Art, Not-Art or Simply Aesthetics? (Book review: Frank Lantz, The Beauty of Games, The MIT Press, 2023)

This article presents a critical analysis of Frank Lantz’s book The Beauty of Games. The book proposes a reevaluation of whether games can be considered art. Despite some inconsistencies, Lantz shifts the focus to a less controversial question: whether all games can be regarded as aesthetic objects. He structures his arguments by referencing various types of games – from board and card games to contemporary digital artifacts. He then highlights that the beauty of games stems from the nuanced simulations of the real worlds that these games emulate. Lantz emphasizes the role of games as cultural objects and the significance of digital games as by-products of the modern world in which we live. Although the dilemmas concerning the artistic status of games remain unresolved by Lantz, his book is written in accessible language and offers a fresh perspective on the issue of the relationship between games and art.