Insert Coin: The Issue With Art Games

I’m going to be classifying some games as art, and others as toys in this video. Please understand that I don’t like to draw a clear line in the sand between what is and isn’t art. As far as I’m concerned, films like Paul Blart, Pixels, Unfriended, and games like Call of Duty, Street Fighter, Galaga, and yes, even G.I. Joe dolls, are all art. However, with games in particular, there’s a very real spectrum, with things like Pac-Man falling closer to the toy side of the spectrum, games like Resident Evil falling somewhere in the middle, and games like Metal Gear Solid, or What Remains of Edith Finch falling on the artistic side of the spectrum. It takes a great deal of creativity to make something like Space Invaders, and even if certain arcade games were clearly following trends to get money out of kids, they are still very much art. However, they might be closer to the toy side of the gaming spectrum. I love classic arcade fun as much as anybody else.

Thanks to the archivists on YouTube who make finding footage of classic games so easy. History, and myself, thanks you.
I don’t like using other people’s footage, but due to the nature of this video, I had to use lots of second hand footage when talking about classic games.

Rather than cover half of this video with text saying which footage came from where, I’ve put sources to the footage used below (in order of appearance):

(Arcade) Asteroids
Shane McComas

Colossal Cave Adventure (PC game)
zxspectrumgames4

Arcade Longplay [370] Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
World of Longplays

Space Harrier – Arcade Longplay
U4iA

Robocop Arcade Game – Playthrough – Deathless
90’s Arcade Games

Arcade Game: Pac-Man (1980 Namco (Midway License for US release))
Old Classic Retro Gaming

God of War 2 – Walkthrough Part 1 [HD]
MrRetroKid91

God of War – Story Trailer | PS4
Playstation

Amnesia : The Dark Descent – Scary Gameplay Moments
danthaman15

The music in this video is from the Donut County OST by Daniel Koestner and Ben Esposito. Thanks for the fantastic music guys!