The other day, Roger Ebert kicked the tires on a message he’s repeated quite a few times over the last few years: namely, that Videogames Can Never Be Art.
Unsurprisingly, the arrogance of his proclamation raised a firestorm of replies. (He does not even explain how a man that does not play video games is able to serve as arbiter on whether the entire medium holds potential for ‘art’.) Ebert is a very intelligent man, one who normally enjoys good debate and discourse; for some reason, though, he returns each year to inform those of us who find meaning, emotion and significance in our “games” that we are wrong. Like when the folks in the 1950’s said Rock n’ Roll was a waste of time — it wasn’t “real music”.
This is all to say that if you agree with the premise that video games can be art (you should, because it’s true), then please read the superb article written by critic Mike Thomsen above.
He explains it much better than I ever could.
