Are games art and if so, why? Are they important or valuable and if so, how? A lot of work tries to answer these questions in aesthetics by comparing games to various properties of traditionally acknowledged works that scholars already agree are art. But does this obscure basic features of what games are all about? Unlike most fictions, game designers don't just create a stable object, like a book or a movie. Insead, they create goals, rules, and abilities that people slip into when playing and that guide their experiences. In other words, to some extent games also recreate us, which both reveals what’s beautiful about them--and kind of like yoga--forces us to try out unfamiliar ways of being. Links and Resources C. Thi Nguyen The paper The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia by Bernard Suits Lady Blackbird: Adventures in the Wild Blue Yonder Games and the Good by Tom Harkin Achievement by Gwen Bradford Defining Game Mechanics by Miguel Sicart Spyfall Imertial Root: A Game of Woodl...