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1. Robert Ebert’s Video Games Can Never Be Art was a reading that, I will admit, got a reaction out of me. After reading it, there were many things I wanted to discuss about his stance on video games and several things I believe to be misconceptions. Ebert argues the extent of what video games can be before the simply become a “representation” of another medium, and that ultimately what separated video games from what he perceived as art was that games had “rules, points, objectives, and an outcome.” What I personally fail to understand is his next point that when a video game lacks these traits that make them uniquely such, they become a representation of one of several entities he considers art.
   Ebert states that is that games have rules, points, objectives, and an outcome, therefore allowing the audience to “win” that stops the game from being an experience, which is something attributed to art; it is something you can only experience. However, are there not traits which he has associated with games that are also present in story, novels, plays, dance, and films? These are all mediums Ebert believes to be art, not on the basis of emotions evoked, or messages conveyed, but because, from my understanding, they do not require effort nor participation from the viewer in order to experience it. “The only way I could experience joy or ecstasy from her games would be through profit participation.”
   However, do story, novels, plays, dance and film not contain rules, objectives, and outcomes? Though they do not require participation from the viewer, are these traits not essential to the way those art mediums are created. A story, novel, or film with no outcome isn’t much of a complete piece. Rules are also necessary, are grammar, human limitations, and certain requirements (such as sound, or visuals) necessary for certain mediums? Are stories, novels, or film something that are written and created with no objectives in mind? I could argue that there are video games that have no outcomes, nor “winning”, that certain games revolve around the idea of making our own objectives and rules. Do we as the viewer not have to participate, be it mentally (reading, paying attention), or physically (moving, listening, seeing) for other forms of the listed forms of art? Why would games be an exception on the basis that they require more?

   Ebert, Robert. 2010. Video Games Can Never Be Art. https://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/video-games-can-never-be-art

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