PixlBit

I have to be honest. I don’t listen to critics much these days. Most of the time I find them wrong about anything they review or critique. You could say I’m overly-critical of said critics but more often than not a movie they say is no good ends up to be a movie I enjoy. A song they say is horrible turns out to be a song I can’t live without. From food to any form of media I’ve found critics are usually the last group of people I turn to in deciding if anything is something I should invest time in to see if I’ll like it or not. But there are moments when certain critics give me a “eureka” moment.

Doug Walker’s Nostalgia Critic, Noah Antwiler’s Spoony Experiment, Bennett White’s Anime Abandon are the most notable exceptions in regards to “eureka” moments. But I have to admit that over time Roger Ebert was added to this list as well. The reason for this is fairly obvious to any gamer out there that has an opinion on the whole “games as art” debate. For the most part Roger Ebert hardly made a blip on my media radar despite his standing as a film critic and columnist. I remember seeing his show on TV now and then but for the most part nothing stood out about him to me.

Until he entered into the debate about “games as art”

During this time I was lacking the words (as I still am to this day) to help explain why we should not see games as art. Despite the “art appreciation” classes where I had hammered into my head the concepts of what is considered “art” and what “is not considered art”, I lacked the proper wording to help explain how this notion of video games as an art form should never be considered. Though Roger Ebert didn’t mirror my stance on how games are not art, he did add his voice to the debate thus bolstering the issue and bringing the whole debate into legitimacy. I completely agreed with him in his statement on how "the nature of the medium prevents it from moving beyond craftsmanship to the stature of art".  Even if the reasoning behind that statement may not be the exact same as mine, it is still the benchmark for me in why videogames are not art.

Others on the opposite side of the debate of course took issue with his statements and words. Some calling him too “old fashioned” and thus lacking the ability to properly examine video games in the way they could be considered as art. Though he did openly admit he may not fully grasp the concept of video games as art (due to him not truly playing any) he still stood by his statement as well as saying another quote that I also take to heart that "No video gamer now living will survive long enough to experience the medium as an art form." Though I tend to disagree with him on his thoughts about video games as being an inferior form of media, he speaks the words that mirror some of my thoughts on the whole debate. Because of this I held much respect for the Roger Ebert when his prior works as a film critic and columnist failed to do so before.

It’s thanks to him that we have others that speak up as to why games should never be considered art. From simple gamers like me to op-ed writers in major newspapers pieces voicing their opinions, Roger Ebert helped to bring common sense to those that want to label a simple static screen of a video game image as a form of art.

He may have known how influential he was when it came to his prior opinions in “old media” but he may never know how influential he was in the coming storm of “new media”.

Even now words fail me in trying to describe how powerful of a critic he was to me when it came to the subject about “games as art”. I’m sure there will be better bloggers out there that’ll perform a better job in explaining how important he was to the whole debate. All I know is that he helped me to better understand my stance as to why “videogames should never be considered art”, and that his voice and opinions on the matter will be dearly missed.  I only hope that despite his voice now is silent; there’ll be 10 others that will raise their voices to the debate. And that his opinion will live on in those that see the common sense to his words. I can only hope that videogames themselves will not be lost in the veil of art, to become over-analyzed and dissected to the point that people will no longer be able to recognize them as videogames.

I know I won’t forget what videogames are nor will I ever see videogames as art. Despite what the Smithsonian or the EMP Museum in Seattle or the Museum of Modern Art in New York say on the matter!

Ta-ta
“N”