Roger Ebert Denied That Video Games Were an Art Form

Video Games -- Artistic Medium Our media-rich environment, in which digital technologies are proliferating faster than our cultural, legal, or educational institutions can keep up with them .. addresses our culture's contradictory imperatives for immediacy and hypermediacy" (Bolton, et al., 1999).

Should video games, which are interactive and bring a sense of immediacy to the participant, be considered an art form? Is it pushing the envelope too far to assert that video players are not only having fun and engaging in friendly competition, they are participating in an art form? This paper delves into that subject and points to the available scholarly literature that supports the idea that video games constitute an artistic medium.

The Literature on Video Games as an Artistic Medium In the scholarly publication Library Technology Reports (LTR, 2006) the writer notes that increasingly "all types of libraries" are adding the phrase "gaming and libraries" to their list of services. Gaming and games have been around and have been entertaining people since ancient times, and these includes ancient Egyptian games, Sumerian games, medieval games and contemporary games as well.

Games, the LTR article explains: a) test problem-solving skills; b) are inclusive; c) create community; d) facilitate learning; e) provide "fields for practice of leadership and team skills"; and e) develop identity (LTR, 5). There are now whole academic fields -- along with courses and departments -- that are " .. devoted to studying video games" (LTR, 5). Educators are looking into way in which to incorporate video gaming into schools and universities, according to the article.

The bottom line within the context of libraries embracing video games is that these technologies do in fact represent an artistic medium. Roger Ebert -- Video Games are not an Artistic Medium Clearly the more recent video games appear to have "artistic merit" because they offer opportunities for their creators "to collaborate on a multitude of design elements" (Hall, 2008). Writing in the peer-reviewed journal Phi Kappa Phi Forum, Hall reminds readers that the late film critic Roger Ebert stated that "..

video games are fundamentally inferior to film and literature as an artistic medium" (Hall, 19). Ebert went on to say that video games would never get beyond " .. craftsmanship to the stature of art" (Hall, 19). However, Hall rebuts Ebert's position that due to the interactive aspect of video games -- that is, giving players choices during the playing of video games -- is the "opposite" of "serious film and literature" (19).

In other words, Ebert was saying that true art has to be controlled by the author (the film producer, the novelist, the painter); and therefore because video games are controlled by the player these games cannot have artistic merit. Hall goes on to assert that there is and has been interactivity "throughout the history of art" (19). Moreover, the actor performing on a Broadway stage is interactively engaged with the audience because the audience's approval of the actor's performance impacts that actor.

Another example is musical performances by artists that obviously create strong interactive responses from the audience. Performance art, Hall contends, involves four basic elements: a) time; b) space; c) the performer's body; and d) the relationship between performer and audience (Hall, 19). The noted author and superhero comic book creator Clive Barker explains that there is an enormous potential for " .. video games to have artistic merit by allowing their creators to collaborate on a multitude of design elements" (Hall, 19).

Another art critic, Jonathan Jones of the respected journal The Guardian, does not accept video games as art because " .. there is no individual ownership," an argument that sounds eerily familiar with what Ebert was saying (Stuart, 2014). In response to his colleague's assertions, Stuart insists that games "transcend the question" of whether they are art or not. "They are so wonderfully complex," Stuart explains.

Moreover, he asserts that: a) "[games] are emergent and system-led, but also narrative and directed"; b) "they amalgamate electronics, audio and visuals, but also often rely on text"; and c) they are authorial and yet they need the input that users can provide (Stuart, 1). Stuart goes on to say that video games are indeed an artistic medium because they are an expressive form of communication.

And looking at great artists in history, they were communicators, believed it was important to be heard, and created their works for deeper reasons than just so people could have fun. Shakespeare wrote plays for "lice-ridden but packed theatres of London" and Charles Dickens had his novels serialized in magazines because he wanted everyone to have a chance to read them (Stuart, 2).

Chris Hecker on Video Games and Film Writing in the peer-reviewed journal Eurographics 2001, scholar Chris Hecker explains that the video and computer games that people were playing in 2001 shared many "artistic and technical characteristics with films of the early 1900s" (Hecker, 2001). This actually links with what Roger Ebert was discussing because as Hecker writes, the video game evolution mirrors in some ways the evolution of films in the early 20th century. "Film managed to find its way from popular diversion to highly respected art form," he writes. And.