I'm using your example of pacman slaughtering babies. there's no point to it other than shock value, and not in a chuck-palahniuk kind of way, just MURDER FOR THE SAKE OF CONTROVERSY. that wouldn't affect your enjoyment of the game? like, do monstrously stupid premises not make you think "aw, for fuck's sake"? can you seriously separate enjoyment from comprehension like that? because in that case you could watch shitty movies like The Day After Tomorrow or Transformers and say OOOOH SHINY.
also art is not just any craft, or I'm buying art at Subway and then eating it.
Yes, monstrously stupid premises DO make me say "aw, for fuck's sake" but stupid and tasteless is not the same thing. Though I admit the pacman eating babies is kind of stupid, so I suppose it was a really bad example.
stupid is generally universal, tasteless is not.
one person might have a taste for one thing while another wont.
I suppose I should have just said what I think is tasteless is different then what most people think is tasteless. Somebody will tell me "hey don't play this game it is tasteless" and I'll ignore then because they're probably a uppity prick because they assume everyone has their taste or at least should. What I want them to tell me is if the gameplay was good. Not if they think "oh there was no meaning behind the nuclear explosion."
Its like you listen to some of your favorite music and the person tells you you have no taste in music, it is the same stupid bullshit.
In fact I don't believe anything is 100% tasteless. If it was created, SOMEBODY has a taste for it. I just don't believe that someone can have BAD taste, just different taste.
As for the art thing, somebody had to come up with the ingredients and methods to make it. It might not be art in a traditional sense, but it is still art. I'll admit though food creation is more of a science.