Editor's note: Dennis dug up a few Scott Pilgrim vs. The World reviews that show the off-hand derision gamers receive from major news outlets. I personally don't give a hoot about Scott Pilgrim, but I found these reviewers' flippant and unheeding attitude toward gamers quite shocking. -James
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re someone who identifies as a gamer. If so, check out these Scott Pilgrim reviews to see what more than a few popular film critics think of you:
The Boston Phoenix's Peter Keough thinks you are a dork. The St. Petersburg's Times Steve Persall thinks you don’t have a life. The New York Obeserver's Sara Vilkomerson thinks you have ADD. And Philadelphia Weekly's Sean Burns seems think that you are 12 years old.
I am in no way suggesting that we should allow these people to define our collective sense of self worth. Out of them all, Sara Vilkomerson has the sense to realize that her snide remarks date her, and most of us are aware of the disconnect between gaming culture and the artistic appraisals of the well-known pillars of our greater culture.
My hope is that these comments offend you — and not in an ego-damaging capacity. Rather, it's the way these critics express these notions as truths that are self evident. Newspaper buyers in Boston, Tampa Bay, New York, and Philadelphia who are reading this might consider sending in a polite letter their respective editor-in-chiefs. You might address how out of touch these reviewers are by using some simple elucidation of the facts.
Alongside film and popular music — taken purely as entertainment — the game industry grows while other media stagnate. Developers continue to innovate while filmmakers languish in creative voids. If anyone on the outside of the gaming culture doesn’t understand its appeal, perhaps they should consider how stale and played out their “legitimate” forms of entertainment have become in many cases. And then, maybe, they will admit — much like Roger Ebert — that they, too, don't fully grasp what games are.
In a recent 1UP Whiteboard episode, Scott Sharkey perfectly explained how critics subjected film to the same fallacious processes of cultural censure at the turn of the last century — and opera before that. Even if we cannot agree that video games are High Art, we can surely agree that there is an art to their production, and that collectively referring to them as an "art form” speaks more to their future potential than the artistic merit of any individual work at present.
Moving a discourse into the larger world is the only way to legitimize the language and discussion of enthusiasts. This is why I got rather upset when Sharkey and Penny Arcade chose to disengage with Ebert in a serious fashion. Soon after, Ebert did change his mind exactly because people engaged him.
That’s a big step coming from such an esteemed intellectual pillar of our culture, and it should illustrate the value of participating with intelligent people on their own terms. When you finally get through to them, and you convince them of their own ignorance, they tend go quiet on the subject. That, in turn, throws open the door for people who understand the subject matter to take their rightful places as the voices of particular esoteric authority.
I doubt we’ll hear further from Roger Ebert unless it is to announce some epiphany wherein he finally “gets it” by finding and playing a video game that meets his criteria for Art. In the meantime, I agree that we shouldn’t care whether or not our chosen art form gets a stamp of approval from anyone, but I disagree that it is a fruitless conversation. Hopefully, Ebert's decision in the face of our collective response helped that conversation along — even if just a little. That would be good enough, and hopefully, it will inform future decisions to engage other naysaying voices in the same dialogue.
Thanks to Linda Holmes at NPR for aggregating the comments to which I was responding.
Dennis Scimeca is the Editor in Chief of the website Game Kudos and a writer at Gamer Limit.. If you tweet him @DennisScimeca, he will pull himself away from Civ Revolution on his iPhone and get right back to you.