Ebert. Ropert. Gene Shalet. Leonard Maltin. We've all heard these names before. We've all wondered about the quality of a movie and have turned to a known movie critic to help guide us to the gems and steer us away from the junk, but why isn't there a videogame equivalent in the critic world. Why is there no single voice or name sticking out of the crowd, saying, "This person really knows their stuff."

From the article:

Why aren’t there any famous critics of video games?

Chuck Klosterman wants to know. In a recent column for guy mag Esquire, he argues that games are the most important cultural medium of our times -- "the culture equivalent of rock music in 1967" -- yet they haven't produced a generation of acerbic, barnstorming writers the way rock and film did. "There is no Pauline Kael of video-game writing. There is no Lester Bangs of video-game writing," Klosterman says. What's going on?

It's a hell of a good question, and it deserves an answer. Unfortunately, Klosterman so elegantly misunderstands gaming culture -- and the nature of games themselves -- that he misses out on all the real reasons. So let me go all godmode here and answer the question for him.

Why isn't there a Lester Bangs of video games?

Read the full article over at Wired.com.