Roger Ebert’s video game take is still haunting the discourse
It’s 2024. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times died more than a decade ago. And yet, as of three months ago, people were still leaving comments on a contentious blog post that the famed film critic wrote in 2010. The question of whether video games are art should, at this point, feel settled. Instead, the endless comments reveal an uncomfortable truth: All the accolades, the mainstream recognition, and the gargantuan dollar amounts haven’t gotten rid of a deep-seated insecurity at the heart of the video game industry. Ebert didn’t begin this heady conversation, but by being skeptical, the opinionated writer became inextricable from a discussion that rages on well after his time.
While many will designate a post that boldly proclaims “Video games can never be art” as the scene of the crime, Ebert poked the bear before that missive was published. The critic started the conversation on the heels of a negative review of Doom (2005), in which he declared that he would never play the source material for the movie. The review led to a submission by a reader who suggested that Ebert had approached the film incorrectly. The Doom fan went on to inform Ebert of its cultural significance for the medium, emphasizing that the first-person shooter changed the way we look at games — literally. “Thus by being faithful to the game, the movie pisses off the critic and pleases the gamer,” the reader declared.
Ebert shot back and reiterated that the movie sucked. The response was short, but revelatory about his sentiments toward the medium as a whole. “As long as there is a great movie unseen or a great book unread, I will continue to be unable to find the time to play video games,” Ebert wrote. The dismissal was striking enough that the conversation moved away from Doom the movie and shifted, instead, to Ebert’s outlook on games. Opinions started pouring in from readers who were eager to defend their favorite pastime, many of which were republished on Ebert’s website.
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