A Experiência Estética nos Videogames

The aim of this paper is to reflect on the aesthetic experience of videogames from the friction between two polemics: that of videogames as sports, recently reignited in Brazil by Sports Minister Ana Moser’s declaration that E-Sports are not sports, and that of videogames as art, which resonated between the years 2005-2010 from the declarations of Roger Ebert, film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, that videogames could never be art. The superposition of these polemics allows us, on one hand, to realize how the problem of the aesthetic status of videogames cannot be addressed without an understanding of the way they work, which leads us, in part, to the discussion of their status as sports; on the other hand, it also provides the occasion for investigating how the formal elements of videogames can produce a specific kind of aesthetic experience – one that is not found in traditional sports or even in artistic performances. Concepts such as interactivity, agency, practicality, virtuality, and competition/excellence gain relevance from the analysis of the relationship established among the formal elements of videogames (graphics, sound, engine, and user interface), the physical input/output devices, and the gameplay/experience of players.