By Alexander Bevier
 |
The debate over whether
videogames
are art is one that almost every gamer is willing to argue about. Like
most debates on the internet, however, most people leave with their
convictions as polarized as they already were. Roger Ebert is one of
the strongest advocates against games as art and has recently restated
his opinions as such.
"I remain
convinced that in principle, video games cannot be art," Ebert writes on his blog on
the Chicago Sun-Times. He goes on to talk about a lecture on the topic
at USC given by Kellee Santiago. Ebert ends his post stating "The
three games (Braid, Flower, and WACO: The Video Game) she chooses as
examples do not raise my hopes for a video game that will deserve my
attention long enough to play it. They are, I regret to say, pathetic."
While I wholeheartedly
disagree,
Ebert is an old man judging a craft he doesn't know a thing about. We,
as gamers, should leave him out of our debates and wait for a game
critic
comparable to Ebert in film to rise up. Although, we shouldn't be
surprised
when that guy abhors the next cultural medium.
Tags: Games as Art, Roger Ebert
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