US Government : "Video Games is Art"

The Arts in Media category seeks to make the excellence and diversity of the arts widely available to the American public through the national distribution of innovative media projects about the arts and media projects that can be considered works of art.

And the great news is... the government finally recognizes video games is art! Or as they say, "interactive games".

The stuff that are considered art:

Projects may include high profile multi-part or single television and radio programs (documentaries and dramatic narratives); media created for theatrical release; performance programs; artistic segments for use within an existing series; multi-part webisodes; installations; and interactive games. Short films, five minutes and under, will be considered in packages of three or more.

This means that the government is giving its support for games, officially making game makers eligible for artistic funding. But even though it's recognized as art, the games still have to compete with other art projects, ranging from TV, theatrical, short movies, and other art forms.

According to the NEA, grants generally range from US$10,000 to US$200,000, based on the platform and the complexity of the project. Quite a hefty sum there!

After this, hopefully, people will learn that games is but a form of art, not some stuff used to hypnotize people to be violent. Seriously, there are still a lot of people that thinks negatively of video games, saying that video games promotes acts of violence making people want to kill each other, bla bla bla.

Seems like games is finally getting better in the eyes of society!

Source : FY 2012