Roger Ebert Denied That Video Games Were an Art Form Essay

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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.

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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….....

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