ABSTRACT
Video games are generally adored by young people and disliked by parents. Whether the game of choice is a multiplayer shooter or a single-player platformer, it can absorb its players for hours on end and become a distraction from real-life affairs. Aaron Smuts argued that art has many definitions and can take many forms; video games would count as an art form based on most of these definitions. He also pointed out that museums have begun including video games in their more contemporary, interactive exhibits. Smuts admitted that not all video games should count as art. Smuts pointed to the increasing visual detail of video games as proof of artistic merit. The 19th-century philosopher John Stuart Mill can help frame questions about video games.
