▲
2
▼
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
Wipeout HD
The King of Fighters '95
Kingdom Hearts
Gravity Rush
Intelligent Qube
LittleBigPlanet
God of War Ragnarök
Tekken 5
Mega Man X5
McDonald's Original: Happy Disc
LittleBigPlanet 2
Wild Arms
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Twisted Metal: Small Brawl
Tobal No. 1
Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Toro! Let's Party!
Jak II
The Order: 1886
Twisted Metal
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
PaRappa the Rapper
MLB 12: The Show
Ratchet: Deadlocked
Pac-Man World
Um Jammer Lammy
LittleBigPlanet 3
Twisted Metal 2
Mega Man X4
War of the Monsters
Aconcagua
God of War II
EyeToy: Play
Vib-Ribbon
Thirsty Suitors
Um Jammer Lammy Now
Boku no Natsuyasumi
Spyro the Dragon
Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return
I-Ninja
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
God of War: Ascension
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
Star Wars: Dark Forces
Real Bout Fatal Fury
Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier
Final Fantasy Tactics
Resident Evil: Revelations 2
Gran Turismo