I Still Hate Roger Ebert
“Why are gamers so intensely concerned, anyway, that games be defined as art? Bobby Fischer, Michael Jordan and Dick Butkus never said they thought their games were an art form. Nor did Shi Hua Chen, winner of the $500,000 World Series of Mah Jong in 2009. Why aren’t gamers content to play their games and simply enjoy themselves? They have my blessing, not that they care.”
— Roger Ebert, “Video games can never be art”
Why do I want games designated as art? Well, Roger, do you remember something called the Hays Code? How about the Legion of Decency? No bells rung? Why don’t you go look up the history of censorship in the U.S. motion picture industry prior to 1968. The reason games need to be designated as art is this: artistic expression is protected under the Constitution.
Michael Jordan never demanded that basketball being designated art because nobody ever tried to censor basketball, or prohibit it from being played on moral grounds. Nobody ever tried to outlaw certain variations of chess on the grounds that they were objectionable. If someone tried to outlaw Mah Jong on the grounds that it promoted gambling, they’d be laughed out of the room.
Games, on the other hand, have faced all these challenges, and are holding on by the skin of their teeth. If the Ultimate Fighting Championship and “pro-wrestling” (both essentially legalized bloodsport) are legal, uncensored, and unchallenged, then games should enjoy the same acceptance. If I want to play Manhunt, a game centered around creating snuff films via brutally murdering people, I should be able to play it. I should be able to make it, too, and advertise it on television, just like the WWE and UFC get to do.
If someone says horse-racing is morally reprehensible, wonderful for them. That doesn’t mean they can decide to ban it or discriminate against people who enjoy it, though. The same should apply to games. If we’re looking at this from a moral standpoint, the horse-racer is worse than the person who plays Manhunt: The horse-racer actually goes and participates in the objectionable action, the person playing Manhunt just performs a grossly inaccurate simulation of the action.
Let me conclude simply: Roger Ebert, the reason games must be defined as art is because of people like you. Given half a chance, you’d erase them from the face of the Earth, leaving only your beloved film industry. That’s why we need the protection that art provides— so that we don’t have to live in your world if we don’t want to.
