grossfeld's "Irrevocability in Games" article for Brian Moriarty's class at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and in a few other academic articles. That's not to say he's universally loved. Simon Carless suggests as much when he calls Kierkegaard "controversial" and sources like UGO.com have expressed sharp criticism of his ideas regarding video game journalism in their "Deconstructing Kierkegaard" article (they admit bias of course, but the main point is that they are discussing his ideas at all. This simply doesn't happen for people who in fact aren't worth citing). They also acknowledge that "AK makes some decent points here as well." There are also plenty of neutral RS citations that just cite him the same way they cite any of their noteworthy sources. SiliconEra's Spencer Yip cites him for his expertise here, Tim W.'s Indiegames.com cites him here, Hardcore Gaming 101 cites him several times including here. Kierkegaard's current website is located at culture.vg. As can be seen from the staff rolls, contributing RS writers include Ben Heine, Retro Gamer's John Szczepaniak (Wikipedia citation count: 119 articles), Hyper's James Cottee (Wikipedia citation count: 87 articles), and Capcom's Seth Killian (Wikipedia citation count: 83 articles), among others.

The above evidence has all been offered previously so I don't expect it to change any minds, but just for the sake of the record I think it's important to establish what exactly the anti-Kierkegaard camp is dismissing as normal accolades regularly given to internet no-ones. -Thibbs (talk) 19:02, 4 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Compromise suggestion #3

I'm concerned that this return to discussing the merits of the source in talk here is unlikely to be productive as we've already tried it at two other fora previously. I just don't think we're going to agree on whether AK meets the minimum threshold for citability on Wikipedia. I've already offered plenty of evidence that he does and Indrian and Hahnchen have not accepted any of it. So there's little hope in my mind that any of us will suddenly have an epiphany and realize that the other side was correct all along.

I've come up with another idea that could represent a compromise, though I have to say I've lost a lot of stomach for compromises considering that every compromise offered so far has been resisted/rejected and I've seen no proposed compromises coming from the anti-Kierkegaard camp whatsoever. Given that both sides understand the other's position very thoroughly now, there's no need to give a detailed explanations here but a simple yes or no !vote will be good enough. I propose that the entire Criticism section be reworked with help from both sides to ensure that no fringe theories are presented and that the Kierkegaard source be shifted down into a new "Further reading" section without providing a reference to any claim. It would be unlinked since it's a book and it would only take up 87 bytes (representing 0.1% of the total article size) so undue prominence couldn't conceivably be an issue. We'd of course need additional "further reading" sources to balance out its negative POV with positive POVs and to expand other facets of the topic. Would this satisfy everyone at last? -Thibbs (talk) 20:54, 4 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

• As compromises go, that is not bad. I accept it. I also want to clarify something to provide greater understanding of my position, as I think I did a poor job of conveying this earlier. My problem with the sources presented is that, generally speaking, each one only addresses one particular statement or theory rather than his whole body of work. This causes two problems: no specific idea of his receives a high level of coverage, while at the same time there is no good indication that he deserves general recognition since each source is examining one specific area without addressing the question of general notoriety. If every source you provided covered one specific idea of his, I would probably be satisfied that this idea had been widely discussed. Likewise, if every source you provided recognized him as an expert general theoretician on video game topics, that would also probably be sufficient. I do not believe it is possible to infer general or specific expertise from the current sources, however, due to a lack of such focus. Indrian (talk) 05:52, 5 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I think that, if you applied that criterion to other references used at Video Games articles, very few of them would come out as reliable sources. Diego Moya (talk) 12:36, 5 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Remember this person is self-published, not a writer for a blog that has editorial oversight and a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy. The standards are different when self-publishing is involved. Indrian (talk) 15:06, 5 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Even someone who is self-published but has been commented on by other reliable sources means to someone their opinion "matters" (favorably or otherwise). There is a danger of SPS's being used to justify controversial claims, but when we are using an SPS to cite the person's opinion, and an opinion that has been called out by others, there is no RS violations going on here. As an external link to such as a section it would be fine. --MASEM (t) 15:11, 5 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Right, like I said, I am fine with an external link as a compromise. Still have to see what Hahnchen thinks though, so the two of them don't end up in an edit war. Indrian (talk) 15:33, 5 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I think I can speak for Hahnchen when I say that there's no danger of us getting into an actual edit war. We've both been editing for long enough to know better. I hope we can soon put this behind us and move on to something productive like improving the criticism section. -Thibbs (talk) 20:34, 5 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

No external link. The level of coverage that Kierkegaard has attained is pathetic. Compare that to actual writers who are published in reliable sources. WP:V specifies - "Self-published expert sources may be considered reliable when produced by an established expert on the subject matter, whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable third-party publications.", Thibbs claims we can ignore the "published" criteria because the links above qualify him as an expert who's opinion matters. I disagree.

This book has generated 40 words of coverage. No content is lost by removing it. The only reason it's even being discussed is that Thibbs thinks highly of it. Reliable sources do not. We go with the latter. - hahnchen 02:36, 7 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]