In a noble effort that probably won’t make Roger Ebert happy, the National Endowment for the Arts now includes video games as a potential grant recipient. The NEA has changed the old category of “Arts in Radio and Television” to “Arts in Media,” allowing video games into the fold.
Basically,Ā independentĀ game developers are going to get money from the government to develop games, which leads to the awesome sentence: The government is going to fund the development of video games. This news will surely rile up the staunch video game opposition, but since the government has basically categorized video games as art , or at the very least, officially recognized video games as a legitimate enough form of media to fund its development, the ever-expanding industry should soon see a boost in its progress and, hopefully, see a boost in its recognition as a legitimate form of art.
(FY 2012 Arts in Media Guidelines via Destructoid)