An Open Letter To Roger Ebert
I am responding to your response regarding your stance on videogames and art. Frankly I will try to be as civil as possible, but for starters I have to say I was staggered when I heard you considered them "inherently inferior to film and literature."
My guess is that what you are missing is a real immersion into the subject matter at hand. I believe you think all videogames are like the movies adapted from them. This is not true in any sense. Sadly most video game adaptations are only made due to the fact that the video game made huge sales. It is in no way related to the depth, imagery, or even storyline of the videogame.
What you fail to see is that there are many games out there with beautiful storylines, beautiful musical scores, and the work and detail that these computer scientists spend countless hours trying to make everything seem interactive, real, and lifelike; to hear you not call it art is insulting.
You also say serious film and literature requires authorial control, I disagree, as well as do a lot of modern artists, such as Chin Chih Yang who believe whether something is “art” depends on only the artist and the audience. I also find your argument perplexing since movies and comic books today still struggle with conservative artists and critics and are dismissed as just a past time rather than a “serious medium of art”.
If you believe that we, the videogame playing audience, fail to cite any real game worthy of comparison to the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists, and composers. I will be happy to assist you and name a few, but I am sure a lot of people have emailed before me, and probably have already named countless great games. So in my opinion, I will believe you will still stand by your opinion, even if you were to decide to play any of these games. I am sure you would still stand by your opinion.
One game that comes to mind that combines an excellent musical score, amazing storyline, and for its time, had redone the role playing game in terms of game play and graphics is Final Fantasy VII. The musical score was done by the famous Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu. And the game was done by Squaresoft. Another game that comes to mind is Starcraft, done by Blizzard entertainment. This game is a Real Time Strategy game which players build and control armies and pit them against an enemy force. The artwork in this game was beautiful yet it wasn’t even in three dimensions. The Story had a compelling Plot and memorable characters, each unit you had in play had wonderful comedic lines that were filled with wit. Other games with higher literary focus are Star Control II and Planescape Torment. I also would recommend the game ICO where the atmosphere and environment are as much a character as everyone else. I find this game to be on par with any “serious” art film.
I don’t believe you have heard of any of these games, and I don’t blame you, a lot of videogames in general have been deluged with an endless parade of movie-tie-ins and flashy sequels that favor graphics over game play or storyline. But I believe that is the same thing for the movie industry. Or do you honestly believe SWAT and Transformers to be works of art?
My guess is that what you are missing is a real immersion into the subject matter at hand. I believe you think all videogames are like the movies adapted from them. This is not true in any sense. Sadly most video game adaptations are only made due to the fact that the video game made huge sales. It is in no way related to the depth, imagery, or even storyline of the videogame.
What you fail to see is that there are many games out there with beautiful storylines, beautiful musical scores, and the work and detail that these computer scientists spend countless hours trying to make everything seem interactive, real, and lifelike; to hear you not call it art is insulting.
You also say serious film and literature requires authorial control, I disagree, as well as do a lot of modern artists, such as Chin Chih Yang who believe whether something is “art” depends on only the artist and the audience. I also find your argument perplexing since movies and comic books today still struggle with conservative artists and critics and are dismissed as just a past time rather than a “serious medium of art”.
If you believe that we, the videogame playing audience, fail to cite any real game worthy of comparison to the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists, and composers. I will be happy to assist you and name a few, but I am sure a lot of people have emailed before me, and probably have already named countless great games. So in my opinion, I will believe you will still stand by your opinion, even if you were to decide to play any of these games. I am sure you would still stand by your opinion.
One game that comes to mind that combines an excellent musical score, amazing storyline, and for its time, had redone the role playing game in terms of game play and graphics is Final Fantasy VII. The musical score was done by the famous Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu. And the game was done by Squaresoft. Another game that comes to mind is Starcraft, done by Blizzard entertainment. This game is a Real Time Strategy game which players build and control armies and pit them against an enemy force. The artwork in this game was beautiful yet it wasn’t even in three dimensions. The Story had a compelling Plot and memorable characters, each unit you had in play had wonderful comedic lines that were filled with wit. Other games with higher literary focus are Star Control II and Planescape Torment. I also would recommend the game ICO where the atmosphere and environment are as much a character as everyone else. I find this game to be on par with any “serious” art film.
I don’t believe you have heard of any of these games, and I don’t blame you, a lot of videogames in general have been deluged with an endless parade of movie-tie-ins and flashy sequels that favor graphics over game play or storyline. But I believe that is the same thing for the movie industry. Or do you honestly believe SWAT and Transformers to be works of art?
posted by ingenium at 9:18 AM
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