Sometimes in an idle moment, these ten years on, I imagine how I would best refute Roger Ebert's legendarily bad take that video games can never be art[www.rogerebert.com]. Because there are a lot of different tacks one could take there.

One could point to video games that surpass their pop culture antecedents. Psychonauts is, in a lot of ways, a better kid's cartoon than actual kid cartoons. Half-Life 2 is a better action movie than actual action movies.

Or, one could point to video games in which the actual experience of play was something fundamentally new and experientially exciting. Katamari Damacy is something that didn't exist in human experience before Katamari Damacy the game. And it would be just weird to argue that SUPERHOT isn't a challenging and thought-provoking installation piece— the kind of experience that would have absolutely provoked intrigued conversation had it surfaced as a MOMA exhibition rather than a piece of downloaded software.

One could just appeal to Ebert's narrativist prejudice and point out games in which a story is told expansively in a way not possible before interactive media. Fallout: New Vegas is a huge story, with a spectrum of factions and environments and theme development based on player choice, but the entirety of that story, all that was and is and could be in it— with the attendant experience of navigating your own way through the forking paths of outcomes— mean that the videogame format make it it possibly the most absorbing and immersive postapocalyptic fantasy experience ever.

But then I always end up thinking: Bioshock Infinite. Because it's just so obvious. The story has such a literary quality. The writing is impeccable. The SF elements are thought-provoking and conceptually-challenging. The visual development of Columbia as an immersive space to experience is both gorgeous and compelling. The rich and contradictory characters. The skillful approach to the difficult subject matter of America's dark history. The complicated reflections on intent and outcome, on prosperity and justice, on decency and degeneracy. It's hard to imagine anyone playing this game and doubting the potential of video games.

R.I.P. Roger. I know it's an FPS-type game, so, yes, some of your experience will be spent unloading grenade after grenade into bullet sponges. And I know you would never have seriously given video games a chance; you would have listened to any argument, dismissed it on spurious, intellectually groundless points[www.rogerebert.com], and considered your position secure. Oh, you were headfirst about being wrong sometimes. But still: this is the one I want you to play.