this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2026
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Would this mean chess is an artistic medium and a well played game of chess would be "art"? If so, could we extrapolate that out to board games, and if not, why not? If so, is there a limit on what kind of game could and couldn't be used to "create art" in this sense you are using the term?
no this is useless maximalism. if art is anything at all then i have no use for a category.
that doesn't mean non-art things are without merit or worth. they're just something else we could more usefully understand without cramming them into a box they don't fit.
I haven't really seen the case being made here that the category art is useful beyond being a tool of oppression.
we have to validate non-art things to break them from seeking the label as validation.
elegant game rules or an ikea table or a video poker machine not being art doesn't diminish the worth of those things, and convincing someone those things are art doesn't elevate their worth.
The designers of IKEA furniture are often pretty highly regarded. The furniture itself is like a postcard you buy from the museum gift shop.
Game rules are an interesting case because copyright protection for game mechanics is very limited. And it would be absolutely disastrous for the industry if there was strong IP protection for IP rules. This comes from ideas not being copyrightable.
Of course IP is not the same as art but I think there is enough of an overlap in how bourgeois society decides what is art and what is original work.
Yes. People constantly describe certain chess matches between grandmasters as "beautiful" and various other aesthetic qualities. I don't see why this can't be extrapolated to board games in general.
To use the instrument analogy, different instruments can do different things. A bugle is more limited than a trumpet. Banging on a pot is more limited than playing on a full drum set. The art that can be created is comparatively limited, but it doesn't stop being art.
Good points, and quite reasonable!