Logical reasoning PrepTest 145 · Section 2 · Question 9

Incorrect. First, this answer is too weak in stating that "most" video game creators don't intend their games to be works of art. The conclusion is wider in scope than that. Second, intent of the creator isn't established as being relevant to classification—it's possible that things can be works of art despite their creator not intending them as such.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Strengthen with Sufficient Premise

Stimulus Summary:
Work of art → Aesthetic experience controlled by creator
Video games are interactive
Therefore: Video games are not Work of art

Answer Anticipation:
Strengthen with Sufficient Premise questions will quite often feature conditional logic. These conditional arguments generally fall into one of two categories:

(1) Multiple conditionals chain together, and either make a jump to a new term in a conclusion, or have a gap in the chain
(2) A single conditional is applied to a specific situation to reach a conclusion

The latter is present here, where a conditional is established about what makes a work of art, and that's applied to video games. When this is the case, the flaw in the argument is almost always that the premises about the specific case don't actually meet the sufficient condition, ensuring that the conditional applies and the conclusion can be drawn.

Here, as we stated, the conditional is a rule about what makes a work of art. However, the argument concludes that video games aren't works of art, so we need to take the contrapositive:

not Aesthetic experience controlled by creator → not Work of art

What we're told about video games is that they're interactive. However, that doesn't guarantee that the aesthetic experience is no longer controlled by the creator—maybe the interactivity gives players some control over which aspects of the aesthetic experience they see, but that experience is still controlled by the creator. The correct answer will have to connect players having an ability to affect the outcome of the game with the creator no longer having control of the aesthetic experience.

Answer Explanation:
This answer establishes that interactivity and control by the creator are mutually exclusive—so if something is interactive (as video games are), then the creator isn't in control of the aesthetic experience, and video games aren't works of art.

Key Takeaway:
When a Strengthen with Sufficient Premise question is structured to apply a conditional to a specific case, it almost always fails to adequately establish that the sufficient condition is present in that case. The correct answer will connect what is established to the sufficient condition.

Incorrect. An aesthetic experience being "rich" is out of scope of the argument—it could be poor as long as the creator is in control of it.

Incorrect. First, this answer is too weak in stating that something is "typically" the case—the conclusion is stronger than that. Second, presumably video game players who create games have other people playing their games.

Incorrect. The argument is about player choices that do have an impact on the outcome, and whether this means the creator has lost control of the aesthetic experience.