Roger Ebert’s Mess

Roger Ebert in front of Chess Players by James Northcote

In 2005 sometime, I can’t find the original reference, Roger Ebert publicly claimed that video games could never be art. I fell down a rabbit hole about all this in the summer of 2022. I dragged the kids into it with me. 😉 One of the results is the existence of Collab Not Multiplayer. Roger Ebert’s Mess, a tale in three acts, follow along on YouTube or Spotify.

This episode has a dramatic reading of segments of this article: https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/video-games-can-never-be-art
This article references this TEDX talk.

And follows a story arc through these three lectures by, Professor Brian Moriarty.
An Apology for Roger Ebert
The Secret of Psalm 46
I See What I Did There

I learned things from these and if you only listen to one, I recommend the last one. Listening to these lectures will enhance your experience of the episode, but we have summarized each so feel free to skip it.

Asking the question are Video Games Art? Is the wrong question. Are video games a medium capable of deep and meaningful artistic expression? ABSOLUTELY!
We can tell you this until the stars go out, but if you need to hear the critics use their own words, we provided them for you.

My kids indulged me to make this episode. I am grateful for their continued support and patience with my drive and vision for this podcast. I didn’t know why I needed to make this episode when we started. I healed several old wounds in the process.

I want to take just a moment to say here how very proud I am of both Honeyshuckle and Sackbot, for their drive, their passion, their artistic and thoughtful insights and talents. Without them Collab Not Multiplayer would not be possible. I love you, kids.

Extras

When doing my return dive into “The Secret of Psalm 46” in preparation for this episode, I got to return to the story of Masquerade. Then the life of Kit Williams since, with the wikis for the book and artist.

I really love the BBC interview and think it is a great addition to the larger discussion of the episode. Even Kit Williams has critics trying to say his paintings might not qualify as art somehow. Which leads me to the conclusion that there is a fundamental problem with the tradition of critique more than the art itself!