▲
1
▼
Prolific film critic Roger Ebert controversially believed that video games could never be considered art. While maintaining his position in 2010, he admitted he should not have expressed this skepticism without considering their future and being more familiar with actually playing them, saying:
He brought up the hypocrisy that despite his views, he did play and enjoy a video game once before: Cosmology of Kyoto, which he wrote a positive review for in the September 1994 issue of Wired magazine and is the only game he was known to have enjoyed. The only other video game he admitted to playing was Myst, which he said he "lacked the patience" for. Ebert also recounted a moment where a Sony employee offered to lend him a PlayStation 3 and a copy of the game Flower, but he admitted to intentionally stalling and declining the offer. He wrote one more game-related article in December 1994 for Wired, in which he visited Sega's Joypolis arcade in Tokyo, Japan, but only briefly mentioned their arcade games and focused more on the state-of-the-art rides and attractions.
"My error in the first place was to think I could make a convincing argument on purely theoretical grounds. What I was saying is that video games could not in principle be Art. That was a foolish position to take, particularly as it seemed to apply to the entire unseen future of games. This was pointed out to me maybe hundreds of times. How could I disagree? It is quite possible a game could someday be great Art."
He brought up the hypocrisy that despite his views, he did play and enjoy a video game once before: Cosmology of Kyoto, which he wrote a positive review for in the September 1994 issue of Wired magazine and is the only game he was known to have enjoyed. The only other video game he admitted to playing was Myst, which he said he "lacked the patience" for. Ebert also recounted a moment where a Sony employee offered to lend him a PlayStation 3 and a copy of the game Flower, but he admitted to intentionally stalling and declining the offer. He wrote one more game-related article in December 1994 for Wired, in which he visited Sega's Joypolis arcade in Tokyo, Japan, but only briefly mentioned their arcade games and focused more on the state-of-the-art rides and attractions.
Cosmology of Kyoto review:
https://www.wired.com/1994/09/cosmology-of-kyoto/
Sega's Joypolis article:
https://www.wired.com/1994/12/segas-tokyo-joypolis/
Roger Ebert articles:
https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/video-games-can-never-be-art
https://www.rogerebert.com/answer-man/why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-genders
https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/gamers-fire-flaming-posts-e-mails
Roger Ebert 2010 journal entry:
https://web.archive.org/web/20100811003526/http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/07/okay_kids_play_on_my_lawn.html
Kotaku article:
http://kotaku.com/5921865/the-video-game-roger-ebert-loved
https://www.wired.com/1994/09/cosmology-of-kyoto/
Sega's Joypolis article:
https://www.wired.com/1994/12/segas-tokyo-joypolis/
Roger Ebert articles:
https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/video-games-can-never-be-art
https://www.rogerebert.com/answer-man/why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-genders
https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/gamers-fire-flaming-posts-e-mails
Roger Ebert 2010 journal entry:
https://web.archive.org/web/20100811003526/http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/07/okay_kids_play_on_my_lawn.html
Kotaku article:
http://kotaku.com/5921865/the-video-game-roger-ebert-loved
Related Games
Sly 2: Band of Thieves
Mad Maestro!
LittleBigPlanet 3
Jak II
Okage: Shadow King
Twisted Metal 4
Final Fantasy XI Online
Star Wars: Dark Forces
Aconcagua
Twisted Metal: Black
Twisted Metal
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
Gran Turismo 5
Twisted Metal 2
Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
Warhawk
MLB 12: The Show
God of War II
Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters
Resident Evil: Revelations 2
Hogs of War
Gran Turismo 2
War of the Monsters
Mega Man X4
Final Fantasy Tactics
Gravity Rush
Crash Team Racing
Ridge Racer
God of War
Tearaway
Wipeout HD
The Legend of Dragoon
I-Ninja
MLB 15: The Show
Intelligent Qube
Jumping Flash!
Thirsty Suitors
Bushido Blade
Final Fantasy VII
MediEvil
Spyro the Dragon
Twisted Metal
Spyro: Year of the Dragon
Tekken 5
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
PaRappa the Rapper 2
Um Jammer Lammy
Command & Conquer: Red Alert