A few years ago while browsing YouTube for gameplay videos of various games Justin stumbled on to a speech given by thatgamecompany's current president, Kellee Santiago at a TEDx event at USC.

The focus of her speech was built around comments made--and now beaten to death in our industry--by Roger Ebert, who said that video games would never be accepted as art. He later revised this statement, in response to Santiago's speech, saying that while they may be art some day, no person living today will live to see the day they are.

It was Santiago's speech that really got both of us thinking about this issue. Her argument that games are already art, and have been for quite some time, hits a chord. After all, from BioShock on all the way back to Mega Man 4 on the NES, elements of these games--be it the music, the graphics or the narratives--stand strong in the minds of all who played them as representations of the kind of art you see in legitimate museums.

Fast-forward to today, and Pixel Perfect can excitedly report on attending The Art of Video Games exhibit, the first games-as-art exhibit of its kind, at none other than the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

Having the unique opportunity to attend as a member of the press, we were able to walk the exhibit a day before it opened to the public. This allowed us to spend considerable time with each aspect of the exhibit and really gain an appreciation for the message being conveyed. 

Guest curator of the exhibit, Chris Melissinos, who those old enough will remember as a member of the early team at Sun Microsystems, offered remarks to the press the day before the exhibition opened to the public. He offered his thoughts on where games are, and where they are headed. And his remarks were, well, rather remarkable, to say the least.

Focusing on where video games were at their birth forty years ago and the journey to where they are today, he truly believes that we have hit a point of cultural acceptance, and that games are a craft that allows for never-before-seen creativity and expression.

"Think about it," he offered, "This is coming generation will be the first generation of gamers raised by gamers." He went on, reminding the audience, "Remember, within the next two election cycles, we will have a President in the White House who grew up playing video games."