Video games = high culture?

I know you’ve seen too many “France stereotypes”: this picturesque city, home to those artsy-fartsy intellectuals who make those highfalutin “isms” (structuralism, postmodernism, existentialism, etc.) a reality.

Well, that stereotype may be a tad true. After all, France is indeed home to great minds who lived “la vie boheme”: there’s Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Derrida, Charles Baudelaire, heck I can go forever.

No doubt, France has given us some of the brilliant minds that helped shape our history, and moved our concept of art and culture to greater heights. 

Now, this country is pushing our definition of high culture further by saying that video games should be recognized as a “cultural industry, not merely existing as mere commercial products, but as a form of artistic expression”.

Yep, that came from the minster of culture himself, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres. Recently, this “prime minster of video games” awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (sort of like a Nobel Prize for art in France) medal to three game designers, one of which is Donkey Kong creator, Shigeru Miyamoto. Moreover, he’s pushing for a video game tax break similar to French cinema, which is roughly around US$ 668 million (according to a study two years ago).

Now, this tax break could prove really helpful for most French gaming companies, who are having financial troubles. According to our source, Ubisoft‘s “been struggling against a high level of debt”,  while Vivendi “earns most of its revenue from WoW“. Of course, there are some parties who are against the said tax break, as it will lead developers “to lose touch with their consumers”.

Tax break or not, this move by Donnedieu de Vabres shows that gaming is not merely a past time, but can be elevated to the pantheon of innovations in art and media. And we sure are glad that many are becoming more aware of that.

I know you’ve seen too many “France stereotypes”: this picturesque city, home to those artsy-fartsy intellectuals who make those highfalutin “isms” (structuralism, postmodernism, existentialism, etc.) a reality.

Well, that stereotype may be a tad true. After all, France is indeed home to great minds who lived “la vie boheme”: there’s Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Derrida, Charles Baudelaire, heck I can go forever.

No doubt, France has given us some of the brilliant minds that helped shape our history, and moved our concept of art and culture to greater heights. 

Now, this country is pushing our definition of high culture further by saying that video games should be recognized as a “cultural industry, not merely existing as mere commercial products, but as a form of artistic expression”.

Yep, that came from the minster of culture himself, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres. Recently, this “prime minster of video games” awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (sort of like a Nobel Prize for art in France) medal to three game designers, one of which is Donkey Kong creator, Shigeru Miyamoto. Moreover, he’s pushing for a video game tax break similar to French cinema, which is roughly around US$ 668 million (according to a study two years ago).

Now, this tax break could prove really helpful for most French gaming companies, who are having financial troubles. According to our source, Ubisoft‘s “been struggling against a high level of debt”,  while Vivendi “earns most of its revenue from WoW“. Of course, there are some parties who are against the said tax break, as it will lead developers “to lose touch with their consumers”.

Tax break or not, this move by Donnedieu de Vabres shows that gaming is not merely a past time, but can be elevated to the pantheon of innovations in art and media. And we sure are glad that many are becoming more aware of that.