Columnist: Video games are not works of art. No matter how rich the aesthetic experience produced by a video game mig...

Annie on November 6, 2019

Hi @xDaltonLaney,

This question is asking you to find the assumption buried in the argument. The best way to go about doing so is to break the argument down into its component parts:

Premise: For something to be a work of art, it must produce an aesthetic experience that is controlled by the artist that created the work.
Premise: In video games, players make choices that affect the outcome of the game.
Conclusion: Video games are not works of art.

The question asks you to look for the answer choice that is already being assumed in the argument. Therefore, you're looking for an answer choice that must be true in order for the conclusion to be true.

Answer Choices:
(A) is incorrect. The argument is not about the intent of the video game creator.

(B) is correct. This answer choice fills in an assumption that is being made in the argument. From the original argument, all we know is that works of art must produce an aesthetic experiences that is controlled by the artist and that in video games players make choices that affect the outcome of the game. However, we are not told that players making choices for themselves necessarily means that it is no longer an aesthetic experience controlled by the artist. This answer choice fills that gap as it tells us that something can't be both interactive and controlled by the artist. Thus, the conclusion depends on this assumption.

(C) is incorrect. The argument is not about the richness of the experience.

(D) is incorrect. The argument is not about who creates the video games, but rather is about the control that that creator has over the experience. It is irrelevant who the actual creator is.

(E) is incorrect. The argument is about the player's ability to make choices which do affect the aesthetic experience, not those which have no effect on the game.